Sponsorship
Gaining Club sponsors is one of the best ways to support your team financially and have your team recognized publicly throughout the community. The main items that usually need addressing when trying to get sponsorship for your club are the following:
- Who should I ask?
- What kind of offer should I make?
- How does the paperwork need to be done?
When looking for sponsorship, you should make a list of local businesses or companies that are associated with your sport or that your team has a lot of involvement with (a restaurant your team always eats at after practice, etc.). When a business is connected to your team in some way the sense of familiarity creates a better chance of them saying yes to your proposal. However, you can also seek out businesses that have nothing to do with your sport. Many places are interested in being involved with the community or on campus activities and have large budgets to allocate to teams like ours. Companies that your parents may work for are also great to look into because again you have a connection with the company. Even sending out letters to parents is a great idea for sponsorship because families cannot see their children play these sports anymore when they are away at college so they will often donate money to support what their child is doing.
So what kind of proposal should you make to these businesses and companies you are pursuing for financial backing? Often the best way to reach these businesses, companies, parents, etc. is to send out a sponsorship letter. On the next page you will find a sample sponsorship letter to help you write your own. In this letter you make your offer: free publicity. This is good PR for the company and it also is free for you so everyone wins. The level of professionalism of this letter you send out is going to determine the level of seriousness the business has with you. So use letterhead, logos, and professional paper for your so that the companies know you mean business. Wait a few days after the letter has arrived and call the person in charge of sponsorship to see if they have received your letter. Politely ask if he/she has made some sort of decision about your proposal. DON’T GIVE UP!!! Businesses often give allocations to the most persistent teams/organizations so give it your best shot!
Now, for the most important question, how do you need to do the paperwork?
- Have the organization make the check out to Appalachian State University
- Have them put your club name on the memo/for line of the check
- They should include a small note saying they would like to sponsor your club with the check enclosed
- They need to mail this all to you and you need to give it to Erin Sanders to process everything
- They may need the ASU Tax ID #: 56-1022587
If you do not follow these action items, the business cannot get a tax deduction!
Sponsorship Letter Example