Corporate sponsors for humane society events

Sponsorship raises money before a bid is placed, and for a society it is usually the difference between a gala that covers its costs and one that does not. Two things decide how well it goes: what you are actually offering, and what you do with the businesses who say no to a tier.

What a sponsor is buying

Be honest with yourself about this before you build the tiers. A local business sponsoring an animal shelter event is buying some combination of three things: access to your audience, association with a cause its customers care about, and a reason for its own staff to feel good about where they work.

The strongest offers speak to all three and are specific. "Logo on materials" speaks to none of them and is what most tier sheets lead with.

• Named presence on the auction item page their sponsorship funds
• A post to your supporter list, which is a list of local pet owners — say that
• A behind-the-scenes visit for their team
• Their staff invited to a volunteer day, arranged around their schedule
• A photograph of the programme or equipment their money funded, usable by them
• Recognition from the stage, if they want it — some do not

Tier structure

Three or four tiers, each with something the tier below does not get, and a clear sense of what the top tier is for. Beyond four, the sheet becomes a menu nobody reads and the difference between levels stops being legible.

Price the entry tier low enough that a single-location small business can say yes without a meeting. That tier is not where the money is; it is where next year's mid-tier sponsors come from.

The businesses who decline

This is the group worth building a process around. A business that turns down a sponsorship on cost has already told you it is interested and told you the price is wrong. Go back with an item donation ask.

It gives them the association and the listing at a level they can approve without a meeting, it costs them goods or an appointment slot rather than cash, and it puts them in your file as a supporter to approach again next year at a level they have grown into. Most societies mark a declined sponsorship as a no and never return.

Sponsoring an auction item

A useful middle option: a business funds the purchase of an auction item rather than donating one, or underwrites an event cost so more of the auction proceeds reach the programme. Both are easy for a business to approve and both are straightforward to recognise on the item page.

Afterwards

Send every sponsor the specific result: what was raised, what it funded, and a photograph. Then ask them in the same message whether they would like the same tier next year. Renewal is easiest at the moment the result lands, and hardest eleven months later from a cold start.

The wider procurement order: getting items donated. General sponsorship principles: auction sponsorship.