Match sponsorship packages

A match is what the organization makes. It has a real cost, it is small enough for one person to fund, and there are children waiting because there is not enough of it. That combination is rarer in fundraising than it sounds and it is this sector's central advantage.

Derive the cost properly

The figure should be defensible, because a sponsor may ask and a board certainly will. Decide with whoever holds the accounts:

• What is included — recruitment, screening, training, matching, and how much of the ongoing support worker time
• Whether the year of activity costs sits inside the number or beside it
• Whether overheads are apportioned, which moves the figure most
• The period, using a full year rather than a strong quarter

State the basis in a clause and describe it as what a sponsorship helps fund rather than what it buys. A match is created by people and circumstances, not purchased, and the language should say so.

State the boundary before anyone bids

This is the whole reason this item needs its own page. A sponsor will reasonably assume some connection to a child unless told otherwise, and telling them afterwards is a bad conversation about something the organization was always going to do.

• Yes: the knowledge that a match was created and supported
• Yes: aggregate reporting about matches generally — how long they last, what they do, what the programme achieved
• Yes: recognition, a certificate, a mention at the recognition event
• No: the child's name, age, school, photograph or circumstances
• No: meeting, corresponding with, or being introduced to a mentee
• No: choosing the child, the mentor, or anything about the match
• No: updates about a specific match, however anonymised — in a small programme, a specific match is identifiable

Put that list on the item page, not in a follow-up email. A sponsor who understands it before bidding is a sponsor who renews.

What to send instead

The temptation is to soften the boundary with a personal-feeling report. Do not. The honest alternative is stronger than it sounds:

• Programme-wide numbers for the year the sponsorship covered
• A mentor's own words about mentoring in general, with their agreement
• A description of what the money paid for, step by step — the screening, the training cohort, the first six months of support
• An invitation to the recognition event, which is the real thing rather than a proxy

The step-by-step description of what a sponsorship funded is the most under-used reporting available. Most sponsors have never been told what screening and training actually involve, and it is genuinely interesting.

Offer more than one

Unlike most headline lots, matches are not scarce — the waiting list is the point. Offer several at the derived cost, plus partial units (a screening, a training place, a year of activity costs) so that bidders at every level can fund something real.

Corporate match sponsorship

A company sponsoring several matches is the natural large version, and it pairs with the two other asks: supplying mentors and promoting internally. Sell it as a relationship rather than a lot, and make sure the recognition describes what was funded rather than praising the company.

General information, not safeguarding or legal advice for your organization. Youth protection obligations depend on your affiliation, your funding and your state — your own safeguarding lead decides how any of this applies.