What and Why Sponsors

space. And it's, uh, it's really wonderful to be— hey everybody— to be in this different place, in a different space that we're talking about. And you know, I was at, um, where was I? I was at Jamba Juice the other day, and it was really cool to walk into Jamba Juice, and on the wall it had their fundraising opportunities.

Wow.

So if you're a nonprofit, you're looking for fundraisers, this is what you need to do, you know. And so they would support you in, um, setting selling their juices, their cards, and the percentage goes back to your organization. So that was a really simple one.

Yeah, I don't think people realize how many organizations really will do that.

Like, you know, now I don't know that they're all posting it on their, uh, walls when you walk into their facility, but there are a ton of places I know for sure, you know, like Chick-fil-A does it, and, uh, Five Below even offers like a, um, you know, a night where all the sales that come in, a percentage of it would go to people. But I will say those are fundraisers, and we've been talking to people about sponsors, and I've been trying to help people see there's a difference between a a sponsor and a donor, you know, or fundraiser even. Like, sponsors are usually the ones that you tap into when you have an event, um, and that event will bring them certain things. And we talked about some of those the last time, like, um, visibility, potential employees, um, opportunities for them to entertain their guests, you know.

Um, so I think today we were thinking about, um, just kind of, you know, talking more about the why sponsors.

Why? Yeah, yeah, yes. And it is, it's like, why, why choose sponsorships? And why are sponsorships— people choosing you, right? Why are the sponsors choosing your organization? And what is it that they want and what is it that you're going to give them other than the things we talked about last week. And so as we were talking about, um, the, the fundraisers, so you, your event is actually a fundraiser, hopefully, but it's a public— it's more of a publicity and marketing opportunity for the sponsors. Yeah, it's like, okay, how many people do you have? So one of the things we need to look at is why sponsors come to organizations to get, to get publicity, is they want to know why they should come with you. And one of the reasons why they want to come with you is because you have this huge following, this huge social network, this huge community following. And it's really important to them because one of the questions they're going to want to ask is, who are you reaching out to? Why should we come to you versus going to some other organization? That's doing something similar, or even that they could be doing something totally different, but what they really want is, I want that publicity, right? And so as we were talking, I was separate thinking, you know, I was going back to the Jamba Juice and I was thinking, you know, wouldn't it be an ideal if you were able to get an event sponsor and also to tie that fundraiser in and say, okay, event sponsor, one of the publicity things you're going to do is we're getting— we're going to be giving away 1,000, say for instance, Jamba Juice certificates, right? And it's going to be saying that it's because— and you're going to partner with them, so you're going to get more publicity because you're going to be partnering with our organization and with Jamba Juice. So maybe we're giving away the Jamba Juice cups. Inside the cups we're going to do couponing, and inside the cup will be your coupon, right?

Yeah.

So that— so they want to know why and what's going to be your large range that their footprint, shall we say, that you're going to get from working with you.

I think they also want to know who, who are these people that you're reaching out to. And they want to know the who because what the who does is the who should be the very people that they're also trying to attract. And so we've had conversations with you before about how you don't spend your time, um, entertaining donors, sponsors, anyone whose message is contrary to your mission. So if you are a substance abuse, you know, uh, facility or counselor, you don't, you know, partner with Anheuser-Busch, right? You know, right? It doesn't give the right message.

And another thing you really got to key into, and when we don't realize this, is like, they want to know who, who is your population that's coming there. Is it, is it women that are health conscious? If there are women that are health conscious, then that's who you need to be targeting, other groups and funders that are into health. Is it all about the kids? Is it— what, what's the age group? What's the ethnic— ethnic— ethnicity, right? They also want to know is what's their buying power, because when you really think about it, they want to know how much money, because when you think about marketing The company that's going to be sponsoring you, they want to sell their product. So they want to know how much disposable income do these people have? Are they planning on buying a house in the next year? Are they planning on buying a car? You know, what is it that they're going to be spending money on? And so that's some of the things you really need to hone into when you are starting to look at who your sponsors are going to be and why you should partner with them. And then also one of the things I think we forget about is what's the benefit for your organization? Sometimes we just want the money, but it goes more than just you're getting money from them, you could really benefit from those sponsors in a long term.

Yeah, I also, uh, will add to that is when we're thinking about what our— what's the benefit to us, we do kind of stop at the money. But what if we're partnering with an organization that's also new and they don't have— I mean, like, they could have deep pockets but they are— they don't have very many people that they're going to be exposing us to. Is that really going to help you? You know, yes, it may help you to, you know, fund your event, but I, I can't help but to think of that, um, that, you know, what is it, that wise tale? You know, you give a man a fish, you feed him for one day, but you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. And I can't help but to think that that is also true in a situation like this, where if you are— if you pick sponsors to help sponsor your event, but they're also just as new as you are, and they have just this few people, and they don't have the exposure, is that really the best fit for you? You know, yeah.

And, and I think that's going to go back to which one of the things we're teaching in the membership club is you your pitch deck. It's like, what is your pitch deck? So to make sure that you two are aligning with each other, you're going to learn about them, you're going to learn about you. And then, and there's something else we're going to be going over this month, and is that we get— we're like, okay, we're gonna have an event and we're gonna send this out to everybody. But you don't need to send out all your information to all the sponsors. You want to get those ones, like, you know, put a lure out there. Yeah, lure out there and let them take a little bite, and then you give them more and more. You don't give them the whole enchilada because that could be overwhelming. You want— you're trying to do is you're looking for sponsorship, but you're building a relationship. So that's something we're going to be teaching about. How do you build that relationship? How do you align with what you're doing and align it with sponsors?

Yeah, I just want to say one very last quick thing, and then I'll be—

no, we'll be done.

Probably not, but one last very quick thing. We too often, as the business owner, and the founder of the nonprofit, we too often operate out of a fear, of a fear of lack, a fear of lack of money, a fear of lack of people helping, a fear of the board not being supportive, a fear, a fear, a fear. And I believe that when you come from that, when you realize there is an abundance of everything you need out there, an abundance of donors, an abundance of sponsors, an abundance of grant opportunity and money to be had. I think when we come from a place of feeling that abundance, then we can like really sit back and, and be more objective as we're trying to grow our nonprofit, as we're trying to build our sponsors, build our donors, And then we can, like, come from a place of authenticity. You know, that might have been a lot, but I, I think that when we get there, we'll have clearer whys this sponsor, and we'll feel good about it.

Yeah, I like that. When you started mentioning that word, that came to my mind is desperate. Yeah, sometimes we feel so desperate. I gotta get this money now, I gotta get this money now. We do need the money, of course, to run our nonprofit. But we need to be very strategic about it. Yeah. So everything we need to do is be strategic. So like you said, we, we coming out that authentic, we're coming confident, we're coming what, like we have something to offer you, not that we're just asking for a handout. This is a relationship and a win-win situation.

So yeah, we're coming from a place of, uh, we all have something to offer.

Yes.

You know, and we're all going to benefit and we're all going to um, to contribute. So excellent. Yay!

Yes, yes. And so I just want to do this because I am so excited because, um, we're working on a new program. So in the membership club, we're doing sponsorship, but we're creating a pure, clear sponsorship program, which is so exciting. It's going to be an extensive program. The club, we're working on it together, but it's going to be a long, wonderful program. So you guys look out for our upcoming sponsorship course, just all about sponsorship. Yeah, so this was great. Thanks for listening. If anybody had any questions, you please feel free to ask, and we'll look forward to seeing you soon. If you want to know more about it, hit the link below. Yes, ma'am.

I just want to say, next week we should talk about the club. Next week we should actually just like have people help them to understand how deep the club goes into these um, these things. We'll just do it one week and then we'll do a deep dive into the club so people can understand.

That sounds like a plan. Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Yes.

Okay, sounds good.

So it's good talking to you, and if anyone has any questions, um, you know, you can always email us at vanessa@nonprofitfoundersclub.com. That's vanessa@nonprofitfoundersclub.com. You can click the link below, learn more about it. If you have any questions, need any support with starting, building, growing, getting funding for your nonprofit, make sure you check out the Nonprofit Founders Club. Yeah, we'll look forward to seeing you.

Take care.