I've experimented a LOT with in-kind and cash sponsorships of all kinds. Here's a handful of lessons from what's worked and what hasn't:
- *in-kind (product or service) sponsorships are MUCH easier* to get than cash sponsorships, especially for smaller/local businesses. - *one-time sponsorships (for events, for example) are MUCH easier to get than ongoing, open ended sponsorships* to keep a vending machine or snack tray stocked. - sponsorship is a relationship, like any other it needs ongoing care and maintenance. *you want your sponsors to feel like they're getting 10x return on their contribution.* if you can't come up with a creative way to offer/keep that up, expect that sponsorship to be short-lived. - *discounted/wholesale prices* are MUCH easier than asking for things to be totally free. - assume any sponsor you approach is getting hit up often. *what makes you and your community uniquely valuable to them?* - provide them with an easy, obvious upside they can say "yes" to, but also *invite a sponsor to define their terms. *"we'd love to do XYZ and here's how it'd work for both of us, but if there's something that would be more valuable to you AND mutually beneficial to our community, let's talk!" - encourage active participation. rather than "hey, send us free stuff and we'll tweet about it", I've had the MOST success giving them a platform to meet our community and make a real connection. *Make our members love you even if you WEREN'T giving out stuff for free. *Come to our Show & Tell, but instead of a sales pitch, teach us something about your business. To look at this in another light - I've been asked to sponsor countless events and such, and 99% of the sponsorship pitches I get are absolutely horrible. Nobody ever opens with the upside for me, the business owner. It's always about them and what they need. So...it's really easy to stand out from the crowd by doing just a LITTLE bit of research about what the sponsor would want/care about in return for their contribution. :) -Alex On Saturday, May 9, 2015, Alycia Benjamin-Peebles < [email protected]> wrote: > Hey has anyone been successful with getting local and mainstream vendors > to send free snacks to your coworking space? > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
