Thanks Alex! This info is so on point with what I gathered from the GCUC conference I just attended in Berkeley. I never thought of putting the two together "free snacks vs. sponsorship" and them having the same developing relationship statics!
*Alycia Benjamin-Peebles* *Office Manager | [email protected] <[email protected]> | 917-979-3749 <917-979-3749>* On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 12:54 PM, Alex Hillman <[email protected] > wrote: > 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 a topic in the > Google Groups "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/coworking/-WldSVkoqJw/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, 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.
