By Elizabeth Wasternack and Amy Black with Kate Yaughn
This week, we’re talking about one of the most popular types of non-dues revenue streams: sponsorships!
Your annual meeting provides a powerful platform for sponsorship but providing year-round and multi-faceted sponsorship is key to a successful sponsorship program. Consider approaching stakeholders with an option to sponsor an upcoming session, or a raffle/door prize for one of your events. This will give them an opportunity to get their name out in front of your members and helps subsidize the cost of the event. Webinars and other virtual educational opportunities can also serve as sponsorship opportunities. If your association is considering developing educational guides or learning on demand segments, seeking a corporate partner to fund these initiatives will highlight their company in a positive way while diversifying your revenue. It is important to provide potential sponsors with an array of sponsorship opportunities that fit a variety of budgets for maximum success. With any sponsorship level, always make sure to check that these sponsorships are allowed before offering them to the public. For example, if you are hosting a CME event, there are policies around what is and isn’t allowed to be funded.
You can also take advantage of programs for non-profit organizations to receive donations from Amazon.com. It’s free to register your organization and by encouraging members to register your organization as their personal donation recipient while shopping, Amazon will donate a percentage of each purchase to your organization. It’s no additional cost to members who use AmazonSmile and it’s free money from Amazon! Learn more: https://org.amazon.com/.
