Sponsorship Ideas...How to find sponsorship for your meeting or conference

Regardless of the size of your organization, sponsorship can be obtained.

Consider who could benefit from sponsoring your event and why. Write a list of these prospects and decide how you want to approach them. The health care industry is very fortunate here because there are so many suppliers to the health care field. Who are some of your biggest suppliers to conference delegates?

Develop a list of sponsor benefits. Some of the benefits might include:

  • Company name printed on program announcements, all flyers, banners at the event

  • The opportunity to build goodwill with conference delegates who use their products or services

  • Get their products into the hands of the customers with handouts of coupons/samples at the event

  • Raffle off a sponsors' products

  • Describe how the program will be promoted … what is the size of the mailing list?

  • Complementary admission for sponsor employees or clients

  • Opportunity to introduce the program and the speaker

  • Free booth space or table to showcase products or services

  • Acknowledgement of sponsorship at meeting verbally, through signage, on conference handouts

  • Publication of an article or ad in your newsletter and on your website

Create a sponsorship flyer and send it to potential sponsors. The flyer should describe the name, date, theme, location and purpose of the meeting. Specifically outline who will attend (your membership). From past events how many delegates do you anticipate? Clearly explain the benefits of sponsorship.

To make it easier for organizations to budget, define sponsorship levels and specifically describe what benefits they get at each level. For example, Gold, Silver, Platinum levels. Just asking for sponsorship money without a target amount will make it difficult for organizations to commit.

Give organizations the opportunity to sponsor specific things, the Keynote Speaker, or a Lunch, Dinner or reception.

Also, be sure to send a thank you after the event and be appreciative of sponsors’ value so that you can build a track record and get automatic sponsorship for the next year!