By Laura Bruney, Arts & Business Council 

The Arts & Business Council recently invited Robyn Perlman, Principal with Core Strategies for Non-Profit s to have a conversation with our board about corporate sponsorship.

She started by discussing how corporations make donations.  There are several ways corporations give back to the community. They give money, but they also provide in-kind services, and pro bono consultants from their talented pools of professionals. In funding there are generally two pots of money – sponsorship and philanthropic.  While they are both corporate donations they are different in important ways. The approach is different; the benefits are different.  The philanthropic donation is a feel good gift. It comes from their charitable foundation and is often tax deductible. It is perfect for programs that benefit the community and make the company feel good for caring. In this scenario, the nonprofit is the steward of the company’s interest in making a difference.

Sponsorship donations; on the other hand, usually come from marketing dollars. The company wants a return on their investment based on the non-profits ability to drive specific returns or benefits to them. It is a business transaction. While they are different the approach is similar. The arts group needs to know the company. We need to create authentic opportunities for sponsors to want to partner with the cultural community.

WHAT IS THE USUAL PROCEDURE?

The development team or some committed board members work together to create a benefits package for a program or event, they put a price on it and send it around to companies they think might be interested. They follow up with a phone call and hope to set up a meeting. If they are lucky they get face time. How do they spend it? Usually by telling the corporate representative all about their arts group – the important work they are doing with children, the new art forms they are creating, the stellar reviews, the amazing event they just held. They spend almost the entire meeting talking. The corporate rep thanks them for coming, says they are doing great work and he will look over the materials they leave.

WHAT IS A BETTER APPROACH? The team from the arts organization, ideally made up of staff and board members sets up the meeting. During the meeting the spend 90% of their time asking questions and listening.  Who are the companies demographic? Who are they trying to reach? Why are they interested in supporting the arts and your organization? This question can provide the opportunity to talk about your group’s loyal audience, how your core audience matches their demographics.  Ask the company what they want to promote? Why does this company want to invest in your group – what story can you help them tell?

After spending time listening the arts team goes back to the drawing board and creates a custom sponsorship package that fits the company.  Now when they meet with the company they are ready to present an innovative proposal that is goal driven and specific. It is tailored to their unique customer base and provides a real value. The group has built an authentic platform that aligns their story with the group’s sponsorship opportunities.  They have started a sincere and productive dialogue with the company.

Arts sponsorships are valuable because they achieve results for sponsors in ways that cannot be achieved from other forms of marketing. A great and expensive advertising, digital media or public relations campaign often does not connect personally with the clientele the company wants to reach.  Niche marketing is the new model and a well-crafted arts sponsorship fits well with this paradigm. Arts audiences, patrons, and members are loyal and passionate.  Arts marketing specialists know the characteristics of their audience – they have demographic information and if sophisticated also know geographic and psychographic characteristics. This significant insight into their participants provides great worth and can increase the value of the sponsorship ten-fold. Especially if the audience is part of a demographic that does not respond well to traditional marketing.  Your loyal audience can help the right sponsor connect in a meaningful way. If the customized sponsorship is done well it will help the company reach marketing goals and help sustain the important work of the organization.

How can you create an authentic partnership? Here are two some examples of very different companies.

A small dry cleaner in Coral Gables wants to increase their customer base. Rather than running more ads in the community newspaper they partner with a theater to clean all their costumes for each performance. In return they receive a small ad in the program, attend opening night and meet many local people that might become their customers. For a small investment they are getting great word of mouth promotion. And the theatre is saving hundreds of dollars on their cleaning bills.

Bank of America wants to increase its bank customers and wants to provide value added incentives to existing clients. They want to offer something unique and something fun. Working with arts organizations in several cities they created the nationwide “Museums on Us” program.  Their customers ATM card gets them one general admission to more than 150 museums on the first Saturday of each month. The tagline for the campaign “Get the card that gets you in” “For 16 seasons, our customers have participated in Museums on Us throughout the nation at some of America’s finest cultural institutions,” said Rena DeSisto, Bank of America global arts and culture executive. “Our Museums on Us program is an important part of the diverse portfolio of our cultural support, which is designed to engage local communities, individuals and organizations.” The museums are helping the bank with an incentive to bring in new customers. The museums get free promotion, new people visiting their museum that might become members and increases their outreach. This partnership also opens the door to creating local partnerships with Bank of America branches.

You get the idea. In sponsorship one size does not fit all. Listen, listen, listen then customize, customize, customize.