Sponsors#

Sponsors are what make an event possible. Bringing value to and treating our sponsors well helps grow our events over the years.

While it is commendable to sponsor an event just because it "supports the community", there is value that is expected by a sponsor. It is important that we communicate how their funding will be be used and how they will be recognized for their contribution. Here are a few bullets of value sponsors are looking for:

They want to be known for contributing to the success of the community
They want to have the opportunity to meet and sell their product with the people that come to the event.
They want to show that they are a talented, trustworthy, and competent organization.
They want to recruit talent to work for them

Every sponsor is different, and may have different values and goals they may be trying to accomplish when sponsoring an event. It is important to do research on the sponsor to understand what their goals are, and why they may be interested in sponsoring. When engaging with a sponsor, it doesn't hurt to ask what their values and goals may be. Maybe we can work something out, maybe not, but it should be asked. How are there ways the event can help meet their goals and communicate their message to the right audience?

Look at other events potential sponsors have sponsored in the past and what sort of sponsorships were offered and how it was handled. If you can, talk with other organizers about what they do for their sponsors.

Sponsorship Prospectus and Packages#

People are busy. So, to make the decision-making easier for sponsors, we can provide a menu of ways a sponsor may want to support the event. We can do this by putting together a prospectus of Sponsorship Opportunities. This should be one of the first pages up on the website as soon as we have the dates and venue locked in. Ideally, this should done and ready to go before DrupalCon, especially if any organizers will be attending.

The prospectus must be easy to read and understood quickly. It will need information about how the funds will be used, what benefits are available, how much they cost, and how they can get a hold of you to purchase a sponsorship. Look around at other similar event prospectuses and have conversations with other event organizers to get some ideas on what we can offer. Generally a prospectus will lay out:

General information about the event. This is dates, times, locations, number of attendees expected and their demographics, and activities (sessions, training, contribution day, social events, lunch, scholarships, etc.)
Contact information for how to ask questions and move forward with a sponsorship. Give the name of a specific person and an email address, preferably @drupalcorn.org. Cultivating a personal relationship with the people who manage sponsorships for an organization is really important.
Sponsorship Levels shown in an easy to read comparison table. Pricing for these levels depends on expected costs and what sponsors are willing to pay and will often change from year to year based on performance. Being in Iowa, our location tends to have some of the more affordable options compared to other camps. An example comparison table from 2019:

	Platinum $1500	Gold $750	Silver $300
Named Room	X
Table	X	X
Listed on Website	X	X	X
Attendee tickets	6	4	2

Additional Sponsorship Opportunities. List any other à la carte sponsorship opportunities. These can be sold as stand-alone or as an add-on to any of the sponsorship levels. Items we've done in the past are
- Badge - Adding logo to attendee badges
- Contribution Day - Pay for contribution day to happen. Food, venue, costs
- Social - Pay for and maybe organize an evening social for the event
- In-Kind - Offer to provide swag items (ads, pens, keychains, etc), subscriptions or extended trials or software licenses for attendees.

Be sure to make it clear that if they have an idea for supporting the event that isn't listed in the prospectus, we are willing to work with them, if it's reasonable. Some of the benefits may be limited (such as number of rooms to name, or number a tables that can fit in the venue). This page should be updated as opportunities are confirmed.

Organizing Sponsors (CRM)#

Once we have a prospectus and have this year's sponsor opportunities on the website, we can start contacting potential sponsors. Over the years we have been cultivating relationships with people and organizations. With so much information we need to keep track of, it's a good idea have some sort of system to keep all our sponsor information organized.

During one of the planning meetings we brainstorm potential sponsors and strategy for each one. We facilitate this with our sponsors sheet in Google Drive that we copy from year to year. We have columns for the following information:

Sponsor - The name of the sponsor organization
Contact - Name and email address of a contact we have within the organization
Phone - Optional, but useful information to have if a potential sponsors likes to communicate via phone.
Target - Have a goal for what sponsor level or opportunities we think they would be likely to engage at
Engaged - Whether or not we have engaged them for the current year
Engaged by - The person in our organization who has the best relationship. Each potential sponsor should have one point person. This will usually be the sponsorship coordinator, but can be anyone who has a good relationship with the organization.
Sponsored - Whether or not they have sponsored for the current year. That way we don't keep asking them
Sponsored Level - The actual level they sponsored at
Notes - Helpful notes for when we engage to talk with the sponsor. Eg. previous support level, our perceptions of what their goals and values are

Once we start getting sponsors committing to supporting the event, we start a new worksheet or separate spreadsheet to document the state of their sponsorship for the year. This helps us keep track of the commitments of both parties. This can be referenced on a regular basis to make sure the sponsors are providing the information we need to execute their benefits. We have the following columns:

Sponsor - name of the sponsor
Sponsor Level - The level or benefit they have agreed to purchase
Approver - The name and email of the person committing to the sponsorship
Accounting Contact - The name and email of the person facilitating the financial transaction
Marketing Contact - The name and email of the person responsible for executing the benefits of the sponsorship. This is the person with all the answers for what they want to happen at the event.
Room Name - The name they want on the named room benefit. NA if the sponsorship doesn't include the benefit.
Table - If they need a table, or declined the benefit of having a table. NA if the sponsorship doesn't include the benefit.
Website node - If we have a node on our site for the sponsor so it shows up were we need it to on the website. Done/Not Done
Registration Codes - The number of registration codes their sponsorship has been allotted. We often break out registration codes on to a different spreadsheet.
Attendees - If we know who will be physically attending the event, we want to know who will be there to welcome them, give them sponsor flags for their badge, show them their sponsor table, and invite them to the Friends of DrupalCorn dinner, etc.
Reason - We ask the sponsor why they are supporting DrupalCorn. This helps us understand them better and may give insight on how we can work with them better in the future.
Notes - Any other notes that would be useful for executing their benefits or any special benefits negotiated.

Having this information recorded and kept up to date makes it easier to remind the sponsor of any information we may still need from them. We want to confirm the benefits they want to use. For example, if a sponsor declines to use a sponsor table, that may free it up for another sponsor to use.

Finding Sponsors#

Finding sponsors and the people who would be willing to entertain the thought of sponsoring our event can be tricky. It's important to target organizations that would benefit from participating in our event. For example, it is unlikely that Facebook would want to sponsor a camp, so it's probably not worth our time pursuing.

Find local organizations that we know use Drupal. Often these organizations are hungry for Drupal talent and have people on staff that will want attend the event for professional development. Framing sponsorship as a low-cost, high quality professional development opportunity can be effective.

Other good organizations to reach out to are agencies that use Drupal. They are often looking to recruit talent and flex their leadership in the community to their current and potential clients.

Starting the conversation#

Once we have the dates and prospectus up, it's time to to get the conversation started. We usually start with an email to the mailing list to announce the camp and ask sponsors to look at the prospectus. See an example of a recent sponsor email.

One of the best ways to start a conversation with a potential sponsor is to attend other events where they are participating. Go to DrupalCon, other camps, or meetups. Play the hallway track and talk with people at their booth. Come prepared with paper copies of the prospectus, stickers, and/or business cards with that have your contact information and URL to the sponsor prospectus.

While at other Drupal events, it's important to show and promote our brand. Wear DrupalCorn t-shirts and give out stickers and cards to anyone who wants them. Present at other camps and mention your affiliation with DrupalCorn during your introduction. This marketing helps spread word of mouth. With a recognized brand comes a level of trust and legitimacy that makes asking for a sponsorship easier. It also increases the likelihood of a sponsor contacting you out of the blue, which is always a nice surprise when it does happen.

Another good way to start the conversation with an organization is to go through a personal connection. If you know an engineer or manager at an organization that uses Drupal, have a conversation with them and ask them who to talk to in order to discuss a sponsorship. Have the person make the introduction so it's not a cold call. Having that referral helps establish a level of trust and familiarity since it was referred internally.

While many larger organizations do have sponsorship intake, the competition for those funds and the impersonal nature of those processes make it really difficult to find success. It may be worth filling those out, but do not expect major support other than for in-kind sort of deals like a free subscription to give away or something.

Communicating with sponsors is important. Being prompt and relevant with your communications reflects positively on the us. Try to respond to sponsor messages within one business day. Maybe reserve some time every week to review any pending questions that haven't been answered and make sure to follow up. Fridays are not a good day to remind people of things since it is easy to slip attention over the weekend.

Commitment#

Once you get a commitment to sponsor, it's time to get the ball rolling. Update the sponsor sheet accordingly with the appropriate contact information and agreements/notes/etc. Generate an invoice for the sponsorship in PayPal and export a PDF of it (see Sponsor Payment below). Send an email that outlines the payment instructions and request any information we may need to execute their benefits. Here is an example email:

Subject: DrupalCorn Silver Sponsorship

Hi {{ Name }},

Thank you for your interested in sponsoring DrupalCorn at the Silver level! Attached is an invoice for the Silver sponsorship. Please let me know if I need to update the billing information.

Silver sponsorship comes with the following optional benefits listed below. Please let me know if you wish to opt out of any of these benefits since some of them may be limited quantity.

Attendee Tickets - Once registration begins, we will send you 2 100% off discount codes. If you don't want to use all your tickets, please feel free to give them to other people outside your organization. You can work with us to promote the distribution of your unused tickets if you like.

Listed on Website - We will recognize your sponsorship by listing your name and logo on the camp website so everyone knows that you are supporting the community and will be at the camp.

What we need from you:

Payment to by check sent to:
DrupalCorn Camp
450 Hwy 1 W #126
Iowa City, IA 52246

or

PayPal {{ PayPal Invoice URL }} (We ask for a 3% tip to help cover PayPal fees, if you feel inclined to)

Logo file (for print and web), URL, and name as you would like it advertised.

A paragraph description of Ten7 to appear on our site

Social Media links we may mention

A list of the benefits you expect to use so we can plan our resources accordingly. See the descriptions above.

What is your goal for sponsoring DrupalCorn camp? We'd like to help you with that goal if we can.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to working with you.

--
{{ Signature with name, email, phone, URL }}
{{ PDF Invoice Attachment }}

Note this is a separate email from any existing chain. Having the subject clear and consistent makes it easier to look up in email archives, and keeps the messiness of any negotiation cleared up and summarized. You will want to CC any other people in their organization that will be providing this information, and having the full summary makes it easier for them to get up to speed quickly. You may be referred to someone from accounting and another person in charge of marketing. Keeping everybody on the same page is important.

You may need to remind people to provide information or ask about payment status. Give them a few days to respond when following up with reminders.

Pre-event reminder and verification#

About one to two weeks before the event, It's usually a good idea to remind and verify the information and commitments with each sponsor. Doing this now will help save any last-minute headaches if exceptions were not quite aligned, or someone forgot to mention something changing. It's also a good time to invite anyone attending to the Friends of DrupalCorn dinner. Here's an example email:

Subject: DrupalCorn Sponsor Information and Welcome Gathering

Hi,

DrupalCorn Camp starts next week, and I wanted to make sure we have everything ready for you, and that you have the information you need to get the most out of your sponsorship.

Confirmed Details - Here is what we have confirmed for your sponsorship: * Sponsor Level: SILVER

We have received payment, Thank You! If you need another receipt, please let me know.

Website listing: {{ URL to sponsor page }} (click on your logo for detailed information)

Tweets: We have been and will continue to tweet out thanks before camp starts.

Sponsor tickets have been delivered. If you haven't used some of your codes and still plan to, please do so today so we can have an accurate number for catering. If you need help with your codes, please let me know.

People Confirmed Attending:
{{ Person 1 }}
{{ Person 2 }}
{{ Person 3 }}
{{ Person 4 }}

Friends of DrupalCorn Welcome - We will be having an informal gathering for sponsors and speakers at {{ Location and time }}. If you are in town, we would like to see you there! The plan is to order some delivery and play games. Please share this with the rest of your team who are coming.

Information about getting around the area will be posted at {{ URL about the the logistics of the area }}

Please let me know if I missed anything or if you have any questions.

Thanks again for sponsoring DrupalCorn Camp!

--
{{ Signature with name, email, phone, URL }}

This email should go to whoever is coordinating the sponsor benefits and anyone we've identified as coming to the event who is affiliated with the sponsor. Also, note that having your a phone number in the signature helps make sure if they have questions while en-route they can contact you.

@todo * PayPal invoicing * Scan checks * Receipts

Sponsors at the event#

@todo * Badge flags * Show to their sponsor table * Thank You Cards * Signage * Recognition at morning announcements and closing session

@todo * Make it clear that sponsors are expected to abide by the Code of Conduct * Sessions and presentations that were not selected during the normal call for papers should be clearly labeled as a sponsored session.

Sponsors#

What is the value of the event to a sponsor?#