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| Path: Main Street : NewsWeek : Archive : Event Q & A Articles : Article |
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Event Q & A
August 14, 2006
By Judy Allen, author of the professional best-selling Event Planning series.
The question:
How do you know which type of event would be best to attract sponsorship dollars?Judy's Response:
Today, corporate and social events are a major part of a company's communication, marketing and public relations strategy. This mindset should apply to nonprofit organizations that are looking to grow awareness, attendance and sponsorship dollars. Events are used by organizations of all sizes to solicit new business, create a corporate or brand image, and retain and build loyalty with existing stakeholders. They can also be used effectively to elicit peak performance from employees and produce camaraderie and teamwork among co-workers.
The corporate event bar has been raised dramatically and the competition to craft something original that will help an organization create public awareness, as well as industry and media buzz, is fierce. It is important for nonprofits to recognize this and take potential sponsors' needs into consideration when beginning to design a proposed event. What type of event can you offer that will help your ideal corporate sponsors attain their return on their investment of time, money and energy...and do the same for you?
Staged effectively, sponsoring a nonprofit event can contribute to a company's success, standing, profitability and business development, and it is important to address these issues with them. They are approached daily to partner with charities - all representing worthy causes - but they cannot support or be tied to all of them. You need to be able to tell potential sponsors why partnering with your organization will be a good business decision. Attracting media coverage and attendance - especially those who are the company's target market audience - will be important issues as well.
Of course, corporations also know that sponsoring an event that is not handled carefully, professionally, and appropriately can seriously damage their image and put the company and its management in potentially high-risk situations. Corporate boards and chief executives are now seeing how company scandals played out in the headlines can estrange customers, sink stock prices, and end careers in a matter of minutes. To attract sponsors you have to look at your event from their standpoint and come to them with a polished plan in place for successful execution.
I have a new book coming out in the fall, The Executive's Guide to Corporate Events and Business Entertaining: How to Choose and Use Corporate Functions to Increase Brand Awareness, Develop New Business, Nurture Customer Loyalty and Drive Growth (John Wiley & Sons), that provides insight on what company executives need to know from you before they consider hosting, sponsoring, or attending a nonprofit event. The Executive's Guide to Corporate Events and Business Entertaining shows how business functions, including sponsoring and attending nonprofit events, can be used to their corporate advantage, and how events, successfully implemented, can be a driving force toward ensuring their business success. This book will also show you how to identify and set clear objectives for each event, which type of function is best suited to meeting your objectives, and what you need to establish before forging ahead with organizing committees.
To help you successfully design and execute your event in a manner that will be up to corporate standards and meet their guests' expectation, (which will be critical to them if their company name is attached to a project), my event planning series of books serves as a companion to The Executive's Guide to Corporate Events and Business Entertaining and provides the detailed "how tos" of professional event planning.
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To submit a question for a future column, or to comment on a previous one, please contact help@charityvillage.com. No identifying information will appear in this column.
For paid professional event planning consulting - event design, site selection critique, venue and supplier contract review, budget analysis, strategic planning, event logistical and timing requirements, and on-site orchestration - contact Judy directly at Judy Allen Productions.
Disclaimer: Advice and recommendations are based on limited information provided and should be used as a guideline only. Neither the author nor CharityVillage.com make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability for accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided in whole or in part within this article.
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