CharityVillage® Research: Corporate Sponsorship Best Practices: Better friend-raising leads to better fund raising

Resources & Library

Path: Main Street : Resources & Library : Research Articles : Feature Article

Corporate Sponsorship Best Practices: Better friend-raising leads to better fund raising
by Pat Kahnert
September 1999

Part 1: Cultivating the relationship
Sponsorships can add rich value to a company's employee care, customer care and community care priorities. Care is a key success factor in an organization's choice of a sponsorship with which it is willing to associate its name, its money and, most importantly, its people -- their time, their effort and their expertise.

With 16 years of hands-on Royal Bank sponsorship marketing experience behind me, I am sold on the value of sponsorships as powerful relationship and positioning vehicles. I understand what makes a successful sponsorship relationship. I also know how to leverage sponsorship to enhance a company's brand, reputation and image, plus bottom-line results.

Notwithstanding the high potential of the right corporate sponsorship investments, I must admit that there are times when I need reassurance that the money, the time and the effort that business people choose to contribute to some community sponsorships is well spent.
Making the right sponsorship decisions
A company really needs to know that they are making a difference, that sponsorship investments are right for their employees, their customers, their communities and, ultimately, their shareholders. You can't just write a blank cheque and hope for the best, because in this business thoughtful wishing goes a lot further than wishful thinking when it comes to achieving stated objectives.

This article shares some proven best practices I have developed and used effectively over the years in helping Royal Bank friends and other organizations who have sought my assistance to make the right sponsorship evaluation, negotiation, design, implementation and measurement decisions. I also share some lessons I have learned in the hopes that others might learn from my mistakes.

Some might suggest that secrets of success in sponsorships represent a competitive advantage and, as such, must be guarded. I am of the mind that we all win by sharing expertise. We all win by creating an environment that promotes trust and confidence, where everyone treats one another with dignity and respect. Are these not the tenets on which a livable community works?

From a business perspective, if a community event planner, a charitable group, or even a competitor, becomes better at making the most of sponsorship arrangements because of one community partner's willingness to share, then everyone is better off. Clearly, the over-all environment for corporate sponsorship will be healthier for everyone involved. That's the way Royal Bank has always approached community involvement and I am proud to have helped Royal Bank people achieve that goal by sharing best practices of success in sponsorships and corporate donations.

In the case of Royal Bank Financial Group, the organization sees clearly that its success is closely linked to the economic and social conditions of the communities where its people live and work. As full-fledged citizens of society, corporate people must accept responsibilities and play a role in strengthening the community's vitality.
Sponsorships and Donations: Understanding the difference
It is important to know what makes a sponsorship and what makes a donation.

With sponsorships, Royal Bank invests limited marketing dollars to position business goals. These goals include employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, reputation and image and, ultimately, performance management. With donations, the organization contributes funds to worthwhile charitable causes, because they make good sense in enhancing the quality of life for people in the community.
People make the difference
Let me dispel one common misconception about Royal Bank community involvement right off the top. It is not Royal Bank that gives money to worthwhile cause -- Royal Bank does not give money to worthwhile causes -- Royal Bank PEOPLE do! Royal Bank is the name of our company. The people are the heart and soul of the company and that's what leads a sponsorship and donation decision.

I am adamant that a model for better giving must be more than a cookie cutter financial formula. Better giving that creates better living must be a heart and soul decision by people who really care to make a difference in their communities. Royal Bank people choose what deserves of their personal and corporate funding and support, whether it is a community charity in need of a donation to, or a community event the group wants to sponsor. The Royal Bank Ontario core community involvement identity is: "We're people helping people." That belief guides sponsorship and donation decisions.

Understanding what works best for sponsors, I am offended by fundraisers who crassly put their immediate financial request targets ahead of time-tested relationship building effort with the right corporate decision makers. Even as a corporate sponsor needs to know the difference between class commercialism and crass commercialism, a fundraiser needs to understand that better friend raising leads to better fund raising.

How do you feel when a stranger shows up at your door, asking for money. Are you quick to write a blank cheque? Do you just reach into your pocket, no questions asked, and hand over whatever loose change you have? Or, do you have a personal plan for giving? Do you value knowing how your money and endorsement are being used, and it is making a clear difference?

Let's face it, no one feels comfortable giving time and money blindly to strangers. So, why would we dole out sponsorship funds before we have made friendships based on trust and confidence?

I still feel sad when fundraisers insult my intelligence and my freedom of choice by sending me a form letter or fax asking for sponsorship funding, asking for a commitment often by the end of the business day! How thoughtless! How uncaring! How crass! The form fax sponsorship request is not a positive friendship building device that some thoughtless event promoters use excessively and to their own loss. Friendships take time to create. Face-to-face communication works best.
Why do companies sponsor?
At first blush the question, "Why do companies choose to sponsor?" might appear rhetorical. Well, it is a question that often goes unanswered.

Corporate sponsors, with the help of event organizers, need to do a better job at letting others know why they are sponsoring. I have been at events where volunteers are hard-pressed to list all of their sponsors, including lead sponsors. I have also labored over decisions to discontinue sponsorships, thinking that 40 years of "quiet support might be sorely missed by the world, only to find out that even the people intimately involved in the event did not appreciate that our company was contributing to their enjoyment. In fact, in one instance where a company stopped sponsoring an event, the company was cited by consumer research as the perceived primary title sponsor for several years after the company was gone.

Corporate sponsorship decision makers need to ask their stakeholders often, "What does this sponsorship mean to you? Is it important to you? What do you personally get out of the sponsorship?". If it works for our key stakeholders, then we can move forward with confidence, knowing that the investment of people time and effort, together with our sponsorship fees and promotion costs, is well worth it.

You must measure what's important to your stakeholders all of the time. If you wait until the event is long over, it is too late to change something that is not working to achieve your goals.

I have asked many people: Why do companies choose to sponsor? And, there is little consistency in the response. In fact, the initial response is often silence. In the sponsorship environment, silence is not golden; there is just too much competition for share of voice, share of mind, and share of heart, let alone share of wallet.
Valued qualities of a friend
At speaking engagements and sponsorship workshops I have moderated around Ontario, I always ask the question: "What qualities do you most value in a friend?" Just think of that question yourself for a moment. Your friend checklist might include these qualities:

Trustworthy
Caring
Reliable
Honest
Integrity
Loyal
Shared Values
Good Listener
First To Help
Forgiving
Sense of Humour
I have also asked business leaders throughout Ontario how they would like to be perceived by employees, customers and community stakeholders... and they list the same traits as we all look for in a friend. We all want to earn and nurture friendships, built on mutual understanding, trust, confidence and pride of association.

Part 2: A disciplined approach to sponsorship decisions.

Image management consultant Pat Kahnert of Oakville, has shared this advice with audiences of fundraisers and sponsors throughout Ontario. Following 16 years of senior-level corporate reputation and image management leadership, Pat is now leading PBK and Associates as managing partner, serving Royal Bank friends and other business, government and voluntary sector customers. In this provocative article, he shares his secrets of success in using a proven sponsorship model and corporate "heart and soul" approach to the creation and implementation of win-win sponsorship relationships.

Pat Kahnert, Managing Partner, PBK and Associates Inc. can be reached at pbk@cogeco.ca. Please note that PBK is a fee-for-services corporate communications consulting business.