Sponsors: Find the Decision Maker & Treat Them Like Individual Donors

“I don’t do as well when speaking with potential sponsors.” It’s a comment that I often hear from fundraisers that excel at cultivating relationships with individual donors. For some reason they have a mental block or feel as though this needs to be a different, more formal, type or relationship or conversation. Here’s the secret … it doesn’t.

My number one sponsorship tip is to 1) find the decision maker at any company (or foundation); and then to 2) treat them like an individual donor. All of the cultivation and stewardship tools that work with individual donors work with corporate donors as well … as long as they are going to the right person. After all, corporate sponsorship decision makers are people too.

You’ll also stand out from the crowd as very few fundraisers have come to this realization. Everyone seems to think our sponsorship (and foundation) relationships have to be formal and stuffy. They don’t … find the decision maker and treat them like a real human being. Treat them how you’d like to be treated!