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Participating in college events can expand your resume and future career opportunities. They can also help educate students and connect them with professionals in their field. If you are hoping to stand out as an engaged and driven student, you can host an event on campus.
Hosting may seem like a strenuous task that requires many resources and much planning. To access the necessary funds to support your gathering, you can develop sponsorships with various businesses. One can take some simple steps when signing sponsors onto their event that limit the stress and disarray around planning.
1. Look Local
When you are looking for how to get a sponsorship for college events, it’s best to start local. Businesses in college towns like to sponsor university gatherings to increase their advertising opportunities. It is beneficial to reach out to these companies to develop a mutually beneficial relationship.
Supporting local companies by including them as sponsors helps boost their business. Small shops in the area may struggle to maintain sufficient income to remain competitive against corporate competitors. When you support these companies, you help keep them in business.
Small businesses in your college town also stimulate the local economy. Many of these companies currently employ college students and will continue to provide career opportunities to individuals after graduation. Connecting with these companies can successfully land you a sponsorship and a potential job.
2. Find Aligned Values
Depending on the location of your university, you may have a plethora of local businesses to choose from. One way to narrow down your list of potential sponsors is to zero in on the companies that share values with the event.
For example, if you are hosting a computer science invention competition, you may want to reach out to local tech companies for sponsorships. Or, if you are holding a mathematical Olympiad for the math club, you can reach out to a tutoring business for potential support.
You can access a company’s values by evaluating the social needs their products and services meet. Additionally, you can see what the business allocates the most money towards. The company values don’t have to align with the exact theme of the gathering, and other ideals are beneficial to a sponsorship.
The company you are examining may have a solid dedication to education and charity. These values prove to be beneficial to many college events. Reaching out to the business’s employees to discuss their values is one way to know how to get event sponsors for college clubs.
3. Evaluate Sponsors From Related Events
If you are looking to connect with reliable and engaging sponsors, you can start by evaluating the companies linked to similar events. For example, if a local athletics store sponsored a club soccer game for the community college in your area, they may also want to support your school’s club sport. Previous sponsors are likely to engage with other schools because they understand the benefits.
4. Build a Presentation
When you have a concrete list of companies you wish to reach out to, you can start by developing a presentation. Whether it’s an email, video, or pamphlet, the display should engage the three types of audience members. Most individuals best digest presented information if it incorporates visual, auditory, and kinesthetic elements.
Add each of these elements into your display, along with the necessary information to explain your event. It may help to provide a mission statement on the presentation to define your values. You can also display audience demographics to entice the sponsor, showing them the advertising opportunities.
5. Offer Sponsor Incentives
Do some research on your potential sponsors and unveil their business tactics. You can use this information to meet their marketing needs. If the company reaches its customers through face-to-face connections, you can provide them with a free booth at your gathering to satisfy customers.
For businesses that value social media advertising, you can offer sponsor-related posts by the university during the event. This will provide an enticing opportunity for the company to access an added channel for promotion and content distribution. Additionally, you can present every sponsor’s logo on banners, apparel, and merchandise at the gathering.
6. Present Sponsors With Potential Gains
You can entice potential sponsors by offering a low-risk trial option for their first partnership. The company can donate a small necessity to the event, such as water bottles or t-shirts that present their logo. In this situation, you may need multiple sponsors to fund your event, and over time you can secure more significant donations.
When presenting companies with potential gains, you can discuss how many individuals will attend the event to mark their level of exposure. You may also display the business’s projected return on the investment. The sponsorship can also act as a method of supporting a sales promotion campaign.
7. Follow Up
After you reach out to your chosen sponsors and present them with the necessary information to make their decision, ensure you follow up with them. It may help to schedule an in-person meeting to discuss any concerns they may have. You can also use this follow-up time to discuss their level of investment in the partnership.
Confidence Is Key
Individuals create lifelong memories at college. If you are working on creating a student event on campus, do not let money hold you back. Accessing sponsorships and additional funds is possible when you utilize the steps presented above.
Remember that confidence is key. It may be intimidating to talk to business owners as an undergraduate, and these professionals honor efficient communication. Companies are always looking to increase brand awareness and grow their customer base, so a sponsorship is a multi-beneficial relationship.
