Corporate underwriting can defray the expense of charity galas, but it can be difficult to secure. At the Exploratorium, an interactive science and art museum in San Francisco, the director of institutional advancement, Blair Winn, attracts corporate support from companies that have ties to the museum, some strong, some not so strong.
Nonprofits do sometimes get corporate support through a personal connection at a company, but that isn’t usually how it works, says Winn. Companies decide ahead of time how many events they will support in a given year so nonprofits without close connections can still compete.
For its annual Party at the Piers gala, held earlier in May, the Exploratorium received $361,000 in corporate support from sponsorship, tables, and ticket sales.
Here are Winn’s suggestions for using all your connections to get corporate support for a gala.
Ask your trustees to tap into their networks. Board members have firsthand knowledge of your charity and are committed to your cause, Winn says, so they should be ready to ask their corporate acquaintances to support your gala. The Exploratorium recruits board members who can either commit sponsorship from their company or appeal to their employers to sponsor a gala.
“Some of them also have pals who own companies that they then ask either directly or through us,” said Winn.
Before the Exploratorium’s 2018 gala, for example, a board member mentioned the event to a friend. That offhand remark led to the friend’s company spending $100,000 on tickets to the gala after-party for its employees. In turn, the Exploratorium recognized the company as a corporate sponsor of the event.
“That doesn’t happen as often, but it does happen.” Winn says.
The vast majority of the Exploratorium’s corporate support, however, is won through “very targeted and very specific” efforts.
“You work with both the development committee and the planning committee, you run lists by them, you get them to identify companies that they have personal connections with,” he said.
The museum’s development committee, which informs the Exploratorium’s annual-giving strategies, is made up entirely of board members. Trustees also sit on the gala planning committee, alongside other volunteers.
Ask companies that have sponsored past events to repeat their support. Because these companies already have ties to the Exploratorium, renewing a sponsorship is generally smooth. Winn appeals to both former gala sponsors and sponsors of other Exploratorium happenings, such as exhibits.
“Most of the time they repeat,” said Winn.
Usually a staff member who worked closely with the company the previous year will send an email noting the benefits gained from the company’s previous sponsorship and how the museum plans to make the coming gala even more successful.
Sometimes companies are motivated to repeat their sponsorships because of other sponsors you’ve brought on board, Winn adds. Including a list of them in the initial outreach email is “sort of like a stamp of approval,” he says.
Appeal to annual corporate sponsors and members. Not all nonprofits have this form of support, but most cultural organizations, like museums and theaters, do. At the Exploratorium, corporate sponsors and corporate members contribute to the museum from their marketing or employee-benefits budget. Corporate sponsors provide funding to museum programs and facilities, while corporate members pay fees on behalf of their employees so they can visit the museum for free.
The development team appeals to both for event underwriting by sending them a letter from the board chair and the museum’s executive director.
Winn recommends emphasizing that event sponsors reach a different audience than program sponsors. Galas also provide a different medium through which to share their brand, as they are “a fun, energetic, memorable environment — something not available at other times,” Winn wrote in an email.
If your nonprofit rents out meeting space, ask the rental company for support. Winn pitches gala underwriting to those companies differently, depending on what they find valuable — event tickets for their staff or brand visibility at the event, for example.
“We want to make sure that they have access to events and other ways that they can be either more visible, if that’s their priority, or provide increased access for their employees,” said Winn.
Involve nonfundraisers to solicit vendors they work with that supply services to your nonprofit. Like many nonprofits, the Exploratorium contracts with companies to meet its day-to-day needs, such as accounting and banking and professional development. When you have established relationships with companies, Winn says, asking them to underwrite a gala makes good sense.
“It’s a great way to involve more people and to tap some people who we’re hiring all year long,” he says.
Winn enlists all managers in this effort.
“I try to make it a little bit competitive, in a healthy way, so that there’s some acknowledgment for my colleagues who are the most successful,” Winn said. He gives managers solicitation letters and notes to help them prepare pitches.
One manager secured about $40,000 in corporate sponsorships for a gala earlier this month by appealing to more than half a dozen companies that do business with the museum.
Offer Tailored Sponsorships. Winn and his team recognize that there are a host of ways to offer visibility to a sponsor at an event.
The museum offers companies a variety of sponsorship options at different prices, which can include opportunities to display a logo or access to the event for its employees or clients.
Customized packages are appealing to companies that have separate philanthropic and marketing budgets. For example, a package could include a $150,000 gift to support museum education programs, $75,000 for a gala sponsorship, and $25,000 to purchase an annual corporate membership — thereby increasing the company’s access to the museum and fostering name-recognition in the community.
Similarly, a company could pay for gala tickets for select staff members and also sponsor items during the in-event auction; this would give employees access to a memorable event and raise the company’s profile during the gala.
Companies also can receive recognition in the gala program or the inclusion of their logo on the event invitation.
This array of sponsorship options has helped the Exploratorium build relationships with companies that have different budget sizes. Being flexible about how sponsorships are structured can allow a company to pull resources from different budgets to give more in total. Plus, says Winn, “they get to participate when they wouldn’t have been able to participate otherwise.”
