Corporate sponsorships can be a great source of income for community choruses and yet, still, some choruses aren't seeking them. Tap into this revenue stream by creating a sponsorship packet, assigning a volunteer to manage corporate sponsors, and reaching out to targeted companies!
Before soliciting corporate sponsorships, you'll want to first create a professional digital, print, and/or web piece which lays out the sponsorship levels and benefits that your chorus is offering.
Sponsorship levels will depend on the size and type of your chorus as well as your operating budget. For example, a non-auditioned community chorus with a $25,000 annual operating budget may decide to only offer sponsorships amounts up to $1,000 whereas an auditioned symphony chorus with an operating budget of over $250,000 may wish to offer sponsorship levels around $20,000 or more.
Here are a few examples of various sponsorship pages for your reference:
When determining benefits for each sponsorship level, ensure that the benefits seem fair based on the funded amount. Sample benefits to offer might include:
In addition to listing out the levels and benefits, you'll also want to include the following information in your corporate sponsorship packet:
Once you have your corporate sponsorship packet ready, you'll want to assign someone the task of managing the corporate sponsorship program. A board member serving on the development team would be a good choice for the job. This volunteer should identify target companies, manage incoming inquiries, work with sponsors to determine the appropriate level of giving, and ensure that the appropriate perks and gift receipts are delivered to the company.
Use your marketing team to your advantage when trying to find corporate sponsors. Have them think through the best way to gather inbound interest in your corporate sponsorship program.
First, set up a landing page and form on your website to capture the contact information of companies interested in sponsoring your chorus. Ensure that any information received from the form is sent to the volunteer managing the corporate sponsorship program and that the contact is automatically entered into their own segmented list in your email marketing platform.
Consider creating different types of content that could direct companies to your new landing page. Perhaps a blog entitled "Why Local Companies Should Support the Arts in [CITY]," a video from a member about what the chorus means to them, or a boosted Facebook post targeted to Directors of Human Resources in your city. Use this content in your email marketing programs, across your website, and on your social channels when appropriate.
And finally, remember to set up a webpage to recognize your corporate sponsors when they do come in!
When inbound methods don't work, you can always resort to outbound methods.
Start by creating a targeted list of companies in your area who may consider supporting the arts. You can do this by looking trough the websites of well-known companies and reading their mission statements or community giving pages. You can also pull a list of your singers' employers from your member database. Companies with a personal connection to your chorus may be more interested in giving to the organization so this is a good place to start!
As you create the list, add the contact information at each company and assign an "owner." The owner should be the name of the person in your chorus who plans to reach out to the company to solicit the sponsorship.
Finally, decide on the types of communications (emails, phone calls, etc) you'd like to send to each company when soliciting sponsorships. Write up a few sample scripts and circulate to the owners.
It is important to have a process in place for obtaining the necessary materials, formulating agreements, and delivering on benefits. The process might look something like this:
Corporate sponsorships aren't just business transactions, they are a chance to start a real relationship with a like-minded organization. The chorus owner should work to include the sponsor into the chorus's community through a series of personal interactions and opportunities to meet the chorus. They should stay in touch regularly with the company to send them information about upcoming concerts and events, to personally invite them to donor receptions, and more. Other opportunities to build a relationship might include: