Where To Find the Sponsors

Where to find the sponsors:

If you are an already established non-profit and you are finding it hard to raise money. It may not be that you are doing anything wrong. The problem may be that you have “fished out your stream”.  That means you either need to restock your stream or you need to dig a channel to a new stream or both.

If you live in a very rural area or in a small population area this “fishing out your stream” or having used up all available points of financial contact can be done very quickly simply because of competition with other non-profits like Volunteer Fire Departments, schools, fairs, hospice, humane society, the local hospital,  Lions clubs, and other service organizations etc etc

Going to a small town the same size as yours wont help because you are then just adding more competition for  the limited non-profit money.  So think bigger.  You have to make yourself a house hold name one person at a time. That’s easy in a small town or rural area  but you are going to have to work it in a larger population area too.

A question for all the established non- profits:
 If you meet 100 people at a fair or larger event how many people will give $5 or less to your cause?  How many will give $25 to $50 how many will give over $100 How many will be a repeat giver? How many will offer to come visit your facility? How many will offer to volunteer? How many will say they wish they could volunteer but they live too far away? How many will say I would give if I had the money?
Chances are if you don’t know the answer to all of the above you haven’t got a very well established public face because you aren’t doing enough events.

If your answer was less than these below you have probably tapped out your funding base and need to find new sources
10 people will give $5
5 people will give $25 to $50
1 in fifty will give $100 or more and/or become repeat givers
2 may want to give a donation of goods or services valued at $100 or more
5 in 100 will want to visit
1 in 100 will want to know how to volunteer
1 in 100 would like to be involved but lives too far away
5 in 100 would like to give but don’t have the resources.  1 in 100  of those is really serious and needs to be shown how.

You will notice that I didn’t say anything about sponsorships. This is because generally only 1 in 500 people you meet at an open public event will consider sponsorship. And only 1 in 5,000 will sponsor for big money.

In a Targeted Event when your organization becomes high profile these figures will increase because people will be seeking you out to be involved. In specially targeted events where only people interested in sponsorship are in attendance, generally the numbers will be much higher.  1/3 will become sponsors before they leave the event and another 1/3 will become sponsors  with in 30 days. How many sponsors you get will depend on how many other non profits are in attendance and how many people show up.

Reality Check
Just for fun let me run a few numbers. Lets say you are participating in an Agricultural Fair or Festival  of one day. The anticipated event is expected to draw 5,000 people and it doesn’t rain and your location is good. Maybe 2000 people will pass by your exhibit. Of those 2000 maybe 500 will stop by your booth and look . 250 will look longer than 30seconds. Those 250 are your  stream.
From that event  you may have garnered the following:
$1150 in cash donations
$200plus in goods or services
3 potential short term sponsors
3 potential Volunteers that have some significant time  and skill to give
2 potential volunteers to help in events and fundraising
5  opportunities  for  donations, sponsorships and fund raising help once they visit your farm
50 new contacts for your mailing list to promote activities and opportunities.

Every person that  you talked to and were personable to that day and either gave or expressed a desire to be involved  is worth nurturing because they will at some point  give to your organization if you make them feel wanted and show them how to be a part of it.

Just a note: in a time of economic down turn your goods and services donations usually will go up and offset the loss in cash donations but you will have to nurture it.

Avoiding the pit falls of person to person fund raising
You will notice that I put a lot of emphasis on  the contacts. It only takes one wealthy donor to open the door for more. In this day and age you might not recognize them out right. So its best to be kind, positive and helpful to all right from the start.

If you have political, religious, or personal cause prejudices put those on the back burner and leave them home. Highlighting your pet peve or talking about your target frustration group in public settings where you are trying to fund raise  will not only offend the group you dislike, but it might prevent people who would normally give you money from considering your org because  they  will be distracted from your good works by your ire. The people you want to attract to your organization are people who attract positive financially stable people. People who are attracted to conflict,drama, and confrontation are people that will bring that type of behavior into your organization and they usually are not financially stable.

Be careful not to discourage people from donating
Another thing that will lower your result numbers is that you might accidently discourage people from donating by not  giving them an opportunity to donate. If they ask how they can donate, dont change the subject or allow yourself to be distracted by some one else, until they have a chance to give. Dont let the moment pass. But also know the difference between someone who wants to donate and someone who just wants information. You dont want to be too high pressure, because that might persuade them not to donate in the future.By learning to be sensitive to the person you are talking with it will increase your fund-rasing success.

Next Blog Post: Cultivating Sponsors