The Timothy Group

Sponsorship of Stewardship?
There is a Difference.

"Will you sponsor me at five dollars per mile for Life Walk?"

"Would you underwrite a table at our fundraising banquet?"

"Will you purchase an advertisement in the book commemorating our tenth anniversary?"

Sponsorship is a favorite fundraising tool of many nonprofit organizations. Perhaps you use it with a measure of success.

Advantages of sponsorship

Sponsorship is one way of involving new donors with your ministry. Those who participate in your Life Walk fundraiser reach out to their circle of friends for support. These donors may or may not have a connection with your mission but give on the basis of their friendship. It becomes a grassroots way of expanding your donor base. However, most gifts are small, one-time, and tied directly to their friend. If their friend quits walking, they quit giving.

Asking a business to underwrite a table at your fundraising banquet or a hole at your golf outing is a good way to involve a business that typically would not support your annual operating budget. From the business owner's perspective, these opportunities are viewed as a form of marketing paid from their advertising budget.

"Dining For Dollars" Making a Fund-Raising Banquet Work for You

James, escaping a hectic work day, turns off the interstate highway and onto a gently winding road that follows the banks of a river. As he parks and walks up to the banquet hall, the glow from inside lends light to his path. Over a delicious meal, he enjoys conversation with new acquaintances and old friends. The dinner concludes with a ministry update and a challenge to offer financial support.

This image is more than a fairy-tale dream for ministry budgets. People do, in fact, find time in their schedules and money in their pocketbooks to come to fund-raising dinners to support Christian ministries. And these banquets, when carefully planned and implemented, can be an important factor in your overall fund-raising strategy.

To Dine or Not to Dine...

Fund raising dinners are only one of five strategies-in addition to personal solicitation, telephone solicitation, direct mail, and electronic and print media- that ministries should use in their financial development strategies. Because each strategy has benefits and disadvantages, ministries should not depend on only one strategy for all of their contributions.