Donor Perks/Packages?

[ImMoMo]

Hello, so recently we have been revamping our efforts to become a better organized team, so one of the things I have noticed is that we need to represent or reward our sponsors a bit better, doing so would also help us attract many more community/local sponsors.


What does your team do to reward/attract sponsors? In other words what are your sponsor packages/benefits?

Our administrative mentor has made it clear that we are not to put branding on our t-shirts, so anything short of that would be helpful!

Thanks!

[EricH]

Originally Posted by ImMoMo

Our administrative mentor has made it clear that we are not to put branding on our t-shirts, so anything short of that would be helpful!

One thing that a lot of teams do is to have various levels of sponsorship. In this method, a higher level gets all the benefits of the lower level(s), plus some.

For example, a low level might just get a logo on a display board. But the next level up would get a bigger logo on the board, plus a logo on the robot. Another level adds in a plaque from the team (and, in places without your T-shirt restriction, a logo on the T-shirt). Generally speaking, the highest level would get the name in the official team name (the one read out at competition), plus any goodies from the lower levels.

Remember: the more money donated, the more perks the sponsor gets and the bigger the logo...

[cad321]

One thing we do for our big sponsors (we only have two or three) is actually make something for them that shows off some of our skills and then take a day to go present it to them, say thank you and show them the work that we have done over our season. It goes a long way to keeping up a good relationship with our sponsors.

[RamZ]

Team 4 put together a set of tiers for sponsorship before the season, laying out what each sponsorship level receives. It also helps out with getting sponsors, because you can lay out exactly what a donation of various magnitudes gets them.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by RamZ

Team 4 put together a set of tiers for sponsorship before the season, laying out what each sponsorship level receives. It also helps out with getting sponsors, because you can lay out exactly what a donation of various magnitudes gets them.

3946 does a similar set of tiers.
All donors get a thank you letter/certificate and are invited to robot demos.
$100+ donors (silver) get their name (and logo if they provide one) on the web site.
$500 + donors (gold) get their name and logo on a pit "thank you sponsors" display
$1,000+ donors (platinum) get their name and logo on the robot.

Now that we have a trailer, the larger donors (don't recall if its gold or platinum) get their logo on the trailer.
While we don't clearly define this due to varying aspect ratios of different logos, logo sizes go up with the dollar value of the donation.
Major sponsors may also get a special robot demo, either at their place of business, or at public event they sponsor.
Our team t-shirt stays basically the same from yar to year on the front, but the rear is specific to each year, and includes platinum donor logos. This year's also had the FRC and Recycle Rush logos at the very top, followed by Ingersoll Rand (who game us $9k to buy and outfit the trailer), followed by our other platinum sponsors as of t-shirt order time: NDEP, PAE, TEXTRON, and iFixit.
We also have a bearded mentor who occasionally lists the platinum sponsors on CD.;->

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by ImMoMo

Our administrative mentor has made it clear that we are not to put branding on our t-shirts, so anything short of that would be helpful!

Is this something that is not allowed at your school/organization, or is it something that your admin mentor has just decreed? It sounds like you don't know the reasoning behind it, perhaps you could sit down with this mentor and discuss the pros and cons? The majority of teams do this for good reason.

Anyway, you can find my team's sponsorship tiers in this document that we give to potential sponsors.

I will also add that I think most companies/sponsors appreciate it more when a team keeps in contact, keeps them updated on what the team is doing, or invites them to see competitions rather than getting 'rewards' or additional branding opportunities. Rewards are certainly appreciated but I think that seeing the difference that your support is making first hand is more desirable to many sponsors.

[Chief Hedgehog]

Outside of putting their names on our tee-shirts, we out their company on our team banner each season (see our Cover Photo on FB). We also give each sponsor a 12x9 framed picture with a thank you for being a sponsor message.

Throughout the year, we put out a Newsletter that we send to each of the sponsors, Mentors, parents, etc. During the build and competition season, this is a weekly occurrence - the off-season it goes to a once a month publication.

For our bigger sponsors, we try to get out to their location and do a variation of our Chairman's Award. When we do this, we take between 3-8 of our experienced mentors. The presentation is part CA - and then about 10-20 minutes of Q&A with showing off the robots from the current and past seasons.

At our awards banquet, we have three awards we hold in high-esteem - the Volunteer/Organization of the Year, Mentor of the Year, and Sponsor of the year. These are plaques that we have made up by All Star Trophy and Awards.

Just remember to do some sort of thank you, no matter how big or small - they will appreciate it!

[ImMoMo]

Originally Posted by Monochron

Is this something that is not allowed at your school/organization, or is it something that your admin mentor has just decreed? It sounds like you don't know the reasoning behind it, perhaps you could sit down with this mentor and discuss the pros and cons? The majority of teams do this for good reason.

Anyway, you can find my team's sponsorship tiers in this document that we give to potential sponsors.

I actually do not know the reasoning behind it, but I will have a conversation about this with my mentor! Thank you for sharing your sponsorship document, it was really helpful to see an example, as it is something else we are working on as well!

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by ImMoMo

Hello, so recently we have been revamping our efforts to become a better organized team, so one of the things I have noticed is that we need to represent or reward our sponsors a bit better, doing so would also help us attract many more community/local sponsors.


What does your team do to reward/attract sponsors? In other words what are your sponsor packages/benefits?

Our administrative mentor has made it clear that we are not to put branding on our t-shirts, so anything short of that would be helpful!

Thanks!

We have a spread of rewards depending on level, and we set them knowing what this program costs. (We try to head off situations like my dear Aunt Kathy, who in our rookie preseason asked if my mom would pass along a donation--which she said yes. She then says "Alright, give him ten dollars..." Which, while totally appreciated, doesn't make a lot of headway on starting a team!)

Everyone gets on the slide deck that runs in our pit area. (That runs on a Raspberry Pi and Screenly--the TV has a USB port to power the Pi.)

$500 adds a sponsor plaque after the season. (Here's last year's.)

$1,000 gets you on the T-shirt. (I've had other teams say "any amount gets you on the shirt", and it makes it very difficult to fit everyone at any legible level!)

$2,500 gets you on the robot, $5,000 gets you as big as USC and Bosch (our two headliners).

Based on your team's funding needs, you'll have different numbers--this has just worked for us the past couple years. If you have somewhere else you can bring value (Big display case in the school? T-shirt cannon at the football game? Annual team spaghetti supper? A pretty well-defined camp or outreach program?), you totally should work that in. I know we're working on ways we can do more things like that within our capabilities.

[HolyDollar]

I know some teams have a system that, the more a company donates, the more their logo is displayed. For instance, if a company were to donate $100 or more, their logo is displayed in the team pit. If they were to donate $500 or more, they would receive the $100 benefits, and have their logo on the robot. If they were to donate at the next level (let's just say $1000 for the sake of argument), they would receive all the $500 and $100 benefits, and they would be advertised on facebook, as well as have a larger logo on the robot.

I hope this helps!