Potential Sponsorship Letter

[Carol]

We have an older sponsor letter on our website at http://www.fsrobotics.org/moe365//te...003sponsor.doc

We do have newer ones as well as a trifold, double sided brochure (just printed in color on regular paper. On the outside is a listing of sponsorship levels and donations needed (supplies, food, services, etc.) with lots of pictures around it. On the inside is a copy of the sponsor letter. This is useful particularly when you talk to businesses in person.

In regards to sending letters, you almost always have to follow up with a phone call.

[laurenlacy]

In my experience you're going to want nothing more than one sided, single spaced. Anything beyond that and you can tend to lose interest. We had two separate letters, one for returning sponsors and one for new sponsors. For the returning sponsors we thanked them for their aid the previous year, summarized our accomplishments in the previous year, informed them of our financial need, reiterated the goals of our program, and invited them to meet with us and check out our website.

The new sponsor letter was similar, but didn't include the thanking for the previous year and had a bit more about what FIRST is all about and what donating to us would accomplish for them. With each we included a sponsorship level sheet, which had our sponsorship levels and what came with each level, such as prominent logo placing on our robot and shirts for example. We also had different sponsorship levels for in-kind vs monetary donations.

In response to Carol, our experience was that those who we followed up with phone calls tended to be more likely to donate. In this age of digital and print communication, making a personal connection is still a big deal. We visited and presented to all of our $5000 plus sponsors (not including grants) and even to some of the smaller ones. Use the letter as a jumping off point, and as the first place where you can introduce yourselves professionally.

[Cynette]

Here is the link to our fundraising page on our website. It you go to the section labeled "patron drive," there are copies of our letters, sample speeches and other hints. http://www.penfieldrobotics.com/team/fundraising.php

We also have a trifold describing our team and FIRST that the students take with them. Most of our initial contacts are done face to face or by appointment so the letter is a follow-up rather than an initial contact.

Good Luck!

[JohnBoucher]

There are many interesting papers on the NEMO site that will help you.

http://www.firstnemo.org/resources.htm

[mathking]

Here is a link to our booster web site, which has a lot of useful information about fundraising: http://homepage.mac.com/mathking/School/Brochure1014.pdf

We also have a brochure we use as part of first contact with a potential sponsor: http://homepage.mac.com/mathking/School/Brochure1014.pdf

[synth3tk]

That's for the replies so far. We had no intentions on mailing them out at all. They were going to be handed out before/during our short presentation, or possibly afterwards if they were interested.

I'm just wondering how much is too much information. Again, thanks for the help!

[Akash Rastogi]

It also depends how informal or formal you want to keep the letter. On mort, the letters go out from students so they are sometimes more informal and describe the program on a personal note, and sometimes it is a solid factual note about the programs we offer and have established. So, in terms of that, you could go either way depending on what you think is more effective. Personally, a factual letter with small doses of personal expression works and has worked the best.

Hope you kinda understand what I'm getting at
Good luck as always.