How to get a local sponsor without the awkward ask
Asking a local business for sponsorship feels like the worst job on the committee, so it usually ends up being nobody's job. But here is the thing most clubs get wrong. A sponsor is not doing you a favour out of charity. Done right it is a fair swap, and the business often gets as much out of it as the club does. This guide covers who to ask, how to ask, and what to offer in return.
Start with the businesses that already know you
The best sponsor is almost never a stranger. Before you draw up a long list of every shop in the parish, write down the businesses that already have a connection to the club.
Think about the parents on the sideline who run their own trade. The plumber, the electrician, the local builder. Think about the pub that shows the matches, the shop where everyone buys the milk, the takeaway that does a roaring trade after training. These people already feel part of the club. You are not cold-calling them, you are asking a neighbour.
Make that list first. It is shorter than you think, and it is full of people who are far more likely to say yes.
Ask the right person, face to face
A letter to "the manager" lands in a bin. An email to a general inbox is never read. If you want a real answer, you need to talk to the person who actually decides, and that is usually the owner.
Call in when they are not run off their feet. A weekday morning in a quiet shop beats a Saturday lunchtime. Be straight about why you are there, keep it short, and bring something they can hold or look at. People say yes to a person standing in front of them far more often than they say yes to a piece of paper.
If you genuinely cannot get in the door, a short personal message from someone they know carries more weight than any formal letter. Warm beats formal every time.
Tell them exactly what they get back
This is where most clubs fall down. They ask for money and offer a vague "we will mention you". A business owner hears that and thinks, mention me where, to who, how often.
A sponsor is paying for one thing above all else. To be seen by local people. Their customers are your members, your members' families, and the wider parish. So spell out the visibility in plain terms:
Where will their name appear. How many people will see it. How long does it run for.
The clearer and more specific the offer, the easier it is for them to say yes, because they can picture exactly what they are buying. Those are exactly the questions a vague "we will mention you" cannot answer. Here is an offer that can.
Make the offer something they can picture with a sponsored prize
The cleanest offer you can put in front of a local business is to sponsor the prize for one of your competitions. This is exactly what Bluefundr's main sponsored prize is built for.
Here is the part that makes it easy. Instead of taking a cut of the entries to fund the prize, you let a local business put up the prize money. Because the sponsor funds the whole prize, none of the entry money has to go on the reward. The entry money goes to the club's fundraising instead, and the sponsor covers the prize.
In return, the sponsor gets seen, again and again, by local people. Their name appears on the competition, with a link to their website, and their name goes on every share and on every view of the competition on the site. Every time a member opens it, enters it, or sends it on to a friend, the sponsor's name goes with it. That is the answer to "where will my name appear, and who will see it". You can show them, not just promise them.
It is a fair swap. The members get a real prize to play for, the club runs its fundraiser without buying the prize itself, and the local business gets its name in front of the whole parish, again and again, for the length of the competition.
Keep it simple to run
Part of what makes a sponsor say yes is knowing it will not turn into a hassle for them. With Bluefundr there is very little to manage once it is live:
- Built on real matches: GAA inter-county league and championship, plus soccer from the Premier League, Champions League, League of Ireland and more
- Results are scored automatically for the matches we cover, and a competition image is generated for you
- Money goes straight into the club's own Stripe account and pays out to the club bank account, usually within about a week
- The club registers and sets the whole thing up itself, so there is no waiting on anyone
If you are weighing up which fundraiser to run a sponsored prize on, here are a few ideas that work.
Set it up once, then go back with proof
Land your first sponsor and run one competition well, and the second conversation is far easier. You are no longer asking a business to imagine what they get. You can show them their name on a competition the whole parish saw, and you can offer them the next one.
Sponsorship is not a single big ask, it is a relationship you build over a season. Start with the people who already know you, ask them face to face, and give them a clear thing to say yes to. The sponsored prize does that part for you, so the only hard bit left is knocking on the door.