Sponsorship Strategist

Rethinking Gold, Silver & Bronze: More Meaningful Nonprofit/For-Profit Partnerships

If you're in Philadelphia, I hope to see you tomorrow morning at the Philadelphia Business Journal's Corporate Philanthropy Summit. What a program and line-up of speakers and inspirational stories. Plus, I'll offer a workshop for nonprofit and corporate leaders on rethinking the generic gold, silver, bronze hybrid approach to developing something more meaningful for both entities. I'll be interviewing a real live sponsor, too! Starts at 11. Read more →

The Value of a Mentor

When I was developing and executing sponsorship programs for various music festivals, I attributed much of my success to the important relationship I had with my mentor and eventually dear friend Anna. If not for Anna all those years ago, I would have been alone with my ideas, challenges, triumphs, and occasional disappointments. With Anna as a trusted sounding board, I dreamed bigger, fleshed out ideas that had greater impact for my clients and prospects, submitted stronger proposals, and avoided being blindsided or ill-prepared because Anna pointed something out that I overlooked in my enthusiasm. As a consequence, I generated... Read more →

Trust and the Medium

Nestled in on an early morning train, heading to the Smithsonian Institute's Craft Show in Washington, D.C., with Sunday morning necessities -- coffee, bagel, and the New York Times -- the front page has me perplexed. One of the lead stories is about Goldman Sachs' "'serious'" profiteering, betting that the housing market would collapse. At the bottom of the same page, Citi touts the "new" Citi. That would be the Citi that "promises to serve the needs of customers above all else." What was the old Citi doing? If you have to place an ad to announce that now you're... Read more →

IFEA Book Reviewer Calls Gail's Corporate Sponsorship Guidebook a "Must-Read"

IFEA, the leading industry association for festival and event leaders worldwide, released its review by Ira L. Rosen, CFEE, of my guidebook, How to Jump-start Your Sponsorship Strategy in Tough Times, in the latest issue of ie magazine. See below and scroll to page 15 to read why he believes the book's ideas and recommendations are "incredibly valuable." As a special bonus, if you scroll to page 32 in the magazine, you can also read an article I wrote, entitled 5 Trends in Corporate Sponsorship and What They Mean for You. Read more →