Sponsorship Strategist

3 Causes of Sponsorship Revenue Stagnation

I’ll bet your organization has a practice or two that is thwarting your ability to secure sponsorship revenue, which will make or break your ability to have an event asset. Find out three causes of sponsorship revenue stagnation. Read more →

Channel Your #Sponsorship Conversation

Do you channel your business development conversations or amble about aimlessly? Read more →

Surfing, floating...or stalling?

On the last day of a recent trip to Honolulu, cool, onshore winds stoked dark clouds and a morning-long torrential rainstorm. Before the rain started, I went for a run and watched several teenage boys boogie-boarding on Waikiki beach. (I expected to see surfers but later learned that the rough ocean and crazy current are terrible conditions for all but kite surfing.) When you watch surfers, you get into the rhythm of the ocean and start to feel the boogie-borders’ connection to the sea. They’re expectant but meditative waiting for what might be the perfect wave. From your vantage on... Read more →

10 Sponsorship Resolutions for the New Fiscal Year

As you’re plotting out how the rest of 2019 or fiscal year 2020 will be a fantastic year, don’t forget to take a look at your sponsorship-selling habits.  Here are ten to get you started. Read more →

Spark Sponsorship Joy: Tidying Up Your Sponsorship Program

Time for some sponsorship spring cleaning. Follow Marie Kondo's process, which I adapted, to spark joy in your sponsorship program. Read more →

A Sponsorship Relationship Mantra

If you can adopt this intention for your sponsorship relationship building, you’ll attract great partners and have some fun, too. Read more →

The Bad Deal

You have three choices when you’re presented with a bad deal. Read more →

What you can control

When you’re selling sponsorship — or anything for that matter — there is much you cannot control. But there is plenty you can.  Why not take control of these things to tip the odds ever in your favor. Read more →

Don't become a sponsorship commodity

The single biggest mistake I see sponsorship sellers make is offering bland, generic sponsorship offerings that have no value. Every organization and event has something unique to offer each sponsor. I have never failed to recognize this truism in all the years I sold sponsorship and all the years I’ve advised thousands of sponsorship sellers. It is your job to draw out this uniqueness and highlight it in alignment with the sponsor’s measurable objectives. But too many people strip out of the offering the creativity, the spark, the uniqueness. That’s how they become a commodity. Read more →

Sponsorship fantasies

Last month Philadelphia Magazine published an article on the apparent demise of a beloved and significant bicycle race in Philadelphia that had been on international calendars. The story recounted in the magazine is problematic for several reasons, but here's the main one. Read more →