Let’s look at a simple example to see how it might work.

Let’s say your organisation has supporters who own high-rise accommodation buildings and you know that a paint company would be a great fit as a potential partner. (These buildings need to be kept in tip-top condition and the building managers are always on the lookout for the most reliable and cost-effective tradespeople.)

In order to work out the value of this partnership the organisation would need to gather the following information:

• Approximate and average cost of getting one high-rise building painted (not all high-rises are the same height and dimensions)
• How many members you have
• How often a high-rise building might need to be repainted.

Once this information has been gathered, crunching the numbers might look something like this:

You might be thinking  – WHAT????

Now, if this partner was able to get 100% of your members to use their paint services and products, they could conceivably expect to make $10 million each year as a result of their partnership with you.

However, as we all know, 100% market share is rarely attainable and a good figure to work on over the first 1-3 years of a partnership is 5-10% market share increase on what they currently have now. (Please note, these anecdotal figures are based on an exclusive partnership arrangement – ie, that only one paint company will be allowed to partner with your organisation and that you are using best practice sponsorship principles to help the paint company build warm and strong relationships).

So, if a paint partner was considering an exclusive partnership with your organisation, then you would know that it might be possible to deliver them 5-10% market share increase (on top of what they might already have) and this amount would be approximately $500,000- $1 million per year in additional revenue.  Knowing that you have the potential to deliver $1 million a year, would you still value your proposal at between $5,000 – $8,000 per annum as many organisations do, or worse offer them a bronze, silver, gold opportunity worth much less?

This formula can have very powerful ramifications if you work through it during sponsorship meetings and ‘crunch the numbers’ together with your potential partners.

Just remember that this is not the amount that you base their investment on.  Instead, you are using this formula (for your own benefit as well as theirs) to demonstrate the potential VALUE of being involved with your organisation.

Of course these figures can be very fluid, and things like a global financial crisis can change the economic climate in a heartbeat, and we haven’t spoken about profit margins (I expect that will come up in your meeting as you go through the formula) but at least from there, you have some figures to be able to negotiate what the value of accessing your membership might be to their company and from there what their investment in your organisation might be.

Sponsorship can be a very cost-effective way for companies to promote their products and services to a group of people they are not yet doing business with but remember, for some companies, your membership may only represent a portion of their target market, so make sure you do your research and value the partnership accordingly and importantly, have these transparent conversations with your potential sponsors!