Center for Association Resources

The Center for Association Resources supports mission-oriented organizations, assisting them in increasing relevance and accomplishing goals.

Marketing for sponsors and exhibitors

Another in a series of articles related to association management selected from our reading list by:
Robert O. Patterson, JD
CEO/ Principal
The Center for Association Resources, Inc.

For a non-profit organization that doesn’t get too much money via donations, sponsors and exhibitors can be your most important key to success. With the huge advance in technology in the past couple years, the tools and strategies of marketing have changed drastically. For example, if you would have brought up the idea of advertising on Facebook ten years ago, people would have thought you were crazy. Now Facebook is a great way to advertise. One reason it is great is because hundreds of millions of people log in to Facebook every day. If you are reaching an advertising audience of that many people, chances are at least a couple hundred people would be interested in your non-profit organization. This leads to sponsors and/or donators. It is extremely simple and cheap to create an advertisement on Facebook. I know from experience that an advertisement on Facebook can be created in a little less than 5 minutes. It also does not cost too much money. You can even specify who your audience is based on hobbies, age, location, political views, etc. The possibilities are endless.

After talking about the new ways to market, I am going to talk a little bit about the old-fashioned type of ways to do it. As always, the best way to reach people is to talk face to face. I have found from experience with my non-profit organization that going to political events is a great way to meet people face-to-face, but you have to make sure you show up with a political party that matches your views. For example, if you are a pro-life (anti-abortion) group, you should NOT show up at a Democratic event. You SHOULD show up to conferences like CPAC, or to your local congressman’s town halls, fundraiser, etc. (if he is a Republican), but obviously, the same thing works for a pro-choice group except with a Democratic party. Going to these events allow you to meet people who share your point of view, and some of your best sponsors can come from these type of events. Plus, it is always a good thing to get to know you Congressman for many reasons (no matter what political party).

In the end, it is up to you. Some of the best methods of marketing for sponsors come from the least used or new methods that you can come up with. So think, if you were a possible sponsor, what would attract you to a non-profit organization?