Selling Sponsorships for Your Nonprofit Virtual Fundraiser

Part of planning a virtual event or charity gala is finding sponsorships and raising additional funds. Your virtual event creates a fantastic opportunity for other brands to promote themselves and their goods or services. In this article we’re going to answer two key questions.

1: How do you find a sponsor for your virtual event?

2: What do you actually sell to them in order to raise money?

So make yourself a cup of coffee and let our expert advice empower you when it comes to planning your next virtual gala or online charity event.

How Do You Find A Sponsor For Your Virtual Event?

To find a business or brand interested in event sponsorship, you first need to analyse your target audience. Ask yourself, who will be attending your online event?

Let’s say your charity is raising money to help protect and rescue street dogs. Your online audience will likely be animal lovers, and many of your viewers will have a pet themselves. In this case, a pet food brand or pet insurance company might be keen to promote themselves via your online event.

Reach out to businesses and pitch the opportunity for event sponsorship to them. Highlight who will be attending your event and why their brand would be a great fit.

How To Sell Event Sponsorship Opportunities?

Virtual event sponsorship is basically selling ad placement during your live fundraiser. You can sell a single placement or build an exciting sponsorship package. You can also welcome a number of sponsors or sell exclusivity to one sponsor for the entire event.

Virtual ad placement can include:

• Event registration - in an email confirmation to people purchasing a ticket to the live event.
• Within a carousel of images a sponsor’s logo can be shown.
• You can create an activity or live competition with a goodie bag from your sponsor. The competition might ask viewers to follow the sponsor on social media or visit a landing page and provide their contact information to enter.
• Highlighted on a sponsor tab with their logo and website link.
• In a CTA button to encourage viewers to visit a landing page or the sponsor’s website to learn more about them.
• As part of a welcome message, you can include the sponsor’s logo and website URL.
• Add the sponsor’s logo in the banner of your virtual gala or online event.

Top tip: Do not oversell ad placement and constantly highlight the sponsor throughout the virtual gala or live event as this can become distracting and start to disrupt your main topic or goal for the event.

Get Creative With Online Event Sponsorship

When building an event sponsorship package, get creative to make your deal more appealing to a prospective brand or business, and to increase the ROI for the sponsor(s). Here are a handful of exciting event sponsorship ideas;

• Consider a branded giveaway competition were your main sponsor can donate a goodie bag as a prize. Ask viewers to enter the competition and visit the sponsor’s website, with the winner to be announced at the end of the virtual event. This creates a sweet incentive for viewers to stay right to the end of the event!
• Ask your sponsor if they’d like to provide catering or snacks for the virtual event. This can be done via a food delivery app gift card that only event attendees will receive once they sign up and confirm their attendance. Allow sponsors to talk directly to the viewers and give them an exclusive discount code or limited time only offer.

PayBee & Event Sponsorship Capabilities

Take advantage of PayBee’s easy to use virtual event hosting platform for your next virtual gala or fundraising event. Our software allows sponsors to promote their goods or services in the following placements:

• Event lobby waiting area
• Inside the virtual event underneath the auction items
• Main presentation screen during a virtual event
• Chat mentions during a virtual event
• Virtual event invite emails 

With our expert help and virtual event assistance, make your online event an attractive opportunity for event sponsorship! Feel free to contact our team today to discuss your virtual event needs.