Solicitation of local businesses as team sponsors

I'm curious if anyone has ever had any luck in mailing invoices to businesses? I was considering a mass mailing of envelopes that contain a request letter that explains who, what, when etc.... as well as an invoice for a specific dollar amount.
I'm looking for opinions either way.... as well as ideas from others who may have had success in this meathod.
Thanks, James

We have had a lot of success with local businesses sponsoring our HS team, but we have never gone after corporate sponsors for TB. You might want to consider other methods of fundraising for TB.

I tried two years ago to do a mass mailing to businesses in my town, and surrounding area. Put a letter from the organization explaining the history of the orgainization, and some past accomplishments, etc. Also put a picture of my DD telling her history of playing softball, and a little bit about her. I sent probably 25-30 of those out. I heard from exactly NOBODY, and received no sponsorships that season.

This year, I went out and personally spoke with businesses. I only went to maybe 7 or so, and received 4 sponsors out of those.

A good chunk of our fundraising on dd's travel ball team comes from sponsorship money. We've been doing this for 4 years. We tried a mass-mailing once to local business and corporate sponsors but found that unsuccessful. What has worked for us is having the girls in their uniform go door to door asking to speak with the owner or manager and asking for financial support. Parents with contacts also work, ie. if a family regularly frequents a fast-food joint and say, the owners / managers have come to knnow them, we've found that they'd be more inclined to support the team. At the end of the season, the girls sign a thank you card and sends a signed framed team photo to the sponsor as a token of appreciation. The sponsors like this and hang the frames in their store - which is good for us because we've gotten some other sponsorships that way as well. Good luck!

Our 8U travel team got a bunch of local sponsorships from businesses. Much more luck with locally owned, smallish businesses than bigger corporations.

Dentists/orthodontists are always good for sponsorships.

PA SB Dad said:

Dentists/orthodontists are always good for sponsorships.

Click to expand...

Yes on that.

Getting Sponsors

Ok so there is a bit of science to getting sponsors. Here are some general guidelines

First have your guns and ammo ready to go. Let business know whats its going to cost. My approach is to have quotes in my hand. I will generate a quote for socks, helmets, bags, shirts, and pants. I will basically try to cover the necessities for the girls. Now I can go business to business and try to a lead or someone to sponsor, but why. I will let my parents do some of the work. With all of these items on separate quotes, I will usually get parents to take it to their place of employment and see if their jobs will sponsor sock, pants or whatever else I need. Then if for some reason I do not get all the sponsors I need, then we of course divide the cost among the team.

Now another area to tap into are local Indian casinos. Those guys have money. Just ask or go on their website. Chamber of Commerce are big too. Because those businesses are working with the community, they tend to be a bit more friendlier towards charities. I have picked up a $100 dollars by just asking the Latina Womens Chambers, and got money from them.


Hope this helps some........

A mass mailing is usually, but not always, unsuccessful. If you get 1 out of 100 responses with a check, usually in a very small amount, you will actually be doing well. I have found one heck of a lot more success doing it face to face. A letter or email is anonymous so it's very easy to file it in the round file or hit the delete button. However, when you are standing in front of them, people find it much more difficult to say no when they have to look you in the eye to do so. I would highly recommend that you do it face to face. Our local rec league has their 12U teams go door to door on a Saturday and solicit donations. Each team is responsible for one local neighborhood and in approximately 2 hours amongst 8 teams, they raise a little over $3500 dollars annually. Last year, they raised $4200.

What you can offer the business in this area will often affect how many sponsors you will get. If you are 501C7 you can solicit the larger corporations pretty easily - Wal-Mart, Dick's, Hilton, etc all have programs to support sports and other non-profit organizations. If you generate a sponsor banner to put business logos on or offer some other form of advertisement for their sponsorship you will attract more than you might think. This past season, we raised roughly $15,000 in sponsorship by offering varying levels of sponsorship - $500, $300, $200, $100 to local businesses - each came with a different size logo on the team banner, thank you card and team picture, those that gave more got miniature banners and some other things. Overall we raised $15,000 and it cost $300 for the banners, cards, etc. We also offered sponsorship for in-kind donations - accounting firm handled our filings, attorney's office drew up non-profit paperwork and legal releases, construction company reworked the infield on our practice field, sports supply company donated screens, bases, and temporary fence, lawn care company cut the grass on the practice field, various local business donated items for necessary gift bags, banner company gave a reduced rate on banners, t-shirts, local photographer did the team pictures - all for getting their logo on a banner.

You need a letter explaining the who, what, when, why, where (areas you focus playing) and your ultimate goal for the year "nationals", "world series", etc. You need a form detailing the level of monetary sponsorship available and what each sponsor gets for that level, tax id number if you have it, and where to mail the check / logo as well as the date that everything has to be in for them to be included on the banner. Use a different form for any in-kind donations for sponsorship and have any company that submits in-kind services or goods provide you with a letter stating the value of what they are providing. DO NOT mail these, unless you have made previous contact and just did not happen to have a sponsorship form available. Face to face is always better and put the parents to work - I make DD go with me and will often make her ask (I.E. the formal dress shop I spent $2,500 in last year for her), even the gruff old man business owner has more trouble turning down a kid than they will an adult.

Also, especially with restaurants, make sure when you have team parties that you try to patronize their establishments. We had one restaurant sponsor for $1,000 last season and offered a $5 player/kid menu/coach menu for any event there, let us have the room for meetings and we gave them the team banner after the season - they put it up in that room and put a sign over the door that says "------ softball clubhouse". The owner of that business has already called me this year to make sure he doesn't get knocked off the top spot for sponsorship. My family and I eat there often and every single time we are in there, I see two or three other players and their families. Even other restaurants we bought pizzas for pool parties etc.... If players/parents use the sponsors, they need to make certain to let the owner know. Naturally, the smaller the town or community the better something like this works...

Make certain you do what you say you are going to do for the sponsors is the biggest thing and do it in a timely manner so they do not forget...