Curated collections
Where to start
The feedback I get most often is that this site has so many how-to resources that people don’t know where to begin. So these collections put the essentials in a sensible order for whatever you’re trying to do. They’re updated regularly — check back.
For sponsors
If you invest in sponsorship
Best of: for sponsors
Understand the basics of best practice and the trends driving results, then the specific skills for every critical step. Write your own roadmap from it.
Read moreBest of: for CMOs
The big-picture version — how sponsorship works, how to structure the portfolio and the team, where it fits, and how to measure it.
Read moreBest of: crisis management
For when something goes wrong: issues management, exits, downturns, and the difficult conversations.
Read moreFor rightsholders
If you seek sponsorship
These four run in order. Offer development first — you can’t price or sell something you haven’t defined.
1. Offer development
What you actually have to sell, where your value really lies, and the vision that gets a sponsor to yes.
Read more2. Sponsorship sales
Pricing, who to contact, the angles, the negotiation, and closing the deal.
Read more3. Servicing & renewals
After the sale: sponsor management, leverage support, measurement, renewals, and exits.
Read moreNon-profit sponsorship
Sponsorship is not philanthropy. Treating it as though it is costs non-profits an enormous amount of money.
Read more