A sponsorship prospectus is the short document that tells a business who you reach, what they can buy, what they get for it and how to say yes. The good ones are four to eight pages, built around real numbers you can back up, with a clear menu of levels and a deadline on every deliverable. The weak ones are a logo wall and a price list.
The template is further down. First, what separates a prospectus that sells from one that sits in an inbox.
What a sponsor is actually deciding
Sponsors aren’t buying your event. They’re buying access to the people in the room and the people on your list. Every page of your prospectus should help them answer three questions:
- Who will see us? Job titles, industries, company sizes, geography.
- What exactly do we get? Not “recognition.” Specific placements, on specific dates.
- How easy is this going to be? Clear deadlines, one contact person, one way to pay.
I’ve run events for more than 25 years, and I run a chapter’s sponsorships today alongside a volunteer board. The sponsors who renew every year are almost never the ones who got the biggest logo. They’re the ones who knew what they were getting, got it on time, and heard back from us afterward.
Start with numbers you can prove
The audience page is the most important page in the prospectus, and it’s where most organizations get vague. “Hundreds of professionals” doesn’t help a sponsor justify the spend to their boss. Real numbers do.
Pull these before you write anything else:
- Membership count, and how it breaks down by job title or industry if you track that
- Event attendance from the last one or two years, not your best year ever
- Email list size, plus your typical open rate if you have it
- Website visits per month, from Google Analytics or whatever you use
- Social followers on the one or two platforms that actually matter for your audience
Only use numbers you’d be comfortable showing a sponsor the source for. If one is soft, leave it out. One inflated number makes a sponsor question every other one.
If pulling these numbers means opening five spreadsheets and asking three volunteers, that’s worth fixing for next year. Sponsors will ask for the same numbers again when it’s time to renew.
Lay out the menu of levels
Most organizations need two kinds of sponsorship in the same prospectus:
Event sponsorships are tied to one date: the annual conference, the golf outing, the holiday party. They’re easy to understand and easy to sell.
Year-round sponsorships cover everything you do for twelve months: every event, every newsletter, the website. They’re worth more to you because the money comes in once and the relationship lasts all year. They’re also worth more to the sponsor, because they stay in front of your members instead of showing up once.
Put the year-round options first. Then list event-specific levels underneath for sponsors who only want one date. For a golf outing, our golf tournament sponsorship levels has a full menu you can adapt, and sponsorship package ideas covers options beyond the usual logo placements.
A few rules for the menu:
- Three to five levels per category. More than that and sponsors stall.
- Each level gets clearly more than the one below it. If two levels look alike, merge them.
- Name the specific items. “Lunch sponsor” sells better than “Silver.”
- Show what’s already sold. A “sold” stamp on last year’s title sponsor tells everyone else the menu is real.
Spell out deliverables and deadlines
This is the section that saves your committee the most stress. For every level, list what the sponsor gets and what you need from them, with dates.
What they get:
- Where their logo appears (website, emails, signage, slides, name badges) and starting when
- Number of registrations or a foursome, if included
- Speaking time, a table, a booth or a mention from the stage
- Social posts, with how many and when
- A recap afterward with photos and attendance numbers
What you need from them, and by when:
- Signed commitment and payment
- Logo files: a vector file (AI, EPS, SVG or PDF) plus a PNG
- Company name exactly as it should appear
- Attendee names and emails for any included registrations
- Any giveaway items, and who’s bringing them
Give every one of those a hard date, and put the signage deadline at least two weeks before the event. The deadline is what lets you print once instead of three times.
Make the design match the event
Your prospectus is often the first piece of an event a sponsor sees. It should look like it belongs with everything else: same name, same colors, same typeface, same hero graphic as the save-the-date and the registration page.
This matters more than people think. A prospectus that looks like the event tells a sponsor you’re organized. And when their logo later shows up on a sign that matches the prospectus they signed off on, they feel like they got exactly what was promised. Our event marketing plan template walks through picking that look before anything goes out.
Your sponsorship prospectus template
Copy this structure into your design tool and fill it in.
Page 1: Cover
- Organization name and logo
- Year or event name, written exactly as it appears everywhere else
- One line on why it’s worth sponsoring
Page 2: Who we are
- Two or three sentences on your mission and members
- What you do in a typical year (events, education, newsletters)
Page 3: Who you’ll reach
- Membership count and breakdown
- Event attendance, last one or two years
- Email list size and open rate
- Website visits per month
- Social followers on your main platforms
Page 4: Year-round sponsorships
- Three to five levels, each with price and a short list of what’s included
Page 5: Event sponsorships
- Each event with its date, expected attendance and three to five levels
Page 6: What we need from you, and when
- Commitment and payment deadline
- Logo and company name deadline
- Attendee names deadline
- Signage deadline
Page 7: How to say yes
- One contact person, with email
- A link to a commitment form or online checkout
- Payment options: card, check, invoice
Back cover
- Thank-you to last year’s sponsors, if they’re comfortable being named
- Your website and contact email
Make saying yes easy
The last page is where a lot of prospectuses fall apart. A sponsor who’s ready to commit shouldn’t have to email back and forth to find out how.
The easiest version is a single online form that collects the level, the company name, the logo files and payment in one step. If that’s not possible, a one-page commitment form they can sign and email back is the next best thing.
Then send the prospectus with a short personal note, not a mass email. Our article on how to find sponsors covers who to send it to, and the sponsorship letter gives you wording for that first note.
After the event, send every sponsor a recap with photos and the final numbers. That one email does more for next year than anything in the prospectus. We cover the rest of that in sponsor retention strategies for associations.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a sponsorship prospectus be?
Four to eight pages for most associations and chambers. Long enough to show who you reach and what each level includes, short enough to read in five minutes. If it’s longer, the details probably belong on a follow-up page.
Should I put prices in the prospectus?
Yes. Sponsors want to know what things cost before they call you, and listed prices make the decision faster. If you’re open to custom packages, say so on the last page.
When should the prospectus go out?
Send it at least four to six months before your biggest event, and before most companies set their budgets for the year if you’re selling year-round sponsorships. Late prospectuses compete with every other organization asking for the same marketing dollars.
Building a sponsorship program for your association or chamber? We put together prospectuses, sponsor forms and recaps that all match the event, and we track what every sponsor owes and gets. Request an introduction.