Nonprofit Nation with Julia Campbell

How to Attract Sponsorships for Your Nonprofit with Mariah Monique

• Julia Campbell • Episode 98

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This episode is sponsored by Qgiv, a comprehensive fundraising platform trusted by over 20,000 fundraisers. The Qgiv team understands that fundraising isn’t always an easy job. To help, they recently surveyed fundraising professionals and donors to create a soon to be released report, Building a Sustainable Future: A Guide to Healthy Fundraising. This report explores how the economy, staffing issues, declining donor numbers, and more have impacted nonprofit teams. To learn how you can build more sustainable fundraising revenue and advocate for data-backed change, click here  to be notified when the report is released and receive your copy!

Do you struggle with figuring out what is attractive to potential sponsors and how to position your organization for sponsorships?

My guest this week is Mariah Monique, the Founder of The Sponsorship Catalyst, LLC. Mariah has evaluated hundreds of sponsorship proposals and decks, contributed to the decision-making process for fund allocation, negotiated requests, and built a brand reputation and awareness through sponsorships and relationship management.

In this episode, we discuss: 

  • The importance of clarity when pitching to event sponsors
  • How nonprofits can leverage their network to find their next sponsor
  • What sponsors want and why they need you

Connect with Mariah:

About Julia Campbell, the host of the Nonprofit Nation podcast:

Named as a top thought leader by Forbes and BizTech Magazine, Julia Campbell (she/hers) is an author, coach, and speaker on a mission to make the digital world a better place.

She wrote her book, Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits, as a roadmap for social change agents who want to build movements using engaging digital storytelling techniques. Her second book, How to Build and Mobilize a Social Media Community for Your Nonprofit, was published in 2020 as a call-to-arms for mission-driven organizations to use the power of social media to build movements.  

Take my free masterclass: 3 Must-Have Elements of Social Media Content that Converts

This episode is sponsored by Qgiv, a comprehensive fundraising platform trusted by over 20,000 fundraisers. Through online giving and event registration forms, text fundraising, PeerToPeer campaigns and auction events, qgiv's tools help fundraisers like you raise more. The Qgiv team understands that fundraising isn't always an easy job to help. They recently surveyed fundraising professionals donors to create a soon to be released report, building a Sustainable Future a Guide to Healthy Fundraising. This report explores how the economy, staffing issues, declining donor numbers, and more have impacted nonprofit teams. To learn how you can build more sustainable fundraising revenue and advocate for data backed change, head to jcsocialmarketing.com qive that's jcsocialmarketing.com Qgiv to be notified when the report is released and to receive your free copy. Thank you and let's get to the episode. Hello and welcome to Nonprofit Nation. I'm your host Julia Campbell, and I'm going to sit down with nonprofit, industry experts, fundraisers, marketers, and everyone in between to get real and discuss what it takes to build that movement that you've been dreaming of. I created the Nonprofit Nation podcast to share practical wisdom and strategies to help you confidently find your voice, definitively grow your audience, and effectively build your movement. If you're a nonprofit newbie or an experienced professional who's looking to get more visibility, reach more people, and create even more impact, then you're in the right place. Let's get started. Hello, my nonprofit unicorn. So excited to have you back for another episode of Nonprofit Nation. This is your host, Julia Campbell, and today we're going to talk all things sponsorships. So this is for you if you struggle with figuring out what's attractive to potential sponsors and how to position your organization for sponsorships. Now I have a special guest. It's mariah monique. And Mariah is the founder of the Sponsorship Catalyst, which teaches nonprofit leaders how to position, package, and pitch their events to corporate sponsors so they can eliminate self funding events. We all want to do that and increase their impact and reach. She's over ten years experience building strategic partnerships at the federal, county, and local government levels, as well as with nonprofit organizations. Now, as a so called, quote, unquote, I love this sponsorship gatekeeper. She understands what is attractive to sponsors and how to position organizations to secure funding through the power of words and strategy. She's elevated hundreds of sponsorship proposals and decks, contributed to the decision making process for fund allocation, negotiated brand benefits, and built brand reputation and awareness through sponsorships and partnership strategy. And Mariah's motto is closing the knowledge gap so you can increase your impact. So, welcome to the podcast, Mariah. Thanks for having me, Julia. Super excited to share today. Thank you. Yeah, me too. So where did you start your nonprofit journey? So I would love to say that I started my nonprofit journey as one that would receive right from growing up. I think that's why my heart is so pulled for the nonprofit community. But on a professional level, it really started from the beginning. After graduating college, I started working with the federal government and doing a lot of programmatic work. I am a public health professional by trade or by education. And as I went through my journey, or have been going through my journey, I've worked with nonprofit organizations, building those strategic partnerships. And now currently, as an actual funder, I have really honed in on taking what I know as a funder for nonprofit organization, large nonprofit organization, and really just helping other people understand how to navigate the sponsorship space. And so I feel like I've always had my tentacles, if you will, touching nonprofits. And I believe that because of my upbringing and being blessed by nonprofit organizations and the value that they've given me, I also see it as really kind of a way of giving back to nonprofits, especially those that are serving marginalized communities, or those that are already underrepresented or already under resourced. It's really just helping them understand how to navigate this space as a stream of income for them, where they might not have realized that sponsorships should have been a part of their fundraising plan. So my nonprofit journey is here, it's continuing, and I really don't see it differently. Tell me about the sponsorship catalyst and the kind of work that you do. Yeah, so as you said in the intro, I teach nonprofit organizations how to understand, how to really position themselves to secure event sponsors, whether they be corporate or non corporate. And really, it started in 2020. As the shifts happened, you had pandemic, you had racial climate, you had political climate all in uproar. And so, as a funder, I was tasked to go out and find particular type of organizations. So were my colleagues at different organizations that I know. And as I started to do that, I started to realize that people did not know one sponsorships existed, or they did not know how to navigate the conversations. And I found myself honestly coaching people and spending a lot of time on the front end telling them like, hey, we have the money, just do this or write this, or kind of put this together. And so it really just highlighted for me a need of why it's so important of what I do, just because there were so many people that I ran into that were not ready for the money that organizations were given. And in the event that something like this happens again, I just want organizations to be prepared, because it's not just about the leader of that organization, but you're serving a whole community. And so to make sure that community does not fall flat just because of lack of knowledge is really one of my driving forces. And so I started the sponsorship catalyst to really, like you said earlier, close the knowledge gap so nonprofits would be ready, but also so they really could focus on building sustainable and long term relationships with sponsors that would continually support their causes in their mission and help them move forward. So why sponsorships? What is so important for nonprofits to understand about the power and potential of sponsorships? That's an excellent question. So I think that having a fundraising plan is just important in general. But when you think about sponsorships, a few reasons. One, it's typically unrestricted funds, really to support your initiatives, your events. And so it's a little different from grants where you have particular things you have to spend that money on. And so sponsorships are not like that. Another thing that I want to share about that is because you also are essentially building long term partnerships and so it kind of goes beyond the money. So you're leveraging these larger organizations being a part of your brand, participating in your brand or in your nonprofit organizations, and really giving you essentially like a large reputation right within the community that you serve. And so I think sponsorships really does allow one to not only leverage the brands, but also build some long term relationships that as they have these new ideas to innovate and do other things, they would have already established. Good relationships with potential funders that can actually fund that work and ultimately lead into them being able to increase their impact and have a greater reach within the community serving people. And so I think sponsorships has a unique place that is very different than grants, or very different from maybe even like capital campaigns and things of that nature. It really does allow you to partner with organizations and really build those relationships that could basically support your organization and really bring that longevity that I think most nonprofit leaders really truly want for their organization. I love what you said about discretionary funds because it's so true. If we're relying on grants, especially government grants, there are so many hoops we need to jump through and so many boxes we need to tick, and so many specific things we need to deliver on and reports and things like that. So I appreciate that discretionary income. I guess my question would be my next question. Are you talking more about, I mean, should we have a mix of sponsorships? Is there like event sponsorships and then would there be maybe a year long sponsorship? So what kind of sponsorships should we be focusing on? I think it really varies. It varies based on the organization that you're pitching to. The reason being is because some organizations, most organizations support only events. So when you're going after sponsorships, they're looking for events they're not looking to support necessarily programs which would fall more under a grant, right? More programmatic work, capacity building work. However, there are some organizations that do focus on supporting programs and initiatives. When I think about sponsorships, some organizations, they're okay with you sending a year long sponsorship request. It really just depends on what your organization that you're pitching to, how they run their programs. And I think it's so important to as business owners, we do discovery calls or we do alignment calls. I think as nonprofit leaders, you have to have that same mentality. One, because you're a business, you just have a different tax status. But two, having that same understanding that, like, hey, I need to go to the sponsor, understand how their sponsorship program works, what is allowable, what is not. Allowable and just asking those questions so you can gain insight that will essentially allow you or help you or support you in really building out something that would benefit or get a yes from that particular sponsor. So if I put my funders hat on, I've seen people submit requests that offer year long events. And while I'm not necessarily a fan of that, because I feel that if you got several events, if you strategically pitch them to me one by one, you actually might have more money versus sending a year long request. And you asking for $15,000 or $20,000, but you're giving me access to ten events with an audience of, I don't know, maybe 3500 per event. That's huge. And so if you're going to get just 15,000 for that, I honestly would prefer that a nonprofit actually sends them individually. However, I do think that as a funder, we are taking that into account, but we also are evaluating based on what you submit to us. So we're not going to say like, oh, actually separate this so that we can support ten K for all five events. So you get 50,000 as an organization versus like, kind of asking for 15K for all these events. So I think it's really understanding what the sponsors program like, how they run that, understand what they will accept, what they won't accept, and then really thinking about what is your goal, what is your sponsorship goal, what's your budget needs. Even thinking about people should be thinking about 2024. How do you want to expand, are there new programs that you want to innovate, that you want to start? Because I think that also will help you understand when you're pitching to a sponsor, that when you're pitching to them, that you know, you need to ask for a little bit more just because of what's coming in the horizon. So it's really going to be based off of what that organization, how they. Run their sponsorship program, playing the long game, you have to so what do we need to start? Obviously, we probably need a website. What are some other infrastructure needs? So I always encourage people to create sponsorship materials. That's what I work with a lot of my clients with creating sponsorship decks specifically for their events that they want to pitch. But even before you get to that point, because I do have a lot of organizations that are smaller and they're hosting events and they want to get them sponsored, but they don't have a true consistent audience or they're not collecting data, which is huge. I find that that's actually one of the many mistakes organizations make is they omit the data, they feel like they're too small or they feel like they're not doing enough. And so I spend a lot of time working on mindset and helping people understand the value that they add to their organization or to the community and helping them frame that data to where it is still impactful whether it's small or not. And so really thinking about where you are in terms of your stages, right? And so if you're like a smaller organization really brand new, you just really need to work on building that consistent audience but also work on just networking and building relationships with not only sponsors, but just strategic partners that you can leverage and partner with in the future. Because I think that it makes it a lot more stronger in the long run when you do get to the point where you can start seeking out sponsors. Now, I never tell people that you can't even if you're small, because I've supported organizations that didn't have any events. They just kind of sold it with passion. We believe them and they execute it very well. And so sometimes organizations will take a shot on you. So I don't want to communicate that you can never get a sponsorship, but I think you just have a little bit more positioning when you build an audience. And not to say this audience needs to be 500 people or 5000 people. We're not thinking about it from the instagram terms. We're really thinking about like, do you have a consistent number of programmatic partners? Another thing is that oftentimes people don't have programs. And so you start these nonprofits because you have a heart, you see a needs and community and I completely commend that. But it's like you have to solidify beyond getting your 501, beyond getting somewhat of a website up. You have to really solidify what's your programming, really understanding that and then having these events that can support that programming. Because otherwise the sponsor, yeah, you might be able to pull enough people out but if you don't probably have programming, you're probably not pulling that many people out to an event where they can gain that brand exposure that they're looking for. So for those smaller orgs, just really working on building those relationships, get your organization, whether it's your board member or maybe you have one staff, start building a culture now of being intentional with networking, being intentional with following up. Oh my gosh, so many people don't follow up. And it's a huge mistake that most people make, especially if you have a connection with the sponsor because one, it's challenging to get those connections. So when you have them really honor them, really steward them, really work to cultivate those relationships because it's not the easiest task. And then for those organizations that are maybe mid sized, maybe even larger, and they've done this before, it's really going to be really understanding, one, putting the right materials together, and two, really getting to the point where whoever your fund development person is, that they understand that they have to go beyond their relationships. Sometimes these things are secured because of relationships, which I think is awesome, but if that person leaves and then you don't have any other relationships to that organization and it was only riding off of that one person, now you've got to basically start from zero. So I think it's important to ensure that other people within the organization know how to go about getting sponsors, but then there's a standardized way of what that looks like. What do we do? We create the deck for the event. What do we do? We send it out maybe in batches. Maybe we got a list of ten potential sponsors and we do ten a day or whatever that looks like to make sure it's not like an overwhelming task. And then just what does it look like to once they say yes, what does our process look like for that? How are we acknowledging them? I mean, I think the stewardship matrix, if people are familiar with that, it's a great way to understand when you get a donor, whether they be a sponsor or individual donor, how are you acknowledging and honoring what they have given to your organization? And then you think about from the post event, what are you doing to ensure that there's some sponsor loyalty? I call it the sponsor loyalty cycle. And most people, they forget to follow up and say, hey, this is how the event went. These are the numbers. This is how we executed on the brand benefits that we agreed that we would give you. People don't follow up with that. No one gives a follow up report. No one gives a report at the end of the event. They don't give a report. And really, it's a critical time to not only report what happened and how you fulfill the benefits and how many people came out, but also it's a time for you to say, hey, would this be an event that you'd be interested in next year? You kind of get a soft or preliminary yes, or you can start having this conversation with a sponsor to even just understand, hey, how can we do better to even serve your sponsors? Because as a nonprofit organization, you're in the middle and you're serving the people that fund your organization and you're serving the people that you serve. And so you really have to have this balancing act, if you will, where you are making sure that both parties are getting what they need because one is funding the work that you're doing for one, but then the other is being transformed just by them being a part of what you're doing. And so I know that was a mouthful. Hopefully I've answered the question. But yeah, definitely different stages require different things. That's such a great point. So if nonprofit is thinking about creating a pitch deck, a sponsorship deck, or maybe they're looking at revamping their deck, what are the critical elements that they need to include? Awesome. So a sponsorship deck, for anyone who does not know, it's really like a PowerPoint presentation. It can be in the format horizontal or vertical. I've seen them both. They're typically between five to 15 pages. However, Sweet Spot is about seven to ten pages. So don't go to 15. I'll tell you that we're not going to read it. I was going to ask you how long do they need to be? Okay. Yeah. Usually the most that I typically see usually are no more than eleven pages. But Standard is five to 15. And sometimes they're longer because maybe it's like a festival and festivals, you kind of are selling everything. And so those are typically a little bit longer than like a fundraising gallo or a community health fair or community fair or a luncheon. Those are a little bit shorter. So in terms of elements, you always want to make sure that the front end of your sponsorship deck has event logistics. You want to be able to say, what's the title? When is the event going to happen? Where is it happening? What time is it happening? Very clear, concise information just about your event. Then you want to go into helping the reader understand who are you, who is your leadership? Then you want to kind of talk about more about your specific event that you will be pitching to a sponsor. And the reason you want to have kind of this order is because sometimes you're not able to pitch to a sponsor. Sometimes they say, we've got a website, go to our website and fill out information and attach you or send an email. And so sometimes you're not able to get on a phone call with these people. And so you want to make sure what's in your deck is very clear, concise. This is not a grant. Grants are very wordy. And so you want to be very clear. You want to be very concerned. Not 10,000 words. Yes. And you want to talk about your event, what is the event, what are you going to have at the event? And then the part where a lot of people miss is talking about the audience data. If this is a recurring event, I would hope that you collected some data, whether it be how many people showed up, whether it be maybe even how many sponsors you had before. Maybe you've collected data on the percentage of maybe conversions for sponsors. Like, for instance, you might know just because you are sending those follow ups and you are having those conversations with your sponsors after your event, you might know that most of like 10% of your sponsors got an increase by 50% in customer sales, whatever that number looks like for them. I think you should be collecting that data as well to understand how you can pitch and really show the value and the potential return on investment for a sponsor that is new to your ecosystem, but also to a sponsor that is returning so they can see that there is value. Especially if they didn't maybe have that experience the first time around. And so you want to have data on that. You want to definitely have your audience data. What's the age range, what's the demographics, what's the entrance? Sometimes people just talk about the demographics, but we don't talk about the psychographics. And psychographics are really focusing in on what's your audience interest, what's their personality, what do they value. And it's just data that really stands out because not a lot of people talk about it. We just talk about demographics. And so when you think about those things, those things require you to go beyond the surface level. Demographics can be very surface level. You can kind of easily get that information. But to understand the psychographics of your audience, you got to really ask questions. You have to really understand their behaviors. When you think about it. Like, for instance, let's say you have an organization and you support college students, and your college students are all graduating seniors that are about to enter into the workforce. So now you can have some demographics to say, well, my college students are actually very specific. They're in technology. So it makes sense for a technology organization to get in front of that audience because they're young, they got fresh eyes, they're in technology. What else would it make sense to have at that event? Maybe some people are looking into home ownership or maybe even creating other streams of income. Maybe they need a new bank, right, as they transition from college to working professionals. And so really thinking outside of the box with sponsors that can actually support your audience, pretty much bringing an experience for both the sponsors and the audience. So the data can be many different types of data. So you're going to want to have that in your debt. You also are going to want to share information about what are the benefits of a sponsor supporting you, what is their potential return. And this can look like maybe it's going to generate new sales or maybe they're going to be able to test out a new product or service and get some real insights from the audience. And so you want to be able to share some of those different things. And really, they're really standard. There's not a whole lot of difference between the benefits and so you want to just be able to highlight some of those and you might tailor them based off of the specific sponsor. For instance, if you're able to talk to a sponsor and you know that they just have a new product that they want to get out and they want to do some product sampling. Well, one, I'm going to offer that as a brand benefit, that you can have your product sample in here maybe at an even higher level, right? And so understanding what their goals are can help you understand how you can offer the brand benefits. But also it helps you understand how you can position that sponsorship deck so that you can say, hey, this is a benefit to you because we've got your audience, you've got this new product, you can test it here and get that feedback. So it's really just how you position it. Then after you talk about benefits to a sponsor, you want to talk about what are the sponsorship opportunities? Now I love to pepper throughout a sponsorship deck pictures of you actually doing the work, right? Maybe it's a previous event and you have pictures from the past event. So add pictures, add testimonials. Because you're talking to three people when someone is looking at your deck, you're talking to your thinkers, they want to see the numbers. They're very subjective. They're making their decisions based off of data. You're talking to your fillers, they're moved by compelling stories. And so you're going to want to have some of those transformative testimonials, if you will, from your audience, just talking about how their interaction with you really transformed their lives to some degree. And then you have your defers. Your defers are not necessarily your thinkers or fillers, but they're really focused on brand reputation. If we tag along to this organization, is our brand reputation going to match up? Is it going to align? Is it going to still be protected? And so that's what they're looking at. And so you might get one person that is kind of all three of those. Like I myself am really all three of those. I fall more in the thinker side because I love numbers. But you give me all of it, you're going to pull me in one way or the other. And that helps that gatekeeper essentially advocate for you, for other decision makers that are part of that process. So a mouthful. Let me go back to what should be in the deck, the key elements. So of course you have your sponsorship opportunities, which would be your levels. I actually have a freebie that I just released a week or so ago. That is a brand benefits list called what to Offer Your Sponsors or What Sponsors Want? Yes, it is a list that really kind of highlights and categorizes different brand benefits based off of value. So for instance, a sponsor, we expect that logos are going to be on things. And so you have a logo on something that's more of a lower tiered valued brand benefit versus like I'm going to pay more money for a speaking opportunity. Why? Because I want to position my organization as an industry thought leader. And so this list kind of gives a spectrum, if you will, of what's higher value than others. Now, I do encourage people to mix them up. You don't have to just give the lowest tier people all the low benefits and all the high tier people all the high tier benefits, but you want to be able to have a mixture and what that looks like for you could be different from another organization. Because you have to do these based off of what your capacity is to execute on it. So you have your brand benefits in your sponsorship opportunities and then you just really kind of close out with you always want to have a contact page. People leave off the contact pages. And I don't know if it's because if I send it to you an email or if I fill out a form, then you already got my contact information. But there have been times that I've received a sponsorship deck or an axe through a listserv and if their contact information was not on there, I wouldn't have known who to reach out to. And so it's definitely important that the tail end of your deck has contact information. Websites, where can I find you your number, who is a contact person, maybe what are your social links so that I may see those things, especially if you're offering me a brand benefit that talks about social media. Like, I want to see what's on there and does my brand align with what you're putting out there on social media. So I know that was a lot, there's a lot of psychology, I think that goes behind creating a sponsorship deck. Then there's also just some technical things that are just very standard when you're creating that type of material. So hopefully you all got a lot from that. I'm sure people were frantically scribbling down notes. So you talked about incentives, and I love that you said that it needs to be personalized or customized depending on the sponsor. So how to best acknowledge sponsors. I mean, unfortunately, what I've seen, it's like nonprofits post a logo on their website and then they'll post a logo on social media and then that might be it. So do you have any other ways that we could maybe acknowledge our sponsor relationships and build and deepen these relationships? Yeah, so I think that's kind of a two fold question. So in terms of acknowledging them at actual events, that brand benefit list is going to answer that. But I will say other ways that I've seen where it's like maybe there's a logo on the newsletter and you have a really substantial newsletter or email list of subscribers. I've seen press releases. Right. That's a brand benefit to being a press release. I've seen people verbally recognized at an event. Now sometimes you may decide, I'm only going to verbally recognize the top two tiers. And not everybody that is okay, whatever you decide to do. I've also seen people acknowledge in ways that maybe there's opportunities for co branded social media lives to where you can kind of engage with this sponsor promoting your event, but also engaging with the sponsor. Because again, while you're doing that, you're also getting exposed to their audience as well. And so I've seen that happen a lot. Even co branded promo items where those things are being able to pretty much highlight both brands. Or it could just be, hey, you give them an opportunity to provide a promo item to your swag bag, which is a very easy way to build a swag bag without you having to put a lot of money into it. There are several different ways you can acknowledge a sponsor now when it comes to cultivating relationships and sustaining those relationships. I think about sponsorships just like it's. Not just a one off, one and done. It shouldn't be a one off. Sponsorships definitely should feel like a win win situation. I think that keeps both parties coming back. And I look at it like dating. So you go through these stages of dating where maybe you're courting or getting to know somebody, then you're dating, which you're trying to figure out, like, hey, is this going to work? You're learning a little bit more about each other. And then there's potentially an engagement. And they're like, I'm ready to jump in this boat with you. I want to be a part of your organization. I want to be a part of your events. And then you get to this point where there's an actual marriage. I think about marriage as like a partnership, which means that they are writing you in their budget. They know every year they're going to support you, right? Unless some things changes, like leadership and things of that. But for the most part, they are looking at you as a long term partner in this work. Commitment. Yes, you have that commitment. And so I really think that most people, most nonprofits, they skip the stages of building a relationship because they want to get straight to the engagement and the marriage. You cannot do that. We feel that as funders because oftentimes the behavior is they'll only come to us when they want to ask for money versus getting to know the person. I teach a model in my business where it's like relationship first, business second, and just understanding that you have to get your sponsorship gatekeeper. You got to know a little bit of personal things about them, right? Because that's your champion. They become your champion. When you build a relationship with them and it's authentic and it's genuine, it should never come off as like, I'm trying to do this, this small talk because I need to get the money. If you're doing that and you feel that in your spirit, then just take a step back. It's just not time yet, right, and really assess what that looks like for you. And so when I think about this stage of building relationship, never skip the stages, right. You really, truly want to get to know that sponsor and understand, again, understand how their program works. Now, sometimes you might get a sponsorship and maybe you've never met the sponsor, and I think that's okay. But once they're in your ecosystem, do the due diligence to make those calls, to check in with them and say, hey, thank you, and then getting to know that person, that gatekeeper. Because I tell you, in 2020, a lot of organizations, people who actually have relationships with them, if there were any other money that was available, they were coming to the people who had built relationships with them. So true. And so you can't skip those stages. I think it's going to be very critical. And so when I also think about cultivating those relationships and what happens afterwards so, again, doing a fulfillment report after their event is a way to build those relationships because you get to kind of ask for their feedback. You get to say, hey, can we hop on a 20 minutes call? I'd love to know your feedback. Asking a sponsor for advice about a particular thing you want to maybe do, just bringing them into the process, if you will, as a way to build relationships. Also think if you see any news about the organization on the news so let's say, for instance, the news put out an article that said, hey, this organization gave$20 million to homelessness. Jump on that and say, wow, hey, I just saw that such and such organization gave$20 million to homelessness. Like, wow, that's so amazing, or saying, how does your role play a part in that? Again, building relationship, it's no different than building a romantic relationship. Seeing people. Yes, you have to see people and. You have to they want to be seen. Absolutely. And so there are definitely different ways to build a relationship, maintain a relationship. And then the last thing I would say for that is making sure you're honoring your commitments. I have funded organizations, and they said they will do X, Y, and Z, and they did nothing and thousands of dollars down the drain that could have went to another organization. Which is why I say you have to be ready, right? Like, understand what stage that you're at. Not that you can never secure a sponsor at any stage, but understand the stage that you're at. And understand if you truly have the infrastructure to store the money and store the relationship. That's going to be really critical because if you don't, they won't come back. So while you love your community and you want to do more for your community, you potentially could tarnish a relationship that can help you continue to serve that community. So make sure you're stewarding those relationships well. Mariah, the knowledge download has been amazing. Wow. So where can people find more about you? Where can they get what to offer your sponsors? Checklist some of your other resources. Yeah, so if you go to www, dot the sponsorshipcatalyst.com, then there's a pop up where you can access the freebie. You also can see different services that I offer to clients. I'm also on LinkedIn at the sponsorship Catalyst as well as Instagram at the sponsorship Catalyst as well. And jumping over on the YouTube train. So that is also yes. Oh, I love it. I love watching YouTube videos. You have a YouTube channel? I do. I have a few shorts, but I need to actually record those videos. So I'm going to start doing some short clips of education. I used to do a lot of that on Instagram, but now just moving over to the YouTube platform to produce some short clips about educational sponsorship things. So, yeah, you can find me over there as well. Well, thank you so much. So it's a sponsorship Catalyst. Follow across all the platforms. I will put all of this information into the show notes and I think my key takeaways are strategy, intention, and looking at it as the long game, not just looking at it as transactional. Like, let's get this one off,$1,000 sponsorship, let's build this relationship and let's make this a win win for the sponsor and the nonprofit. Yes. I love that. Absolutely love it. Think it's fantastic. Oh my gosh. This is just such an important topic also because so many organizations, small and large, struggle with why can't we find sponsors? When we get a sponsor, what do we do with them? It's almost like having a baby. Like, what do we do with this? So this is really amazing, but thank you so much. Mariah and I will definitely put all the links into the podcast show notes, and I hope people connect with you on LinkedIn and download what to offer your sponsor freebie. So thanks so much for sharing your expertise with my audience. Thanks for having me, Julia. This was fun. I appreciate you. Well, hey there. I wanted to say thank you for tuning into my show and for listening all the way to the end. If you really enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app and you'll get new episodes downloaded as soon as they come out. I would love if you left me a rating or a review because this tells other people that my podcast is worth listening to and then me and my guests can reach even more earbuds and create even more impact. So that's pretty much it. I'll be back soon with a brand new episode, but until then, you can find me on Instagram at Julia Campbell 77. Keep changing the world, you nonprofit unicorn.