Your sponsorship letter is an important part of your event and the P.R. of your organization. A good letter will increase your raise and allow you to make a larger impact in your community.
Here are the 6 parts of your perfect ask letter.
1. Personalized Introduction
Your salutation should always include the name of the company you are reaching out to. If you know the name of the person who handles sponsorship requests then add that as well. There is no excuse for generic letters with todays technology. Show people that you care enough about them and their business to use their name.
2. Organization Introduction
Give a brief, two sentence explanation of your organization and who you serve. This should be no more than 4 lines long and needs to be impactful but short.
3. The Ask
Get to the point in what you want. You are asking them for money or in kind trade for your organization. If an event in a part of the sponsorship you need to include the event details.
4. The Impact
People like to know how their money is impacting the community so tell them. How many people are you helping? How many dogs will be saved? Put this in a bullet point list of 3-5.
5. How to Donate
Here you give the information on how people can donate to you. I would suggest having an online portal that people can use and see what sponsorships are still available if you have limited quantities of each. Work with your bank to see about credit card processing online.
6. Thank you and a Wet Signature
Sign off by saying thank you and then ensure that the signature is actually signed in pen. I know that they can take a while but it shows that you put in the extra effort and that you care.
The letter should be a page long and on letterhead. You can include the sponsorship packet with the letter but that is not a part of the letter. If your organization does not have letterhead, you can make one using the header and footer portions of any document creation software.
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