Non-Profits - Why you should accept some Sponsorships

What? Do not accept a sponsorship? Are you kidding? No. There are times when accepting a sponsorship can cost more than your non-profit organization will receive in U.S. dollars.

Take this scenario. A non-profit educational organization accepted a special offer from a major industry supplier. The provider has obtained direct access mail membership of the organization of teaching. This privilege was not granted to other vendors supporting member. The suppliers were not slighted happy to say the least, especially as the preferred supplier, though large, was not a recognized source for a number of key products. Threats to pull support from suppliers slighted flying and there were questions about the leadership skills of the non-profit. Fortunately, over the years the incident faded in the memory. But for a while ', the non-profit organization was forced to defend their actions and motivations. What a waste of resources!

There are several lessons to be learned from this incident. These questions can help assess whether to accept an offer of sponsorship is right for your nonprofit.

Acceptance does not send the right signals to members or stakeholders? The training organization seems to be favorable to the great provider. This could have caused revenue to be diverted away from other support providers. The signal was that the educational organization was only interested in dollars, not units.

What is the Sponsor Waiting to gain from their participation? The acceptance has given some unfair advantage over other market for a supporter. Their goal was definitely to get access to all members and, possibly, to build their reputation or to change their image. They know what they want in advance.

And 'the sponsor? The large supplier, although influential in other markets, has provided some key products for industry and educational organization served. It 'was relevant, but only to a degree.

Sponsors are the values ​​Aligned with the Non-Profit? Both the educational organization and the supplier was largely in the service industry at heart. So no problem there. But in other scenarios, this problem is one of the most important. For example, as green and fair trade movements continue to gain momentum, non-profit organizations are having to look more closely at environmental policy papers and working reports of their sponsors.

What additional problems might be caused? If suppliers had slighted pulled their donations, consequently, this could be financially detrimental to the educational organization.

Alignment of values ​​and expectations of each level is important for any organization. But since there are values-based nonprofit, is even more critical .......