Ideas for sponsorship for university club

[11bluewolf]

Hi I hope this kind of post is allowed!



I'm on the committee for my universities Equestrian and Polo society and I really want to try to gain some new sponsorship for the club. We're a successful club and can offer different packages to companies including having their logo on team shirts/ social media pages etc...



I'm looking for some advice:

- if you own a company/ were to own a company what would you want in return for sponsoring a university club?

- would you sponsor a club if it was unrelated to your business?

- any other suggestions would be really helpful!



Thank you!

 

[turnbuckle]

VERY hard.

Most equine businesses have a huge choice of sponsorship opps - why should they choose you over a brilliant eventer or dressage rider or SJer.

For most non-equine businesses, the perception is horses = posh kids. You may get somewhere with a brand for whom that works. For most firms, it's an active turn-off.

Probably better off going the usual route and looking for indulgent and adoring parents or god-parents!

Just a thought - you might be able to neutralise the posh-kid stigma by doing some sort of inclusive thing - teaching disadvantaged kids, along those lines...

Sorry to sound negative, I fear I am being realistic.

 

[11bluewolf]

Thanks for your reply. You’re right it is very difficult which is partly why I’ve posed on here. That’s a good idea to look into inclusive activities! Thanks a lot

 

[turnbuckle]

Prepare for a world of pain with bureaucracy when it comes to anything inclusive!

Perhaps an easy way would be turn up en squad to help RDA?

Don't give up - also worth thinking if there is any in-kind sponsorship which would help...

Where in the country are you?

 

[Kaylum]

I would want to first see what online presence the club has. Thats where my sponsorship is going to be seen the most.

 

[xxKatxx]

My university club was sponsored by a local cafe for a while- we held stable management theory lessons there in the evenings and got a discount off food and drinks

 

[Otherwise]

You might have more success asking alumni for donations unless you have a very strong social media presence. Uni comps are very small so logos on clothing aren't going to be seen by many people, your main source of advertising your potential sponsors will probably be online.

 

[Laika]

- Whether you have a good online presence. A lot of companies take into consideration the interaction on posts/followers you have on your social media accounts. They'd want to be heavily promoted.
- How much you would want as a sponsored club. For example, would you want payment/products for the sponsorship.
- Show promotion - will you wear branded clothing/numnahs. What're the rules? Are you allowed to do this in Polo? (Not my forte haha)
- Photoshoot opportunities and what sort of gain this would bring them
- A genuine interest in the brand is a MUST. If you email over to a company and just say "Your company" they're going to twig that you've sent this to everyone hahaha! So I would make any outreach personalised!
- Technical blogs/Videos that you can provide for their socal accounts/blogs.

I would take a step back from what you would want and what they could gain from your sponsorship, write a list and then articulate it into a really nice email/phone call.

 

[11bluewolf]

Thank you so much!

 

[Annagain]

I'm on the committee of my local riding club and we go for local linked businesses rather than big brands. We have a trailer servicing company, a sawmill that makes shavings, an embroidery company that do all our club merchandise, a local farrier and the local vet etc. We offer advertising on our website and facebook page, names on rosettes, mentions on schedules etc. In the case of vet / farrier, we also hold info evenings with them. The trailer servicing man comes to our camp to do trailer safety checks - he gets loads of business out of it. The state of some trailers is terrifying.