Last week on our program, 6 Degrees of Association, we had the opportunity to speak with Lewis Flax of Flax Associates about how associations should be thinking through their event sponsorship strategy going forward.

You are charged with establishing your corporate partnership program and face a major hurdle: Board members have a negative view of sponsor involvement. One association executive director was pressed by his board to increase sponsorship revenue. Association revenue was stagnant and he was worried about board perception of his capabilities and the increasing pressure to increase revenue. […]

  Your logo on badges, bags and key cards, oh my! Do these sound like some of the standard sponsorship opportunities that your association is offering? You are not alone. Association after association offer “visibility sponsorships” with logos on signage, lanyards, and more. But the reality is, conference attendees quickly forget who sponsored what and […]

If your association is like almost all other associations, you struggle to identify, cultivate, and secure corporate partners. Prospecting can be a huge workload and staff time burden. When handled correctly, prospecting can lead to promising results, energized staff, and additional income.

Associations commonly struggle with how to increase sponsorship revenue. Reaching out to the same companies over and over again is time-consuming and difficult. Providing transactional sponsorship offerings may bring in dollars but is unlikely to dramatically increase revenue. The solution? STEP up from transactional sponsorships and begin building collaborative partnerships.