If you want to stand out and show your project impact and wins to sponsors, funders, partners and champions, sponsor fulfillment reports can help. Providing data, metrics, and showcasing the projects that sponsors and funders supported is an important part of relationship building, meeting (and exceeding) agreement terms, showing the impact of project support, and setting the stage for more or multiple-year sponsorships and good project stewardship.
Elements of Sponsor Fulfillment Reports:
Sponsor fulfillment reports can be a combination of documents and evidence. Below are just some of the details you can gather to demonstrate to sponsors how their support has provided a return on investment.
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Images & Videos:
Depending on whether your partner is in attendance at your event or project, images and videos can help make the sponsor literally see the value unfold. You can:
Include images of how the partner’s brand was marketed (e.g. poster, signage, social posts) and where their logo was used. Ensure your partner(s) approve all use of logos and imagery in advance of using them (i.e. no surprises when you report on it).
Images and/or videos taken of your event / project that highlight important moments.
Images and/or videos of your project where the sponsor was showcased specifically.
Screenshots of social media posts where other people engaged or shared your posts (sponsors like to see how efforts are amplified and the extent to which their brand reaches new audiences).
Metrics & Data:
In addition to the subjective or “feel good” elements provided by images and videos, having numbers to provide direct results is helpful to sponsors in measuring results. The trick is to be creative and create a plan or system to track numbers so you can report on numbers. Metrics in sponsor fulfillment reports can include data such as:
Number of people who attended/registered for the event or were involved in a project.
Number of shares and/or engagement on social media posts.
Number of media appearances associated with the project.
Number of different marketing activities such as the reach of databases that helped promote the event/project.
Media & Impact:
Promotional opportunities are often important, so keep track of media involved with your project.
List the types of media involved (blogs, articles, newspapers, radio spots, podcasts, etc.) and links to them (if available/applicable).
You can also do screenshots of the media such as a screenshot of the newspaper or magazine articles.
If you know the reach of the media outlets involved, you can include this with your metrics.
Feedback & Appreciation:
Highlighting the impact of your project is important. You can include:
Snippets of feedback from people who were involved with your project such as attendees, volunteers, etc.
A personalized thank you message including a summary of how the sponsor’s support made an impact.
Customizing Your Fulfillment Report
These are a few of many elements. Think of your project, event, tour, launch, or film release … whatever it was that you had sponsorship for. What can you do to show how the sponsor was engaged and what impact they had? What would you want to see if you were the sponsor?
Create a customized fulfillment report for each sponsor even though much of the information will apply to all sponsors. Create a presentation in PowerPoint (or your slide deck of choice) then save the slides as a PDF that can accompany a slide deck video. Creating a video & PDF fulfillment report will help you stand out more than a Word document. Ensure your video & PDF report are professional, edited and visually appealing.
Reviewing Sponsor Fulfillment Reports
Ask the sponsor for time to present the sponsor fulfillment report in person or virtually. Invite them to bring others to this call (e.g. their team, company executives, their marketing and communications team, etc.). Just sending a PDF or video without presenting it to the sponsor means they may never even open the report (and you lose an important touch point and opportunity of celebrating together).
Where to Start
Need help with your sponsor fulfillment report or creating a template for your future projects? Book a power hour call with me.