Use this page as a basic guide to the types of information sponsors love. A sponsor wants to benefit from an association with you and needs to know that others feel you are a positive influence, too. A basic rule of thumb for sponsors is "how much good will I do for this skater's community (not just the skater) and its image and how good will it make those community members feel about my company if I can help the skater succeed."

Sponsorship is often cheaper for a corporation than traditional advertising because tax breaks and tax write-offs are involved when corporations sponsor participants in non-profit events. At the neighborhood level, local sponsors get name recognition via kids athletic leagues and gear, tee-shirts for race runners, church bulletins and school publications announcing local "Sponsors," "Patrons" and "Benefactors".

Recent IRS tax rulings give breaks to sponsorships as long as there is no call to action to buy the sponsor's product or service, that the recognition given to sponsors constitutes an acknowledgement of a contribution to the cause... not advertising.

Is your proposal complete? Each year thousands of sponsorship proposals are sent to potential sponsors. Many are professionally done, some are well done home efforts that may or may not fulfill the needs of the decision-makers. A few are rushed; handwritten notes that don't have a snowball's chance of making it passed the "sorry letter" pile. Use these simple questions as guidelines to determine if your proposal is on target. 1) Who are you? 2) Where have you been? 3) Where are you now? 4) Where are you going? 5) What do you specifically need from the sponsor? 6) What do you plan to return for the sponsor's investment?

Prepare a proposal:

• Cover letter that can be easily customized and personalized for each potential sponsor.
• Brief background on your sport ( especially if you feel your potential sponsors don't know about roller sports)
• Athlete resume - The first step is to put yourself down on paper. Create a brief, but visually exciting, resume that tells a bit about yourself and your skating credentials. The better an athlete you are, and higher your rank in your sport, the more professional your materials should be. That's not to say that you need to dump hundreds of dollars into a multimedia video presentation, but keep in mind that your materials say something about you. If you're seriously expecting to find some good financial support, you won't get it if your marketing materials are poorly presented and incomplete. You can get professional help or you can do it yourself on a home computer. Keep it brief and try to structure it so as to highlight what's special about you when compared to other athletes in your sport.
  If you need something that's professional, yet easy and inexpensive to reproduce, a one page highlight resume is the way to go. It's perfect for a quick fax to potential sponsors, coaches, clubs, and the media.
• Potential benefits (to sponsor or community not skater) Review the USA Roller Sports sponsor standards to make sure you are offering something that will not affect your amateur standing.
• Goals/objectives that the sponsors contribution will help you achieve. If the donation will not improve you in your sport, a sponsor will look for someone who can benefit/improve with additional support.
• Annual sports budget with details on portion requested from sponsor. Sometimes, you can't get it all. So select an item/items in your budget that your potential sponsor will best benefit from. A travel agency could provide airfare or accomadations, a clothing or department store might sponsor uniforms or equipment suppliers might provide gear.
• Photos/videos/articles to document athletes participation in this sport.
• References/letters of support
• Lightweight folder or binding to hold these items. Materials submitted to corporations are often passed around. Make sure your contents are bound or held together in a unit for easy distribution.

Online Athletic Proposal Sample

Online Team Funding Presentation

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Look for potential sponsors:

• Start locally. It's easier to get in the front door and work with local companies. For the most part, large commercial sport marketing companies spend most of their time in big time sports: basketball, football, baseball, tennis, golf etc. If you're not a big name athlete in a big time sport, then it's very difficult to get a big sport marketing company to take you on. Pick your target companies. Don't just go after Nike, Coca-Cola and General Motors because they have a lot of money. The more specifically you pick your target companies the more likely you'll find a sponsor. Look for companies to whom you can offer something unique. Look at the companies in your area who promote their interest in community services and projects.
• Ask yourself why this company sponsor me instead of all of the other athletes and charities out there that are seeking sponsors?  If you can answer this question then you've found a great target company. If you can't think of why they should sponsor you, the company sure won't be able to.
• If you've got a resume, and a few target companies... start calling potential sponsors and ask the receptionist..." who normally handles athletic sponsorships?" Don't just mail off your resume to 100 different companies. That won't do anything but waste some postage and line the bottom of 100 trash cans. Wait until you speak to someone, they'll ask you to send information and forward it directly to the person(s) who can actualy do something. Spell their name corectly. Then follow up. Follow up. Don't expect your phone to ring. It won't. Corporate marketing directors are very busy people. Periodically call back and politely check in. It's nice to open your call with..."If I'm interrupting you I could call back at a more convenient time."
• Consider individuals as sponsors. Small companies, sole proprietors and even some "regular" people may sponsor small "specific" portions of your expenses such as a costume, airfare to a specific event or entry fees. A few small sponsors can work as well as one big one.

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 Keep your sponsor happy:

• Offer a service that the company doesn't already have. Once you're in, give a quarterly talk on skating for fitness, develop an in-house fitness newsletter, create training programs for the owner and top executives or build a non-competitive kids program carrying your sponsor's name. Kids programs are great because parents love it, and it's such a great media perk for you and the sponsor.
• Stay in touch with your sponsors. Send your sponsors an e-mail after every event. Let them know how you are helping improve their image and how much the quality of your skating has improved because of their contribution.
• Send pictures or even a video clip that the sponsor can send to the media. A company can get media attention when we can't... and that could help the sport as well as the sponsor.
• Provide your sponsor with complimentary tickets to competitive events and awards presentations to make them feel directly involved in your sport-- even if they don't come the gesture is important.
• Say good things about your sponsor to the media and the community... you don't have to sell their products... just their spirit of goodwill.

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