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How to Create a Practical Crisis Management Plan [+ Templates]
Up to 90% of B2B event planners admit that securing sponsors is one of the biggest challenges they face. For brands that regularly host events—whether in-person or virtual—event sponsorship can be a great help in funding the event and building B2B connections.
But given the difficulty many event organizers have, how can you make sure you secure enough event sponsorship for your next event?
Throughout this article, we’re going to further explore what event sponsorship means, how you can find sponsors, and even provide you with proposal templates for getting new sponsors in the door.
Let’s get started.
Event sponsorship is when a company supports an an event—financially or in-kind contriubutions—in exchange for specific benefits. These perks often include things like ad space at the venue, featured speaking roles, access to attendee data, free or discounted tickets and more.
Event sponsorship packages can take many forms but they are often tiered, giving higher-paying sponsors access to more perks and visibility. This structure allows companies with different budgets to participate at varying levels.
While it may appear to be goodwill, event sponsorship is ultimately a strategic marketing play. Brands sponsor events to increase brand awareness, generate leads, improve public perception or connect with a specific audience.
Understanding this helps you position your pitch around a sponsor’s goals and makes your offer far more compelling.
The most obvious benefit of event sponsorship is financial support, especially since 77% of event professionals say budget pressure is a top challenge.
But even if you can afford to host your event solo, securing sponsorship can still offer major advantages, such as:
There are various ways a company can sponsor your event. It's important to know them to help you offer flexible, relevant options that match their goals and resources.
| Type | Use Case | Pros | Cons |
| Financial Sponsorship | Best when you need direct funding to cover core event costs like venue, production or speaker fees. | Easy to monetize. Highly flexible. Supports event scale. | Requires strong ROI justification; competitive to secure. |
| Promotional Partnership | Useful when your event needs more visibility or social proof through trusted industry voices. | Drives traffic and social buzz. Cost-effective for sponsors. | Results are uncertain. |
| Media Sponsorship | Ideal for events that benefit from mass promotion across TV, radio or digital publications. | Expands reach through trusted channels and PR | May attract the wrong audience segment; not all coverage drives engagement or action. |
| In-Kind Sponsorship | Works well for early-stage or budget-limited events that can trade visibility for goods, services or venues. | Cuts down the budget. Often easier to secure than financial sponsorships. | Low-quality offer. Logistical issues may arise with delivery/setup. |
| Brand Sponsorship | Best for premium events looking to co-create branded experiences with high-profile sponsors. | Builds the event’s identity. Can uplift brand perception. | Demands strategic alignment and custom execution. Less suitable for smaller events. |
Seeing how actual brands approach sponsorships can give you a better sense of what works and why.
Check out these real-world sponsorship examples in-person and virtual event sponsorships across different industries.
Our second example is Apidays LIVE Paris 2021, a virtual event held from December 7 to 9. It brought together over 3,000 API professionals for live keynotes, workshops, roundtables and Q&A sessions. As a Gold sponsor, IBM supported the event financially and used the opportunity to showcase its expertise and connect with its core audience.
IBM led several branded workshop sessions hosted by its experts. These sessions highlighted specific IBM API use cases and allowed the company to engage with developers and decision-makers through questions and answers.
Their sponsorship included prominent branding across the digital event space. IBM’s logo appeared on the event interface, partner listings and session recordings, which gave them brand visibility during and after the event.
This sponsorship worked well because it combined product exposure with thought leadership. APIday gave IBM many presentation spots, which they leveraged to reinforce their credibility and relevance in the API space.
Cartier, a luxury French jewelry and watch brand, sponsored one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious film events As part of the sponsorship activation, Cartier introduced the “Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker” award to honor visionary directors.
The brand amplified its presence with interviews featuring actors like Vanessa Kirby, Nadine Labaki and Julianne Moore, who shared their favorite films and cinematic memories. Cartier also captured key moments like private dinners, red carpet appearances and behind-the-scenes footage, shared under the hashtag #CartierLovesCinema, which drew lots of engagement.
Friends of the Maison gathered to celebrate the opening ceremony of the 79th Venice International Film Festival, as Cartier continues as the Main Sponsor for the second year in a row. #CartierLovesCinema #Venezia79 #BiennaleCinema2022https://t.co/b478DFy69Y pic.twitter.com/f1h15Q9Zrs
— Cartier (@Cartier) September 2, 2022
The sponsorship worked because it reflected Cartier’s image of artistry, timeless elegance and cultural relevance. Venice’s audience aligned with Cartier’s: affluent, stylish and creative. By supporting global cinema, Cartier positioned itself not just as a luxury brand but as a committed patron of the arts.
Shaq’s Fun House vs. Gronk Beach, presented by The General Insurance, was a hybrid live and virtual event held on June 27, 2020.
The General’s core goal was to raise funds for social justice. Proceeds supported the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) empowerment program and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
The event blended carnival-style challenges, music and celebrity appearances. It drew over nine million viewers, 20 million social media impressions and more than 500,000 live interactions, making it one of the most engaging livestreams of its time.
The General received naming rights and branding throughout the experience, including co-branded fan cams, celebratory sweepstakes and custom segments like "The General’s Lip Sync Battle".
This sponsorship worked because it made The General feel more relatable and less like a typical insurance brand. By showing up in a fun, celebrity-filled event with a strong social cause, the brand connected with younger viewers in a way that felt natural.
Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup 2022 is a textbook example of in-kind and brand sponsorship working hand in hand.
As one of FIFA’s longest-standing partners, Coca-Cola didn’t just pay for logo placements; they created a global campaign using digital and fan engagement strategies.
Coca-Cola launched its “Believing is Magic” campaign, which ran across more than 200 markets and featured collectible bottles, digital fan experiences and partnerships with influencers and creators. The brand also sponsored the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour, giving fans across continents a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the real trophy up close.
At the tournament itself, Coca-Cola created immersive fan zones that allowed attendees to connect with the brand through AR experiences and games.
These activations not only amplified their global brand presence but also deepened emotional connections with fans.
It worked because:
Outreach for anything—even event sponsorship—can seem overwhelming, especially if you have no clue where to start. We’ve put together a few great places to find sponsorship opportunities for your next event.
Different events offer various types of sponsorships, perks, and packages. Know your event and what its sponsorship availability is. But also know what types of companies might be interested in an event like yours and who the target audience is.
For example, the types of sponsors you might search for for your upcoming tech conference will be much different than the types of sponsors a sports team would look for for their sporting events and arena sponsorships.
Use this customer persona template from Visme to sketch our your target audience:
Think back to events you’ve attended. Who were the sponsors there? And how many new connections did you make? Reaching out to people who attended or sponsored similar events that you/your business has attended is a great starting point for your outreach.
And if you’re interested in creating your own event in the future, keep it in mind as you network at events you’re attending. Take notes on potential sponsors who could make your future outreach easier.
If you feel that you’re starting from scratch, networking both online and in-person can be a great way to expand your potential contact list. Search for local networking opportunities (sites like Meetup can help) or connect with people on LinkedIn to get the conversation started.
There are a number of online tools and websites you can use to help find sponsors. Because finding sponsors — and events to sponsor — can be such a struggle for brands, these online marketplaces make the process easier than ever.
A few websites to check out are:
Post on social media that you’re looking for sponsors for an upcoming event. Send out an email newsletter to your existing contact list.
You’re likely to get a few bites just by putting some feelers out with your existing audience. Once you have a few candidates, send an email or a sponsorship letter.
Furthermore, you can ask your audience what sponsors they’d like to see at an event. This can give you even more leverage when you reach out to that company. Imagine the impact a sentence like, “Our audience is requesting your presence at our upcoming event,” could have in their decision-making.
A 2021 sponsor-event fit study published by EAI (European Alliance for Innovation) found that brands are more likely to sponsor events when there’s strong alignment between the event’s purpose, audience and their positioning. So, instead of pitching every company under the sun, use a sponsor-event fit analysis to help you know the brands that’ll see value in your event and are most likely to respond positively.
Here are five key factors the study identified that influence sponsorship decisions:
Use these criteria as a filter when building your sponsor list. The more aligned, the easier it is to secure interest and create a partnership that benefits both sides.
Fineas Tatar, Co-CEO of Viva shares how goal alignment won her team a top sponsor:
“For a virtual summit we hosted last year for tech leaders, we identified a potential sponsor, a large cloud services company, that had publicly stated goals around supporting female entrepreneurship.
Instead of our marketing team sending them a generic sponsorship deck, I reached out to their Head of Social Impact. I pitched to them not about booth space, but their DEI goals. We created a new sponsorship tier where 75% of their sponsorship fee went directly to funding new microloans for female entrepreneurs through our established partnership with Kiva.
They signed on within a week. For them, it was a turnkey way to activate their CSR goals and generate authentic content about their commitment. For us, it secured a top-tier sponsor who was deeply invested in the event's success. And when the event was done, we were able to show them exactly how their money impacted the community.”
Sponsorship outreach should be targeted and personal, but that doesn’t mean starting from scratch each time, juggling scattered documents and last-minute follow-ups. Instead, build a system that saves time and gets results.
Start with reusable templates. Visme offers easy-to-customize designs for every part of your outreach workflow, such as proposals, contracts, sign-up forms and reports. If you need to meet a looming deadline, Visme AI can help you generate a first draft.
Use our workflow management tool to assign tasks to team members, set deadlines and monitor progress. It also has a content calendar to manage outreach at scale; you can track who you’ve contacted, when and what stage they’re in. Pair this with email automation or mail merge tools to schedule follow-ups.
By now, you’re likely taking notes on how you can find sponsors for your next event. But even if you compile a list of potential sponsors, there’s no guarantee that they’ll have interest in signing up.
There are a few tips and best practices on how you can successfully approach this list of potential sponsors, pitch them your packages, and create an engaging proposal.
To get potential sponsors interested in your event, create sponsorship levels or tiers that get them excited about the perks they’ll be receiving. Be upfront with exactly what your sponsorship will entail, and include pricing for each specific level.
Here’s a great example of what this might look like:
Some options you could consider offering are:
After you’ve reached out to your list of potential sponsors, it’s time to create a personalized and branded sponsorship proposal to send out to interested brands.
One big mistake that brands often make is sending out a dry proposal that doesn’t grab attention or make a company all that interested in sponsoring. This is why we recommend using Visme and our collection of professionally designed templates to create a branded proposal that will excite potential sponsors and get them ready to sign the deal.
Here’s an example of a template we have in Visme that you can customize with your event information:
Plus, with Visme’s brand kit, you can easily apply your own brand colors and fonts to the template with just a few clicks. This helps improve brand strength and make sure your potential sponsors have a clear idea of what the event branding will look like.
Here's a GIF showing how to put this to action:
Furthermore, using a tool like Visme provides you with even more features that are perfect for pitching sponsors. While some brands might prefer creating a proposal document, Visme is also a great place for creating and presenting sponsorship decks. Read this article to discover a detailed list of sponsorship deck templates you can use.
Brands can present live, keeping hidden notes in their presenter notes area, ensuring they have a seamless sales pitch. Or, present asynchronously by recording your presentation and sending a viewable link to your potential sponsor.
Visme presentations can also be shared publicly or privately via direct link, without a recorded presentation, and you can keep an eye on how many potential sponsors have viewed your slide deck using Visme analytics.
You can also turn on the registration form for your presentation so you can grab contact information from each person who views your sponsorship proposal.
All in all, using Visme for your sponsorship proposal or presentation helps make a big impact while also tracking views and engagement on your proposal.
Don’t skimp on event details. You want to be completely transparent about what your event sponsors can expect. Furthermore, the event details need to be different from what you’re providing attendees.
Sponsoring is a very different experience, so they need to know details about what this event will look like from their perspective, and not what attendees will solely get out of it.
Dedicate an entire page or slide from your proposal to be completely upfront with what the sponsorship perks involve.
You can include a slide with a basic overview of what types of events or seminars will occur at your conference or event, like we see in this slide example:
While also sharing some of the reasons brands should sponsor your event and what they could get out of it, like we see in this slide example:
Give your sponsors the full rundown of what your event will look like, similar to an event program, while also including specifics about where various sponsorships will come in.
Your sponsors need to know details about who will be attending this event to make sure the sponsorship even makes sense for them. They’re not going to spend thousands of dollars sponsoring an event that none of their target audience is attending.
Here’s one example of what this could look like:
But I implore you to go even deeper, as well. Share ages, genders, locations, interests, and more, so that your sponsors have a full understanding of who they’d be reaching at your event.
If they’re not provided with the full scope of your attendee base, they’re not going to think it’s worth it for them. To increase the number of “yeses” that you get back, include as many attendee demographics as you can in your proposal.
More than demographics, let sponsors know about your past successes, or even the number of attendees you already have signed up. You can also share data about your digital marketing engagement if part of their sponsorship revolves around promotions online.
With Visme, you can get access to a number of charts, graphs and data widgets that make it easy to visualize numbers with just a few clicks.
Here’s an example of what this might look like in your proposal:
But if you want to go even deeper with showcasing attendance data, consider connecting a live Google Sheet to your sponsorship proposal charts. This will allow your charts to update in real-time as more and more people register, and it’ll reflect immediately on your live presentation or document.
Be completely transparent with what you’re offering in each of your sponsorship packages—and make sure you follow through.
Discuss the options you want to offer your sponsors with your team, then put together a list of sponsorship perks (we mentioned a few above already).
Then lay them out clearly, like we see below:
This way, there’s no ambiguity about what comes with a sponsorship. As long as you keep up your end of the bargain, your sponsors will be happy to come back for future events.
Make sure that event attendees know exactly who your sponsors were—otherwise their money was spent in vain. There are a few ways you can do this, and you might use different options for each tier of sponsorship.
Some ideas include:
Here’s an example of what your event program could look like with your sponsor(s) listed at the bottom:
Do you have some event sponsors in mind? The best way to win them over is with a professional event sponsorship proposal.
Identifying the right sponsor is one thing, securing them is another.
You need well-crafted, well-designed documents that communicate the right message, build trust and strengthen the relationship at every step.
Providing potential sponsors with all the information they need upfront helps them feel more confident in your event.
To help you get started, here are 10 event sponsorship templates you can customize to win sponsors.
Hosting events is a great way to create some buzz around a new product launch. If that’s something you’re interested in, consider using the above sponsorship proposal to customize with your own product information, event attendee information, and sponsorship tiers.
Sporting events always need more sponsors. Whether you’re looking for sponsors for a soccer game, basketball game, football game, etc., this proposal presentation is a great place to start. Simply update with your own branded colors and photos, and get ready to ship to sponsorship prospects.
This modern presentation template is perfect for tech and SaaS companies looking to create a proposal that matches their messaging and brand mission. This template also includes pre-set charts so you can easily input your own attendee demographics in order to further entice sponsors.
Show off reviews, ratings, numbers of customers/attendees, and more with a proposal template like the one above. This template has a more feminine look, but can easily be adapted to fit your brand’s fonts, colors and other visual elements.
This template shows a unique way to lay out your sponsorship tiers. We’ve seen a few options, from setting up tables to dedicating one page or slide per tier, but this geometric design above is another great way to show off your options.
Most sponsors aren't actively scanning for events to support. They're busy, juggling dozens of pitches and your opportunity might not even be on their radar. That's why it's up to you, the organizer, to take the lead.
This clear, well-designed sponsorship request letter template helps you do exactly that. Use it for cold or warm outreach to grab attention, show professionalism and position your event as a worthwhile investment.
Just make sure to personalize it. Highlight why the brand is a good fit, what value they’ll gain and mention specific sponsorship tiers or custom activation ideas if relevant.
Sponsors want to know exactly what you’re offering and that’s what a sponsorship package helps you communicate. Even if you've already made your pitch, sharing a separate, easy-to-scan document that outlines exactly what you're offering adds professionalism and reinforces your value.
This professional template outlines five sponsorship tiers; however, you can add more or fewer tiers to suit your specific needs.
Once a sponsor has verbally agreed to partner with you, you need to make it official. This comprehensive contract template helps you finalize the agreement and protect both parties. It includes key clauses, sponsor details and designated signature fields.
Review it thoroughly, tailor it to reflect the terms you’ve discussed and make sure it’s signed before any deliverables or promotions begin.
You might get lucky and sponsors discover you organically through your owned channels—like your website, blog, social media pages, email newsletters, or even YouTube content. Make it easy for them to sign up using this sponsorship signup template.
You can embed forms created in Visme directly on your website using the HTML feature, so anyone visiting your sponsorship page can register on the spot.
The best part? You can animate the character, adjust the hairstyle, clothing, gender and more to make the form engaging and match your event’s vibe or brand personality.
Show sponsors that their support made a difference. This customizable thank you letter template helps you express genuine appreciation, highlight key results and demonstrate the impact their contribution had on your audience. It’s a simple but powerful way to reinforce value and keep the door open for future sponsorship opportunities.
The template is fully editable. Simply swap in your logo, update names and roles, and tweak the text to fit your team's needs perfectly.
Evaluate sponsorship by measuring the value delivered to both sides. For sponsors, look at brand lift, traffic and sales tied to the event. For organizers, assess cost savings, attendance boost and brand credibility gained.
ROI varies depending on the goal. For some sponsors, it’s lead generation or sales. For others, it’s awareness, perception shift or networking.
Ensure your goal matches the event’s offering to improve your chances of getting your expected result.
The four types of sponsorships are:
Sponsors may pay anywhere from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands, depending on event size, audience and exposure. Offering tiered packages helps match different budgets.
The easiest way to get sponsored is by targeting brands that align with your audience.
Create a focused proposal that clearly shows the value they’ll gain and pitch it effectively. Warm leads (existing connections or past supporters) tend to close faster than cold outreach.
If you’re planning an event and want to offset costs, expand your reach, or add credibility, yes, sponsors can make a huge difference.
The right sponsorship opportunity can:
If you’ve made it this far, you already know getting sponsors takes more than a few emails. You need to find the right fit, offer real value and present your event in a way that gets brands to say yes.
The right partner can help you fill seats, boost engagement and elevate your event far beyond what your own budget could cover.
Visme helps you stay ready at every step. With various tools and professional templates for proposals, contracts, forms and reports, you can present your event with confidence and keep everything organized.
Request a demo to find out how Visme can help you execute successful sponsorship outreaches.
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