Event Sponsorship and Fundraising

Since the 1970s, event sponsorship has grown rapidly as a preferred means of branding and experiential marketing.

Event sponsorship goes back at least as far as the ancient Olympic Games. Back then and up until the 1970s, sponsorship was mostly philanthropic. Since then – and especially sparked by the successful corporate sponsorships that helped fund the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles – sponsorship has become increasingly commercial and has grown tremendously. As of 2016, global sponsorship spending surpassed $60 billion. Perhaps that’s a small number compared to overall marketing expenditures of $900 billion, but it continues to grow faster than other forms of advertising.

Sponsorships aren’t gifts; both sides expect to benefit. A sponsor – whether of a sporting, musical, artistic or community event – might negotiate signage and branding, recognition in event advertising and access to data about who attended the event. Sponsorship gives advertisers assets they cannot access through traditional marketing. These include a subtle but effective association with the event and its themes and a connection...