Anne, Tony and all,
I don't know if we have a successful strategy, but for what it's worth I put
copies of the sponsor registration sheet in tea-rooms around the building where
I work and tea-rooms in head office on levels where people I know work. (I am
in a metropolitan regional office of a State Government Department.) I add a
little flier explaining what the Twitchathon is, what happens to the money, the
fact that it's tax-deductible and, as a tug on the sympathy nerve, what time
we'll be getting up on the Sunday morning. I also sting many of my mates at my
cricket club - it's become an annual joke to them, but they can laugh as long as
they keep chipping in $5 or $10 each. Dad passes a sheet around among his
retired work-mates that he lunches with once a week. On this basis we have
raised somewhere between $400 & $700 per year over the past few years, with no
individual putting in more than $30 - I think the biggest individual sponsorship
has been 25 cents per species, and most are in the $5-10 or 5-10 cents/ species.
I would stress that we first started entering for the sake of the money we could
raise, rather than in any expectation of winning anything.
Much less successfully, I have tried two or three times circulating letters to
businesses located close to this office and close to an office where I
previously worked, seeking sponsorship and offering to put their name on the
list of species which I give to all our sponsors after each event, to ensure
that they are mentioned at the post-Twitchathon BBQ and to do a write-up
prominently acknowledging their support for Wingspan or the Vicgroup newsletter,
Babbler. So far, for about thirty of those letters in total, I have received
one pro-forma acknowledgement with no follow-up, and two polite regrets.
I fully appreciate Anne and Tony's reticence about asking people for money. I
would starve very quickly in retail! I guess, in the office set-up, there's a
fair bit of "I'll buy your raffle ticket if you'll buy mine" (one of these days
I'll win a 4WD!!) I'd cheerfully welcome any suggestions of how to get better
results regarding corporate sponsorship in future.
Regards,
Jack
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