Newsletter: Tomorrow: The Sponsorship Details Fast Company Missed 🔍 ; Family Traditions are Your Top Sponsorship Asset 🧑🧑🧒🧒 ; Where Have Young Donors Gone? 👦🏻
On Thursday, Larry Weil (aka The Sponsorship Guy) and I will go live on LinkedIn to discuss what a recent Fast Company article got right—and what it missed—about sponsorship.
Today, I want to give you one example.
The article features executives explaining how they decide whether to sponsor conferences. It’s thoughtful, practical, and well worth reading.
But one thing struck me almost immediately.
The article makes it sound like sponsorship decisions are made by a single executive.
And that's rarely the case.
Sure, one person may own the budget. But sponsorship decisions often involve a much larger cast of characters: marketing, finance, procurement, operations, legal, and senior leadership may all have a say before a deal is approved.
That’s a very different challenge for sponsorship sellers.
It’s not enough to convince one person. You have to equip your champion with the information and confidence to sell the partnership internally. BTW, that's when partnership proof is critical.
We’ve seen terrific sponsorship opportunities stall—not because the idea wasn’t good—but because the internal stakeholders weren’t aligned.
That’s one of the biggest assumptions Larry and I want to challenge during our upcoming LinkedIn Live.
We’ll also discuss other ideas from the article that deserve a closer look—not because the article is wrong, but because the conversation about sponsorship doesn’t end where the article does.
If you’re involved in selling sponsorships, I think you’ll come away with a fresh perspective on how partnerships are really approved within organizations.
👉 Click “Attend” on LinkedIn to get a reminder
✍️ Partnership Notes
One partnership insight that matters.
🦒 Family traditions may be your most valuable sponsorship asset.
America’s accredited zoos and aquariums attract more than 180 million visitors a year. That's more than all major U.S. professional sports leagues combined. But their biggest sponsorship advantage isn’t attendance. It’s tradition. Families return year after year for events like Boo at the Zoo and holiday light shows, giving brands repeated opportunities to become part of meaningful memories. It’s working: the Saint Louis Zoo now generates about $1.5 million annually from more than 50 corporate partnerships. The takeaway: the strongest sponsorship assets aren’t always your biggest events. They’re the experiences people make part of their lives.
The cautionary counterpoint is unfolding in Los Angeles, where the nonprofit that supported the city-owned zoo for more than 50 years has filed for bankruptcy following a bitter split with the city. (You can read the story in the LA Times if you can bypass the paywall.) It’s a reminder that partnership potential alone isn’t enough. Long-term success also depends on clear roles, shared expectations, and an operating model both sides trust. Even the strongest sponsorship platform can falter when the partnership behind it falters.
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
One move you should steal.
💡 Thought leadership isn’t about saying more. It’s about saying something new.
According to a new Content Marketing Institute article, audiences reward organizations that publish original insights rather than recycled opinions. Big Brothers Big Sisters of America’s Impact report is a great example. It doesn’t just promote the organization—it contributes valuable research that others can cite and share. The takeaway: ask yourself, “What do we know that no one else does?” Then package that knowledge into a report, benchmark, survey, or study. That’s the kind of content that builds authority long after it’s published.
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
Find your next adventure.
🤝 Corporate Partnerships Manager & Corporate Partnerships Associate, United Way of the National Capital Area, Washington, D.C.
🤝 Corporate Partnerships Manager, Mercy Ships, Remote
🤝 Vice President, Business Development & Corporate Relations, Humane World for Animals, Remote
🧠🍌 Brain Food
One thing that is feeding my thinking.
🇬🇧 Young people may not simply “age into” generosity.
British fundraising strategist Mark Phillips examines a troubling decline in charitable giving among younger people in the UK. His argument goes beyond affordability: giving is a learned social habit, traditionally reinforced by families, faith communities, local institutions, and regular human asks. As those structures weaken, posting about a cause can sometimes replace direct material support for it.
The takeaway for fundraisers is not to invent more gimmicks aimed at youth. It is to rebuild a culture of giving: ask clearly, show exactly what a gift accomplishes, create belonging and shared rituals, and make generosity feel meaningful and joyful. This is UK research, so the numbers should not be automatically applied to the United States—but the larger question travels well: Who is teaching the next generation that giving is simply something people like us do?
