Do you struggle to prove the ROI of memberships and sponsorships? As a business leader, being approached about memberships or sponsoring a charitable event or non-profit organization likely leads to your own questions of value. Will your business see a return on investment (ROI)? Professional organizations, non-profit events, sports teams – opportunities cross your desk every day. When you add up the requests received throughout the year, the total can be hundreds or thousands of dollars. You’d support them all if you could, but you have to fit it into a budget.
Yes, a budget and ROI.
As you build your annual budget, all the fixed and flexible expenses are reviewed. After the fixed expenses are locked in, next up for review are the flexible expenses – those things nice to have but not necessary to the operations of the business. Memberships and sponsorships are often top on the list of questionable priority expenses. Is the expense a good fit with the mission, priorities and core values of your business or practice? Will you renew for the coming year? What has the membership or sponsorship provided to your business or your employees? Are you willing to support these organizations again? Are there others you want to add to the list? Will you build in a contingency for new opportunities?
Download my free worksheet to help define the value of the membership or sponsorship opportunity.
Download my free worksheet to help define the value of the membership or sponsorship opportunity.
Return on Investment
Think about how your business or practice benefits from the membership or sponsorship.
- Do you or your employees take full advantage of the member benefits?
- Is the education provided by the professional organization beneficial?
- If you are a member of the organization for networking purposes, are you seeing new business?
Know why you are sponsoring the event or joining the organization. Your brand represents your mission and vision for your business or practice. If you need to dig deep to find the connection between your brand and the opportunity, it is probably not a good fit or expense to take on.
Create a return
It is also important to understand your commitment to a membership or sponsorship contributes to the value. Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio, authors of The Girls Guide to Starting Your Own Business, offer great advice:
- Attend the programs offered by the professional organization
- Network with the members
- Volunteer for committees or become a mentor
- Chair a committee
- Get on the board of directors – either locally, regionally or nationally
- Offer to speak or submit articles
- Attend the event you’ve sponsored and make sure your brand is appropriately represented
Without taking advantage of the perks that come along with the membership or sponsorship, you’ll not see any reward for the money spent. If it was important enough to invest in financially, it should also be important enough to invest the human resources to make it a rewarding opportunity.
