Top 3 questions that schools ask Sponsorship Ready
Can our community alliance program run alongside our sponsorship program?
Yes, it sure can.
Keeping in mind there is a big difference between fundraising, donations, philanthropy & genuine sponsorship.
While there are a select number of schools that seem to have an event series that underpins the basic structure to a community engagement initiative or alliance, the revenue derived from them is often negligible, notwithstanding they serve their purpose for sure.
To realise real sponsorship revenue, it’s crucial that a considered and strategic approach is required and that is where Sponsorship Ready’s 3-step framework comes in.
How do we manage our existing sponsors if we introduce a new strategy?
It seems many public and independent schools have some semblance of a sponsorship program in play.
Some even have a family of sponsors with a reasonable sponsorship revenue baseline.
The catch is – how do you unpack an existing program? Do you even have to? How do roll existing sponsors into a new strategy?
All this is part of the Sponsorship Ready program scope.
What support can you give my staff tasked with driving sponsorship?
- Educate them on how to talk to sponsors about their objectives rather than just trying to sell them on benefits
- Help them understand what your school has to sell
- How to ‘change the narrative’ when selling sponsorship. For example, position for perception of ROI versus Philanthropic donations.
- Provision of a framework or scaffolding and ongoing support
- Preparing your school to go to market both strategically and with transparency.
Find out how your school can become Sponsorship Ready with a FREE 30-minute strategy session and start succeeding in sponsorship at your school today.
A sponsorship win for St Patricks College, Mackay
Sponsorship Ready is a professional development and capacity building program, with an unwavering solutions-based approach to sponsorship in schools.
Now in its third year of operation, Sponsorship Ready continues to go from strength to strength, with over 25 schools throughout Queensland since supported in driving sustainable revenue solutions in school sponsorship.
One of the many schools supported includes Mackay-based St Patrick’s College, Mackay and Mercy College, Mackay.
Assistant Principal of Curriculum at Mercy College and Confraternity Carnival Convenor, Scott McSherry engaged Sponsorship Ready after being granted hosting rights for the Confraternity Carnival and QISSN for 2022. The brief was set the host school up for success in monetising the carnival and then to bring to life a sponsorship strategy for the two schools that are merging in 2023.
“As an active participant in elite sporting competitions for many years, sourcing financial support from local businesses has always been crucial to help reduce costs for students,” Scott said.
“When we were granted hosting rights for the Confraternity Carnival and QISSN for 2022, we realised that our previous efforts were not going to give us the financial support required to deliver a top-quality carnival,” Scott continued.
“Sponsorship Ready has not only provided us a fresh take on how to attract education sponsorship opportunities, but it’s also helped us to form mutually beneficial relationships with businesses while creating an income stream beyond our expectations.
“The education and support provided by Sponsorship Ready has been outstanding and has truly transformed our thinking when it comes to funding school team competing on a state and national level.
“This also enabled us to deliver excellence in co-curricula opportunities for our students that are commensurate with any school in Queensland, now and into the future.”
Sponsorship Ready’s leading and proven 3-step framework provides peace of mind for school’s wanting to successfully deliver on business, brand, and community engagement objectives, while effectively conveying their school’s purpose, vision, and values.
Find out how your school can become Sponsorship Ready with a FREE 30-minute strategy session and start succeeding in sponsorship at your school today.
A common misconception: sponsorship vs. fundraising
“We play a big role in the community but so far cannot really convert that to sponsorship revenue”
Sound familiar? There’s often a common misconception for schools when it comes to fundraising versus sponsorship.
While fundraising still plays an important role in schools, therein lies a common disconnect regarding the role Sponsorship Ready plays when it comes to supporting schools across their Sponsorship journeys.
So, what’s the difference between Sponsorship and Fundraising?
Well, Sponsorship in general is a relationship, similar to advertising.
That means sponsors want to see a return – whether that’s measured in marketing value, generating new business, brand recognition or delivering on community engagement objectives, it needs to be there.
This has always been clear in the more transactional world of sponsorship, but increasingly individual donors are seeing their philanthropy as an investment, too.
Whereas School Fundraising is more about identifying and giving to causes that people care about and tapping into altruistic motivations.
Understanding this difference will drastically impact how you approach your school community when it comes to school sponsorship.
Schools are extremely capable of delivering on business, brand, and community engagement objectives of its sponsors, and in many cases more effectively and certainly cost effectively than other mediums like print or radio or billboards. Schools and their leadership are powerful conduits and advocates within their respective communities
But schools need to understand to gravitate from donations or fundraising to that of genuine sponsorship their narrative needs to change!
So, how do you change the narrative?
- How are you defining your schools reach and impact?
- How are you professionally promoting your school’s purpose, vision, and values?
- How are you capturing and connecting the heart of your school?
- Can you talk to sponsors about their objectives rather than just benefits?
- Have you effectively positioned your schools sponsorship program to run alongside your more philanthropic program/s?
If any of these questions are challenging to answer concisely, Sponsorship Ready could be the right solution for your school.
Sponsorship Ready does not include selling sponsorship in schools.
Sponsorship Ready provides schools with the right strategy, tools and support so that schools can manage their sponsorship program themselves.
So, what are you waiting for?
Your Invitation
We invite and encourage you to speak
with Sponsorship Ready for a no-cost
30-minute strategy session.
Sponsorship Ready: meet senior marketer Kelsey
If a tree falls in the forest with no ears to hear, does it make a sound?
The same philosophy can be applied to school marketing.
Many schools wish to successfully be able to deliver upon a sponsor’s business, brand and/or community engagement objectives while also effectively conveying their school’s purpose, vision, and values. A desire to articulate their reach and impact on the local community also a motivation. As such, adopting an integrated marketing approach is a necessity for schools.
That’s why Sponsorship Ready has since introduced various marketing services that are tailored to best support schools. These services include:
- Photography & Video
We offer tailored Photography and Videography solutions that support schools in building their image banks while capturing content that captures the heart of their school.
- Brand Guidelines & Logo Refresh
Brand consistency is at the forefront of what drives loyalty today. Having updated brand guidelines enables schools to deliver against marketing collateral that reflects a consistent look and feel while connecting and compelling your school communities.
- Capacity Building & Professional Development Marketing
T Those counting school marketing and community engagement in their portfolio of responsibilities are often very time poor. We can support by adding hours back into your day by offering curated content solutions and training support to professionally upskill and optimise your time more effectively in the marketing space. So, whether your schools challenge is related to capacity or capability, we have a professional development solution in this space.
Leading Sponsorship Ready Marketing Services is Senior Marketer, Kelsey McAlpine.
With over 13 years’ experience as a senior marketer specialising in digital, retail, asset management & FMCG industries, Kelsey has worked with many major corporates.
From leading a portfolio of ten JLL shopping center’s in strategic digital marketing to supporting 187 Queensland stores as State Marketing Manager for Coles Supermarkets, Kelsey has a strong background across all marketing disciplines.
“As a marketer, I’ve always found the definition of “marketing” to be incredibly broad and ever-changing and unless you’re living and breathing marketing, it’s really challenging for businesses to stay on top of trends and truly understand what works for them.
“And this is where I have found my marketing niche and passion.
“I have always seen myself as a problem solver and working with Sponsorship Ready was a no-brainer in terms of the support and value I could be offering within the space of Education.
“When I look at all the data and insights available surrounding Education here in Australia, there is always one thing that has stood out.
“That educators are incredibly time-poor yet, research shows a strong desire to be doing more when it comes to marketing in schools.
“That’s why being able to offer professional marketing support and capacity building solutions in schools is where I now derive the truest form of career satisfaction.
“Not only that, but I’m also able to capture and curate content that professionally and strategically positions your school within its various communities while adding time back into the days of educators.
“This means teachers efforts can be best spent educating and improving outcomes for students.”
Sponsorship Ready Marketing services can also work successfully in conjunction with your school’s sponsorship framework while amplifying key messaging across digital marketing, social media marketing and various other forms of school marketing collateral.
Before you start having a new school website developed or start posting to your school’s Facebook page why not take a step back from the tactical areas of your school marketing and have a conversation with Kelsey at Sponsorship Ready?
For an initial chat please contact Kelsey McAlpine via Kelsey.McAlpine@sponsorshipready.com.au or call 0434 495 948.
It could help you reassess your school’s course of action from a strategic perspective, while ensuring maximum success and return from your marketing spend.
You can also view Sponsorship Ready’s full list of marketing services here.
Make sure you also check out and follow our new Sponsorship Ready LinkedIn page for all of the latest updates.
Sponsorship Ready client awarded VET teacher of the year 2022
We’re excited to be working with Australia Trade College North Brisbane and are sharing a repost from Australia Trade College North Brisbane in celebration of Leah Pollock-Grant who was awarded ‘VET Teacher of the Year’ at the Queensland Training Awards 2022.
“And the winner is… Leah Pollock-Grant ‘VET Teacher of the Year’ Queensland Training Awards North Coast Region CONGRATULATIONS LEAH On behalf of each and every current and past Trade College student thank you for creating safe and supportive learning environments for our students to #nailtheconnection and see their trade and business dreams come to life. #QTA2022 #SkillsPower #QTANC #educationsponsorship #sponsorshipinschools #schoolsponsorship”
8 Reasons your school website is so important in driving Sponsorship
Did you know that it takes 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website and school?
Considering lockdowns and restrictions over the past few years, we have seen a big shift in the role and importance of a school website. There are characteristically two primary purposes for any school website. One is to provide timely, compelling, and current information to your current parents, students, staff, and community. The second purpose is to attract new students and to recruit quality staff.
Here are eight reasons why your school website is so important and how your website can positively impact Sponsorship outcomes for schools, their communities and ultimately students.
- Your school website receives great community traffic and local businesses are eager to show their support for your community. From a marketing perspective, it’s important to understand and harness the opportunities that this shift has presented.
- The perception of the school is one’s reality. Improve your perception. Your audience of potential parents have been spending more time at home than ever, communicating, and learning about your school online. This provides an exciting opportunity to review and improve your school website and consider how it can better serve your target audience. We can help.
- Having an enticing and attractive prospectus on your site will pique the interest of prospective parents who are early on in their decision-making process. Pre-pandemic, a parent would have to attend an open day or declare an interest in your school in order to receive a prospectus. Now, if a parent types into a search engine “schools near Brisbane City” for instance, they could be flicking through your school’s dedicated and sharply presented prospectus in a matter of seconds.
- They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Images are an easy way to improve the user experience of your school’s website. Studies show that people remember 80% what they see and only 20% what they read. In fact, there’s research that suggests that 65% of people are visual learners. MIT also found that the human brain can process images in as little as 13 milliseconds. These and many other statistics favour the idea that images are powerful means of communication. Ask us how we can help update your website imagery.
- Not only does a website give your potential students information, but it also shows that you’re up with the times. Having up to date, relevant and compelling content highlights that you’re interested in your school’s growth and innovation. It also helps schools relay crucial information surrounding severe weather conditions or school closures for example.
- A Stanford study shows that 75% of consumers admit to making judgments on a company’s credibility based on the company’s web design. Promote your schools’ purpose, vision and values and it will spread throughout the online community. You will need to ensure your brand is sharp and managed via some brand guidelines. We can help with this and web development.
- Driving an omni-channel approach enables your school staff to proactively engage with parents and their communities both online and offline. That’s why consistent communication and having the offline tools available to manage enrolment enquiry for example will not only accelerate processes for staff, it also drives brand consistency and an overall positive user-experience.
- Look into whether advertising on your website is able to be sponsorship inventory for your school, local community-based businesses would be interested if so, but best to make part of a package than sold in isolation. All sponsorship placements can be customised, and Sponsorship Ready can support in producing all graphic content needs on behalf of your school!
For more information on how to drive sustainable sponsorship revenue, you can contact our team who would love to discuss with you some of our success stories and case studies.
For an initial chat please contact Kelsey McAlpine via Kelsey.McAlpine@sponsorshipready.com.au or call 0434 495 948.
Build a connected school community
Schools that have rich community engagement programs are more likely to create vetter sponsorship educational opportunities for students, teachers, parents, and the wider school. School sponsors can help play a part in this as well as deliver incremental revenue for the school.
Share your schools purpose, vision, values
By sharing your school’s purpose, vision and values effectively to your schools community, it drives positive impact on brand visibility and awareness for both sponsors and schools.
With your community in tune with your schools vision, it’s easier to connect with the right sponsors that represent similar values and secure the right sponsorship educational opportunities.
Understand what a sponsors objectives are
All too often schools miss out on building these relationships because they present benefits without understanding the motivations of prospective sponsors, so to enable your best chance of finding the right sponsorship platform – remember this! Schools have so much to offer!
Understand that your schools sponsorship strategy should sit alongside other key strategies
Strategic partnerships, communications strategy and marketing strategy. Engaging with sponsors, bringing them into your sponsor family is therefore a great opportunity delivering more than just revenue.
400% increase in sponsorship
Keperra Country Golf Club had teed off their sponsorship program with more than a 400% increase in sponsorship revenue, and they’re just getting started.
We were pleased to work with General Manager Gavin Lawrence and his team to get Keperra Country Golf Club Sponsorship Ready.
“The professional selling tools that have come from the process are professional and now in line with how we as a club wish to see our brand be portrayed in the market. The results have been more than impressive and we are genuine contenders in assisting brands connect with the community and moreover deliver commercial return for investment,” said Gavin Lawrence, General Manager of Keperra Country Golf Club.
“We have a strategy now and would recommend the program to any golf club seeking to go to the next level in raising revenue so they can continue to reinvest in the club and keep their members happy, healthy and active,” he added.
Congratulations to Gavin and his team on a great result. We can’t wait to see what the coming months deliver.
To learn more about the work undertaken by Keperra Country Golf Club with Sponsorship Ready, please click here.
Softball Queensland new partnership approach
Softball Queensland and CEO Ross Symonds were recently featured in an Australian Leisure Management article highlighting their new approach to sponsorship management.
An excerpt from the article:
Softball Queensland has unveiled its new approach to forming sponsorships in response to the ever-changing landscape of community and sports organisations.
With the industry still recovering after COVID-19, it has become more paramount than ever for organisations to encourage participation and demonstrate the value return for business sponsors.
Advising that the organisation’s approach to create partnerships involves understanding business objectives and tailoring a package to suit those needs, Softball Queensland Chief Executive, Ross Symonds explained “a partnership with Softball Queensland is not a request for philanthropy, with sizeable reach and impact a partnership can deliver on commercial, brand and community engagement objectives as well as help us keep Queenslanders fit, active and healthy.
“Softball Queensland is a powerful conduit to thousands of engaged and passionate supporters, players and volunteers across the state.”
Noting that sponsorship partnerships with Softball Queensland were beneficial as it promotes brand image, visibility and awareness, Symonds commented “through these vital partnerships we create a platform for our sponsors to showcase their own work and this delivers traffic to their businesses and websites.
“As well as raising brand awareness, Softball Queensland can offer prospective sponsors opportunities such as co-sponsor networking, community connection and strategies to enhance social media presence through campaigns.”
Softball Queensland and Sponsorship Ready designed the new approach to suit the changing landscape of community sports organisations and create meaningful sponsorship opportunities.
Sponsorship Ready Director Terry Johnston said it can take as little as 90 days to get sponsorship ready which is evident through Softball Queensland’s recent additions to its portfolio.
“Softball in Queensland has a story to tell (so) it comes as no surprise to me that Softball Queensland is getting interest in the market now – I have simply helped them tell their story in a way that appeals to sponsors.
“Softball Queensland has some great sponsorship assets that can deliver business objectives.”
To read the full article, click here.
Congratulations to Ross Symonds and the Softball Queensland team. It’s great to see your efforts recognised in the media.
Leverage your school’s impact
Sponsorship of schools can be linked to improving outcomes for students and to funding variety of initiatives including but not limited to:
- Excellence programs
- Extra-curricular programs
- Community engagement programs
- Infrastructure projects
- Additional learning resources
By articulating your school’s reach and impact to potential sponsors, your school can attract real sponsorship dollars through sponsors as well as a great opportunity to promote your schools mission and values in the community.