Finding sponsorship to fund kit and equipment is one of the responsibilities that every grassroots football coach loathes, but it is an essential evil.
Kit and coaching equipment are not cheap and come at a hefty cost. Clubs that often run 20-30 teams across different age groups simply cannot afford to fund kit and equipment for everyone, at least not all of it, which is why parents pay sub fees – but that will only stretch so far.
Finding sponsorship from a local business is the avenue that coaches must take to fund kit, including winter essentials such as training tops, beanie hats, and rain jackets, as well as equipment like footballs, first aid kits, and cones and bibs. That is often easier said than done unless coaches either run their own business or have contacts they can call upon.
To have the best chance of gaining sponsorship for your team, you need to know who to approach and how to pitch what you are offering. Without speaking to the right person or presenting a mutually beneficial opportunity, you are going to be disappointed in your efforts.
Who to Approach for Grassroots Football Sponsorship?
Before you start calling and emailing every business you come across, consider who it is that is most likely to want to sponsor a football team. Large global companies probably aren’t going to be excited by the prospect of having their brand printed on the back of a few 10-year-olds’ training tops, and you will be lucky if you even get a response.
Who you should be approaching are:
- Companies local to the football club
- Start-ups desperate for exposure
- Community groups looking for mutually beneficial opportunities
- Health and fitness companies
- Friends and/or relatives that know business owners (or who are business owners)
These are great places to start as, in theory, companies that fall under any of these categories are where you are most likely to find the most joy. Local companies are always keen to be seen to be supporting their local community, with the prospect of exposure in local media. The same can be said for start-up companies that just want to get their name out there…so if there are any local start-ups, they should be your number one target.
Community groups are also good to approach as, like local businesses, they are keen to support their local community. By sponsoring your football team, it shows that they are working within their community, and reaching out to their target audience (making it mutually beneficial).
Should you be fortunate to have friends and/or relatives that know or are business owners then you should explore this avenue. As the saying goes, it’s not what you know it’s who you know, and business owners are more likely to get their chequebook out for people they know. If any of the parents of the players in your team are business owners then it is in their interest to sponsor the team, ensuring their child benefits from the kit and equipment their sponsorship can afford.
Pitching Your Sponsorship Opportunity
What’s in it for them? This is the first question that you will be asked and make sure you have a better answer lined up than having their name on a shirt. You need to consider everything else that your team can offer than comes along with putting their company’s logo on your kit.
Consider how you would go about generating exposure for your team and sponsor, sending press releases to local media (pictures in newspapers etc…) and posting about it on social media. In the modern-day, social media is a powerful tool for grassroots football clubs as they tend to have highly engaged audiences (i.e. a better chance of having posts being shared and getting seen by more people). These are things that you should be focusing on.
In return for sponsoring your football team, you will promise to post X number of times on social media to X number of followers. This can be supplemented with a news article written on your club’s website and will be circulated to local media. Additionally, you can also throw in the offer of making you and your team available for promotional work (such as pictures etc…) for the sponsor. This is all much more valuable to any potential sponsor than simply saying ‘people will see the logo on the shirt’.
How Much to Ask for Grassroots Football Sponsorship?
When you have your potential sponsor’s interest you need to have a figure that you can put across for what you are offering. Include what it is you will be using the money for – this is important, especially if any invoices will be sent directly to your sponsor. This means that before you go about asking for sponsorship, you should have already priced up everything that you are hoping to get for your team.
Companies may ask for quotations before agreeing to sponsor, so make sure to gather quotes and prices from companies. Depending on how much kit and equipment, or football trophies, you are hoping to buy, you may have to accept that your sponsor won’t be willing/able to fund the entirety of the figure you are looking for. In this instance, you can decide whether to go ahead with the sponsorship and either pay the rest yourself or recoup the funds through other avenues (such as fundraisers) or look at a secondary sponsor.
If you do look for a second sponsor, you absolutely must be upfront with all potential sponsors about this. This will avoid any awkward conversations with sponsors who may have thought they were your only sponsor and would not have to share any exposure with another company (who they may not want to work with). For example, if you are approaching two companies that are in direct competition with one another, it is unlikely that they will want to be involved with the other.
Keep Your Sponsor Updated
Once you have your sponsor in place, don’t forget about them once they have paid up. Keep your sponsor updated with your team’s progress through the season (and keep banging the drum about your sponsor through social media).
Your success is their success. Maintaining a good relationship with your sponsor could be key to securing next season’s sponsorship, saving you from approaching every business in the area once again.
The task of seeking sponsorship is never an easy one. Hopefully, this article helps you to prepare your pitch to secure that all-important sponsor ahead of the new season.
