What to include in a sponsorship prospectus
A sponsorship prospectus has one job: help a busy marketer decide your event is worth their budget, and make it easy to pitch internally. That means leading with their goals, proving your audience, and making the packages easy to compare. Here's what to include, section by section, and what to leave out.
Start with who's reading it
Your prospectus will be read by a sponsorship or marketing manager, then forwarded to someone with budget authority who has never heard of you. Write for that second reader. They'll skim, so every page should make sense on its own and answer one question: "Why should we spend money here?"
Sponsors buy access to an audience, and they want to know three things fast:
- Who will we reach? The audience, in numbers.
- What do we get? Packages, benefits and price.
- Why will it work? Proof that sponsoring you pays off.
Everything in the prospectus should serve one of those.
The sections to include
1. Cover
Your event or property name, the dates and location (or format), and a one-line description of who it's for. Make it look like your brand, since this page is what shows up when the deck gets forwarded.
2. The opportunity, in one page
A short summary for the busy reader: what your event is, who attends, the headline numbers, and why it matters to sponsors. If someone reads only this page, they should understand the opportunity.
3. Audience
This is the most important section. Sponsors are paying to reach your audience, so be specific:
- Attendance or reach, and how it has grown.
- Who they are: job titles or seniority, industries, company sizes, locations, or whatever matters to your sponsors.
- How engaged they are: returning attendees, sessions attended, community size, newsletter open rates.
Use real data from registrations, surveys or analytics, and say where it comes from. Vague claims ("thousands of decision-makers") are less convincing than specific ones ("1,200 attendees, 40% engineering managers or above, from our 2026 registration data").
4. Why sponsor
Connect your audience to the sponsor's goals. Common goals include brand awareness with a specific audience, generating leads, hiring, launching a product, and building community goodwill. Show how sponsoring you serves each one.
5. Packages and pricing
The heart of the deck. Make the packages easy to compare:
- A small number of tiers (often three to five), with clear names.
- For each: price, what's included, and how many are available.
- A comparison table so readers can see the difference at a glance.
- Add-ons (a happy hour, a lanyard, a workshop) for sponsors who want something specific.
Lead each package with outcomes, not just inventory: "a 20-minute talk to 400 engineering leaders" beats "speaking slot."
Should you include prices? Usually yes. Prices help buyers qualify themselves and move faster, and a deck without prices often just leads to an email asking for them. If you price custom deals case by case, give a starting price or a range.
6. Proof
Show that sponsoring you works:
- Past sponsors (with permission to name them).
- Quotes or short results from sponsors, if you have them.
- Photos of sponsor activations: booths, branded spaces, stage moments.
If you're new, use the organizers' track record, partner organizations, or the community you've already built.
7. Timeline and deadlines
Key dates: when packages need to be confirmed, deadlines for logos and assets, and the event itself. Real deadlines help a prospect make the case internally for moving now.
8. Next steps and contact
Make saying yes easy: who to contact, how to reserve a package, and what happens after. Include a name, an email and, ideally, a link to book a call.
What to leave out
- Walls of text. Sponsors skim. Use short sections, numbers and visuals.
- Every possible benefit. Lead with what matters; put the long list in an appendix.
- Unsupported numbers. If a sponsor later finds the audience smaller than promised, you lose the renewal.
- Out-of-date information. Last year's dates or sold-out packages make the deck look stale.
- Internal jargon. Name things the way a sponsor would.
Common mistakes
- Making it about you instead of them. The history of your event matters less than what the sponsor gets.
- Too many tiers. If readers can't tell Silver from Bronze in a few seconds, simplify.
- No clear call to action. End with exactly how to move forward.
- Sending it as an attachment and hoping. You'll never know who read it, and every forward is a copy you can't update.
After you send it
A prospectus is the start of a conversation, not the end. Share it as a trackable link so you know who's reading it and when to follow up, and keep one up-to-date version rather than a dozen attachments. See Sponsorship prospectus tracking and How to follow up on a sponsorship proposal.
Ready to build yours? Use our sponsorship prospectus template for a page-by-page outline.
How Sponsor Trove helps
Upload your finished prospectus to Sponsor Trove and share it as a link. Prospects enter their email to read it in the browser with your branding, and each reader becomes a deal in your pipeline. If AI answers are on, prospects can ask the deck questions and get answers drawn only from it. Questions it can't answer are flagged for you, which is a handy way to find out what your prospectus is missing.