Sponsors help us make CodeDay the amazing event we know and love. Beyond contributing to the financial bottom line, sponsors also...
- ...give CodeDay more credibility with parents and teachers, particularly if the sponsor is well-known in the community.
- ...help with PR and promotion by sending information to their employees.
- ...can contribute swag and other fun things to remind the attendees of their CodeDay experience.
- ...are evidence for students that the community cares.
- ...often send mentors or provide internships!
In this chapter, we'll discuss what sort of companies sponsor CodeDay, and what makes it a good fit. We'll teach you how to find these companies, how to talk with them about CodeDay, and the process of getting them to make a decision: yes or no. If that decision is "yes", this chapter will also tell you what to do next.
For a lot of new organizers, this chapter covers one of the most frightening parts of organizing, asking for money. As you're reading this section, it's important to recognize that CodeDay isn't a scam or a pyramid scheme: it provides great utility to many companies. Our goal isn't to trick sponsors, it's to explain the benefits and get them to make a decision. You'll learn more about the benefits we can provide in upcoming sections.
Sponsorship Minimums and Goals
CodeDay incurs a lot of costs:
- Food, drink, and event supplies
- Organizer stipends
- Technical operations
- Training and recruiting organizers and evangelists
- Organizer and evangelist travel
- Curriculum development
- Global marketing
Because attendees pay only an average of $8 per ticket, many events lose $200+ on food alone. To cover these expenses, each event needs to raise a minimum of at least $500, or $2,000 for large cities. To support expansion, however, we ask organizers to aim to raise twice the minimum sponsorship.
Collecting and Spending Sponsorships
All sponsorships must go through StudentRND, both for accountability, and because it's required in order for the sponsor to treat it as a donation.
Once you've worked out the specifics of a sponsorship and the sponsor has given a final "yes," you should cc accounts@srnd.org in the sponsorship email thread to introduce us to the sponsor. You can include the following pre-written message or compose your own:
We're really excited to work with you for the upcoming CodeDay! Your support will really mean a lot to our students!I'm cc'ing StudentRND's accounting in this email, who will be able to send you an invoice for the sponsorship. The invoice has instructions for paying by credit card or check.
Thanks so much!
In order to generate the invoice, the final details and amount of the sponsorship must be mentioned somewhere in the email thread you cc us on. If it's not, please mention them in the email in which you cc us.
To spend sponsored money, we'll either send you a SRND Amex card, or you can make the purchases and we can reimburse you. Before you can spend any morey, you need to complete your event budget (described in the Logistics section of this manual).