Guest Post: This is part one of a two-part series titled “Conversations with a Sponsorship Purchaser” written by Amy Thornburg. Amy is a collaborative, strategic, and results-oriented professional with 20 years of success in association, event, and sponsorship management. Amy has a unique ability to find creative, actionable, ways for organizations to earn more revenue through building valuable partnerships and finding hidden opportunities.


I have set out to learn the sponsorship truths that sponsors rarely share. To continue my learning in this area, I set out to interview someone who purchases and activates sponsorships and I was lucky to host a conversation with a trusted friend and a new connection.

Hilde Marnul is a Chicago-based marketing and communications professional with an impressive background in sponsorship decision making and evaluation. Maggie Hendrickson is a Client Service Manager for an Indianapolis-based firm which specializes in branding, creative, digital marketing, and research & strategy.

The thing that really stood out to me in my conversation with Hilde and Maggie was that, even though the experiences shared were from earlier in Hilde’s career, the lessons were incredibly relevant. It proved that while social media and technology may change the sponsorship landscape, the foundations do not change. The conversation was a goldmine of truths and advice for association and other non-profits who rely on sponsorship funds. I am excited to jump into today’s post of more things that sponsors won’t tell you but you must know.

Sponsors Won’t Tell You, but Affinity Helps and Results Matter

Many times, matching the supporter to the organization’s value proposition and target audience is the ticket to securing a supporter. Sometimes, however, the decision to purchase a sponsorship is heavily affected by an affinity, a liking, or some personal connection. While everyone enjoys being on the positive side of such affinity, the success of the sponsorship can be out of the association’s control. Meaning that sometimes the success of the sponsorship is held elsewhere. These are often tricky situations for a sponsorship professional. I asked Hilde to give me some insight.

Hilde explained, “…the sponsorships that may have started due to an affinity but we had a wide network and many tools that we could use to leverage the sponsorship. There were so many different assets [in the package] that we could use to achieve our goals. While our leadership personally liked the organization we sponsored, the marketing team leveraged the sponsorship investment and that is why it was successful.”

Sponsors Won’t Tell You, but Listen Closely if you Hear, “We Need to Leverage this Sponsorship More”

I can’t even count the number of times that I have heard this within a sponsorship conversation. Hilde explained exactly what it means.

“It means they need more ROI,” Hilde answered point blank. “We had to prove our return and if we needed to leverage it, it meant we needed more return.”

Sponsors Won’t Tell You, but Perks are Nice but Genuineness is Ideal

Anyone involved in sales or customer development is probably familiar with perks, such as concert tickets or celebrity meet-and-greets. As we chatted about some of the perks of purchasing sponsorships, I heard two lessons emerge. One, do nice things for your sponsors. Too many associations don’t invest enough in this area, and I include myself in needing to learn this lesson. Second, actions with genuine intention are likely more valuable.

“Some of the perks are glitz and glamour.” Hilde continued, “But, in many ways, I liked working with the [smaller budget organization] more. There was a lot of genuineness and they were really trying to help us grow our brand.”

Maggie added, “Some of [our clients] increased spend with organizations because of the support that the organization provides. The organizations have shown up. They publish things [for the clients]. They may not be the biggest associations, but they have shown [our clients] that they care and they are genuine and that affects the sponsorship dollars they have gotten.”

The conversation with Hilde and Maggie resulted in much more valuable content. You can catch more of “what a sponsor won’t tell you but you need to know,” in the next post in this series or visit Amy’s LinkedIn profile for more of her content.