Understanding your Sponsors

You’ll be targeting five types of sponsors:

Financial — Cash for services. Most sponsors fall into this category.
Presenting — Sponsors that co-host or co-brand your event. (Be careful not to give up too much control here.)
Strategic partners — Sponsors that help with marketing and promotion; often publications.
In-kind — Donor companies. They can contribute hardware, t-shirts, etc.

Sponsors support hackathons for three primary reasons:

To get real time feedback on their development products, especially APIs
To raise awareness (or change the perception) of their brand
To recruit interns and full-time employees, especially during the fall

Sponsors’ top practical concerns:

Attendee value
- Are your hackathon’s attendees a good fit for the company in terms of recruiting, marketing, etc.?
- How hard is it for companies to reach this audience without your help?
Who else is sponsoring?
- Depending on the sponsor, your other backers matter. Some companies prefer to sponsor events their competitors sponsor, whereas others want to ensure they’re the biggest name on your roster.
Package Value
- Are they getting their money’s worth?
The Force (a.k.a. their gut)
- How do the sponsors feel about your competency: is the event well-organized so far? Have you been professional in all communications?