Emailing Your Sponsors Cheat Sheet

We know that emailing sponsors can be difficult. Below is a guide to help craft your initial email.

Your first email should NEVER contain a link, attachment, or image. Many companies have IT policies that send new outside emails containing these straight to trash to prevent phishing. Do not have sponsorship prospectus, meeting invite link, website link, image in signature, etc in your first email. Instead put them in a follow-up email 1-2 weeks after the first email!

What should you include?	Why?	Example
Details about the event: size, location, dates	These essential details will be some of the first things a potential sponsor is looking for	LoonHacks will be taking place on April 8-10th at Example University. We expect over 500 hackers this year!
Overview of what a hackathon is	Remember that your audience might not be familiar with what a hackathon is! It’s important to give some context in case they’re not familiar.	A hackathon is a weekend-long invention marathon where High School and College students from the New York City area will spend the weekend building awesome projects
Something Personal	Remember that your audience might not be familiar with what a hackathon is! It’s important to give some context in case they’re not familiar.	I see that you’ve been working with blockchain integration! We are really excited about a blockchain track we’re incorporating into our hackathon!
What makes your event unique	Some sponsors will be receiving a ton of requests to sponsor hackathons. Briefly tell them why your event is special!	As the largest female-centric event in the east, we strive to provide a space to encourage female and non-binary hackers that they belong in the tech community.
Request to chat	Being able to hop on a phone call to pitch your event will help your potential sponsor get a better idea of how they can work with your event.	I’d love to chat about how LoonHacks and CompanyName can work together! Do you have any availability next week? How is Tuesday @ 3 pm.
An eye-catching subject line	People get a ton of emails.	“LoonHacks and CompanyName Partnership” Meet the best students in X town this Feb