The 5-step MLH Sponsorship Process

Once you’ve ascertained how much money your hackathon needs and created your sponsorship materials, you’re ready to embark on the fundraising process.

1. Set Targets And Do Your Research

• Compile a list of potential sponsors:

  • Check out sponsors of previous MLH events

  • Search your network (LinkedIn is a great tool for this)

  • Check in with career services at your university — which companies sponsor tech job fairs on your campus?

  • Fundraising announcements

2. Get In Touch

• Send a well-crafted, thoughtful email.

  • For what to put in your email, check out our Sponsor Emails Cheat Sheet here.

  • 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 initial!

• Reach out to the decision maker at each company. When in doubt, email the CEO.

  • Other useful job titles:

    • Developer Relations - aka Dev Rel

    • Marketing/Recruiting/HR

  • These are the people who would have the budget or know who to get in contact with if the CEO does not respond.

• Intros are infinitely better than cold emails.

• Follow up: don’t worry if you don’t receive a response to your initial email; wait 1-2 weeks (3-4 days if closer to your event date) and ask again. You can ping the contact up to 3 times.

3. Have An Exploratory Phone Call

• Make sure the sponsor knows what a hackathon is — use analogies like comparing it to a science fair.

• Ask about success metrics. What did they get from past sponsorships?

• Sell your team and your story. What makes you special?

  • Get the prospect excited about the event. Be sure to share personal experiences about the impact of hackathons.

• Let THEM do all the talking. You’ll figure out what companies most value this way.

  • Get them talking by asking questions. You want to make the call as conversational as possible so you can figure out their goals, while offering up your own experience and expertise. This helps build credibility and trust.

• Don’t be afraid to ask their budget. "Given the times you’ve sponsored events similar to this one, what have you spent and what did you get?"

• Before you hang up, schedule a follow-up call.

4. Make A Proposal

• Do this right away. Sometimes it’s as easy as sending over a prospectus with the packages most relevant to that particular company. Other times, you’ll have to put together a custom proposal.

• Make sure to explain why your offerings are a good fit.

• Give your sponsorship deadline.

• Less is more! Choose a uniform color scheme and keep text to a minimum on each slide.

5. Follow Up And Track Your Progress

• Email a week or two later offering to answer questions.

• Track your emails with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool, an email service like Boomerang, or plain old Excel.

• When a sponsor says yes, invoice them immediately. Create a contract for them to detail the amount and method of payment (make sure they are paying in a currency you accept).