Contact

Melinda Cervantes
Director of Corporate Partnerships

Club Sponsorship Resources

The Corporate Partnerships (CP) Department advises and supports student clubs and conferences with their corporate sponsorship solicitations. This office serves as a liaison between companies and Kellogg students and is knowledgeable on The Kellogg School’s overall relationships and history with corporate partners.
If you are interested in fundraising

• Set up a meeting with your CP contact to discuss your budget and sponsorship plan.   
• Your CP contact must approve all corporate solicitation packages and company lists before solicitation begins.
• As an alternative to fundraising, some clubs ask the hosting companies to provide food for the event.

Is your club eligible?

• Corporate sponsorship is reserved for clubs of an academic or cultural nature. Non-academic clubs or activities of a purely social nature are not permitted to solicit companies for sponsorship.  Non-academic clubs include sports clubs and social clubs. 
• If your club is not eligible for corporate support, Kellogg Thank-a-thons are a simple way to raise funds by talking with Kellogg alumni and thanking them for their donations to the school.  

Is your event eligible?

• Corporate sponsorship can be raised for events and activities that benefit the entire Kellogg community, provide an academic and intellectual gain, or share a cultural experience that enhances the overall education.
• Case Competitions – A corporation can host, not sponsor, a case competition.  This means that no money exchanges hands between Kellogg and the hosting corporation.  All monies paid for hosting the competition (prize money, food), should be paid directly to the vendor/student by the company.  Additionally, because case competitions benefit very few students, no sponsorship money can be raised to support a team’s entrance fee or traveling expenses.   If you are interested in hosting a case competition, please contact your CP contact.
• Treks – We do not seek sponsors for student treks. 

Quick Tips for Club Fundraising

• When developing a list of potential sponsors, utilize business contacts, recruiters, Kellogg alumni and past organizers of your activity.
• Per Kellogg’s Company Presence Guidelines, clubs should not schedule more than 3 events per week.  Additionally, a company can participate in student events up to 3 times per quarter. 
• Club fundraising should begin 4 months before the event. 
• We suggest soliciting for all of your eligible events within one succinct sponsorship package.
• Sponsorship should be raised for an event and cannot be raised generally for a club.  Sponsorship levels across club events are $750 for one event, $1,500 for two events and $2,000 for three events.
• Typical event sponsorship benefits include the ability to send a speaker, logo placement on emails promoting the event, and signage at the event. 
• All recognition given to a company should be limited to the event(s) that they are sponsoring.
• We suggest giving a company 2-3 weeks to respond to your request.
• Follow up on your email 3-5 business days after it is sent to confirm receipt and to answer any questions they may have about the program.
• Please make sure that you check the KelloggGroups calendar for potential conflicts when setting dates with companies for events.
• Please let your CP contact know once a company agrees to sponsor, so an invoice can be sent.  The check will be sent to the CP office, so that it can be acknowledged by the University as a gift to the school.  The check is first deposited into a University Gift Account and is transferred to the club’s account.  Please note that it may take a few weeks to be posted.
• Companies should not be solicited less than 6 weeks before the event.  This is to ensure that marketing materials can be produced in time.
• In-kind gifts are defined as donations or awards of company property, goods or services which are not cash.  In-kind gifts will be recognized only if the gift helps with the bottom line of the event budget.  (i.e. complimentary printing of a marketing piece)

When following through with sponsorship benefits

• Please provide the company contacts with a timeline of when documents will be needed to fulfill sponsorship benefits.
• Logo display.  When placing company logos (emails, banners), if multiple companies - please list logos in alphabetical order.
• The CP office will be send sponsors a thank you letter once their sponsorship check is received.  We also recommend that within one week following the event, you send a note, thanking them for their donation.