Nebraska Career Information System

Below are some ideas on how to approach private business about sponsoring Internet CIS and how you may recognize their sponsorship.

Finding Sponsors

• Check your district's policy for private sponsors.
• Talk with teachers, parents, or guardians and school volunteers to investigate their ideas and connections.
• Create a list of businesses in your community or surrounding communities that you can approach.
• Consider setting different levels of sponsorship.

Benefits for Sponsors

Businesses are more likely to provide funding if there is some benefit for them. There are many different ways you can recognize and thank the sponsors.

• Display the sponsor's banner at school events, such as Career Night, Career Day, or Parent Night.
• Acknowledge and thank the sponsor at a school event.
• Place the sponsor's logo on your school's web site.
• Acknowledge and thank the sponsor in your school's newsletter.
• Customize your CIS Bookmarks with the addition of the sponsor's name.
• Make a poster for the computer labs acknowledging the sponsor's support for CIS.

Make phone calls

• Call local businesses to find out if they're interested in helping your school.
• When you begin your conversation, focus on how the company will benefit from sponsoring Internet CIS.
• Come up with a pitch that in 20 seconds OR LESS
• Explain what Internet CIS is, how it benefits your students, and how it will benefit the company.
• Once you've made all these calls, review your notes and prepare a list of companies you will solicit.

• It is important that each sponsor feels you are asking money specifically from their company; customize the letter.
• Keep your letter short.
• Concentrate on the exposure the company will receive for their money. Tell them the anticipated impressions such a sponsorship will yield. Impressions are calculated by finding the total number of times a sponsor's name will be seen or heard. For instance, if you have a Career Night for students and their parents or guardians, you might say this event will draw 100 people and your company's name will be announced twice during the course of the evening.
• Provide the sponsor with information about CIS and how it will be used with students. Consider giving the business access to CIS.

Follow-up

• After receiving your letter, some companies will call you to say they are interested in sponsoring, most will not.
• It is up to you to follow up with them about two to three weeks after sending your proposal. Some people hesitate to follow up, thinking it will bother the company. The best way to find out that an interested party may not have received your letter is by following it up with a call.
• Some interested companies may request a face-to-fact meeting. Do not be afraid of this; a face to face meeting is the best way to show the potential sponsor Internet CIS and how you use it in the classroom. This will also give you an opportunity to show the company all of the information in CIS that relates to their industry. For instance, if you are contacting a local bank, you could show them all of the occupations listed under the Finance Cluster.

Cultivate your relationships with sponsors

• Don't drop your sponsors once they've agreed to send you money. One of the worst messages to send a sponsor is: “I just cared about getting your money. Now that I've got it, I'm going to disappear.” Make sure sponsors see that you value their support, especially if you may approach them in the future to sponsor Internet CIS.
• Once a company has agreed to be a sponsor, send them a thank-you letter that recaps the benefits.
• Send another thank you after you receive payment for the product.
• Have students write thank you letters.
• If your school has a newsletter, begin sending it to them.

Give your sponsors plenty of publicity

• Make sure your sponsors receive everything promised. If you can give them added publicity, do so. You do not want to put all the work into acquiring sponsors and then not deliver results.