How to Sell Event Sponsorship Packages Online for a Nonprofit Event

To sell event sponsorships online, publish a sponsorship page that lists each package with its price and benefits, take payment by card at checkout, and add each sponsor to your event page automatically once they pay. That replaces the PDF prospectus, the emailed invoice, and the chase for a logo file with one link you can send to every prospect.

This guide covers how to structure sponsorship packages for a nonprofit or association event, what to put on the sponsorship page, and how to set it up in CompleteEvent.

How to structure sponsorship packages

Most nonprofit and association events do well with three to five levels. More than that and prospects can't tell the difference between them.

These are starting points, not rules. Price from what your sponsors paid last year and what the benefits cost you, not from what a larger organization charges.

Make every benefit specific

“Recognition at the event” doesn't tell a sponsor what they are buying. “Logo on the registration page, the check-in screen, and the printed program” does. Sponsors have to justify the spend to someone too. Give them a list they can forward.

Limit the top levels

One presenting sponsor and four gold sponsors is a promise you can keep on stage and in the room. A cap also gives prospects a reason to decide early.

Include a low-cost level

Local businesses, board members' employers, and past attendees often give at $500 when they would never consider $5,000. A community level brings in sponsors who move up in later years.

What to put on the sponsorship page

• One sentence on who attends: number, roles, and why they matter to a sponsor.
• Each package: name, price, benefits as a list, and how many are available.
• The payment deadline and the logo deadline for printed materials.
• A contact name and email for custom packages and in-kind sponsorships.
• Your tax-deductibility statement, if any part of the sponsorship is a donation.

How to sell sponsorships in CompleteEvent

1. Open your event and go to Fundraising → Packages.
2. Click Add Package. Enter the package name, its level, the price, the benefits (one per line), and an optional maximum number of sponsors.
3. Copy the public sponsorship link shown at the top of the page and send it to prospects.

A prospect picks a package and enters their company name, contact details, website, and logo URL. For a paid package, they go to Stripe Checkout and pay by card. When the payment goes through, the sponsor is added to your sponsor list automatically and their logo appears in the sponsors section of your public event page, grouped by level. A $0 package is confirmed right away, which works for in-kind sponsors.

Payments go to your own connected Stripe account. Stripe charges its standard processing fee, and CompleteEvent adds the same platform fee as on tickets: 3% on Free, 1% on Starter, 0.75% on Growth, or 0.5% on Pro. Sponsorship packages are available on every plan.

For sponsors who pay by check or invoice, add them to the sponsor list by hand from the Sponsors page so they still appear on the event page.

After the sale

• Deliver every listed benefit. Keep a checklist per sponsor. The most common reason sponsors don't renew is a benefit that never happened.
• Send a short report after the event: attendance, a photo of their logo on signage, and anything else you promised. It makes next year's ask easier.
• Exhibitor lead capture (Pro plan) lets sponsors with a booth scan attendee badges and download their leads after the event, which gives them a number to take back to their own budget meeting.

For other ways to raise money at the same event, see silent auction software and how to plan a fundraising gala.