Getting sponsors on board may sound scary, but it is really not so difficult. Because Django Girls tries to reach a demographic of (usually) young women who are interested in technology, our attendees are possible employees or customers of a company that may sponsor your event.
We look for sponsors who are active participants in the local technology scene, from startups to big corporations to non-profits to government organizations.
Also, non-technology companies can be approached: beverage brands, local restaurants, etc. They all should have some affiliation or interest in technology, perhaps by sponsoring or hosting other technology meetups.
Django Girls should always be kept non-profit: if there’s money left, it should be used to support the future activities of the attendees or donated to the Django Software Foundation, who frequently support us. Don’t forget that you don’t need that much funding, and even a two-person startup could be willing to chip in. It may be easier to get many small companies on board than to get one large sponsor.
The usual offer is to give sponsors an opportunity to showcase their product or service to people who are attending the event. That may include:
- logo, description and link on the website
- banner/roll-up in the venue during the event
- flyers/gadgets distributed to attendees during the event
- a couple of minutes for a sponsor to talk during the event
- public thanks to them from your social media accounts
- e-mail sent to attendees after the event (but sent by you on behalf of the sponsor!)
We recommend talking to sponsors and ask about their goals. We always try to collaborate with our partners and we make sure they get actual value and are happy with the results.
The most important is: never sell the data of your attendees (names, emails, etc). You can send e-mails to attendees on behalf of the sponsor, but you can't share private information of people with them.
Sponsors are of course free to hang out during the event and talk to attendees directly.
If you have time for that, we really recommend creating a simple Sponsorship Offer - a PDF file, a couple of pages. Say who you are, what Django Girls is (and why it's so awesome!), who is going to attend the event and what's the value for them.
You can use the Sponsorship Offer we prepared for our first event and modify it to your needs.
Price your sponsorships in a range of 300 - 1000 Euro, but remember that even the smallest contributions are important.
- Look for similar events in your city and try contacting companies who support those events.
- Look at the websites for prior Django Girls events and see if any of those sponsors have offices in your city.
- E-mail or call local companies that are familiar to you. Finding local sponsors might be more work than contacting big global companies, but in the end it pays off because a local company is more likely to sponsor you and want to build a relationship with you. It is very likely that they will help you out with a future workshop or follow-up event in your town as well.
- Post a "call for help" on your social media channels. Maybe someone will join you!
- Create a list of local companies who use Python on daily basis and email them asking for help
- Reach out to global companies and organizations like Github or ask the Django Software Foundation for help. Keep in mind that the Django Software Foundation is a charity with a very limited budget, so only ask them if you really need their help. Also try to find global companies that haven't sponsored Django Girls events yet.
- Lincoln Loop and Divio are companies who support us via Patreon, so please don't get in touch with them, as they can't handle replying to emails from organizers from all over the world. If you want them to sponsor your event, please get in touch with hello@djangogirls.org.
- The Python Software Foundation provides a 50$ per attendee grant for Python Educational Programs (you are eligible for that!). Send them a grant proposal here: https://www.python.org/psf/grants/
Simply send them an email like this:
Hello XXX!
My name is X X and I am the organizer of Django Girls in City. Django Girls is a global, non-profit organization that helps women to get involved with technology and teach them about programming.
We're doing our first event in City on X the Xth and we would love to get you involved. We're looking for sponsors who can help us cover the costs of food, drinks and others.
Attached is our sponsorship proposal, but we would love to talk to you more. Please get in touch.
Have a great day, X X
Unfortunately, you also have to take care of transferring the money from sponsor to provider. You can do it in three ways:
- If you have your own company, you can just invoice them and pay for the costs. That's probably the simplest way.
- If you don't have your own company, ask the local Python community or your friends if they can help with that. If there's a Django/Python Association in your country you can ask them for help as well. If you handle the money transfer through a friend's company, keep in mind that you will most likely have to pay taxes on the money you receive. The amount varies from country to country.
- You can also ask sponsors to pay for food/printing directly.
Make sure to tell the sponsors when you need the money. Money transfer can take a few days and you will have to pay for some things like printing t-shirts or bags beforehand. Make sure to have all the money in your bank account at least 1-2 weeks before the workshop so you don't get into trouble or have to organize some things last minute.
We have prepared sample invoices for GitHub and PSF. They usually sponsor Django Girls events so it might just be something useful for you. You can also use them as an example of how to create an invoice and what should it contain.
You can access the invoices on google drive.
Inside each file you have to choose File > Make a copy. In your invoice you will have to fill the missing details. This has to be done with special care and attention. You can't make mistakes here because it may result in not receiving money before the event.