By Syafiah Sakirin
PAGOH, 26 December 2021: A webinar recently held here under the Skill Up Training Programme (SUTpro) discussed ‘Financial Sponsorship’ to enhance networking skills in handling sponsorship in any organisation, society and club.
It was conducted by the Mahallah Representative Council (MRC) of Mahallah Zaid Bin Harithah during ‘Chit Chat and Coffee Talk’ slot.
The guest for this slot was Nur Hasina Mahbud Ahmad, who preferred to be called Mek Syna, a Malaysian delegate for an international programme.
Mek Syna, who has been involved in many overseas conference programmes shared various useful tips on the effective ways for applicants to create good sponsorship proposals.
In the webinar session, she advised participants to include important details such as the objective of the programme, the reasons for seeking funding, and a strong justification of the need for it.
“Mentioning collaboration that the programme would have with other institutions, organisations, and club network, are much better,” she said.
She also said that an incomplete proposal will cause the company to reject it since most companies, particularly the big ones, will be very detailed in accepting it as they have to know what the programme is all about.
Based on her experience in handling the sponsorship flow, applicants should specify the event organiser, the target audience, involvement with other sponsors, and budget breakdown elaboration.
“All of these are to ensure the worthiness of applied budget and to gain the sponsor’s trust,” she said.
Furthermore, Mek Syna emphasised the importance of team marketing in preparing backup plans besides other media tasks.
She stated that the backup plan is crucial when the initial budget goes beyond the expectation during the programme, such as when the target audience is incompatible with budget cost.
She further addressed the applicants to consider properly the benefits that the sponsor will get in return after the event. For example, they can promote the company’s brand through university media coverage platforms like IIUMtv, IIUM.fm, and IIUMToday.
“Besides financial sponsorship and cash donation categories, some companies will provide support in kind instead, which is by contributing materials based on the budget amount applied.” She said this when responding to the moderator’s question on what the company’s category should applicants think of.
Some people will do nothing and just wait for the company’s response after they email the proposal. However, the speaker highly suggested for applicants to make more efforts such as by calling or meeting the sponsors personally.
The webinar proceeded with a Q & A session and proposal sharing by Mek Syna to show her best sponsorship paperwork as a reference to the participants. ***