Getting Sponsorships

[BlindBrick 0]

My college's skydiving club would really like to form a competitve team. Unfortunately, the state just slashed the school's budget by over 15% due to the recession. So if this happens, it is going to have to be entirely self-sufficient.

Given that, are there any organizations or manufactuers that are known to sponsor college teams?

Also, does anyone hav experience with this type of fund raising? If so, do you have any suggestions or tips?

Finally, a question from left field. The school's a non-profit org and we are a registered organization under them. Could we get away with trading an aircraft owner lifts for tax-deductions equal to the value of the lift?

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[base698 19]

Go to all the local spots you frequent and tell them your dilemma. Selling donuts and showing video in a populated area of campus might also work too

[weid14 0]

This has been talked about before, but basically, what are you going to do for them, not what can they do for you. How are you going to promote their products, bring more business to the DZ, make people spend their hard earned cash because you are sponsored, etc. The economy is slow, gear manufacturers/dealers/DZ's business is down, you need to understand they are not in business to give stuff away.

thats the bad news, the good news is, if you go in with a well thought out plan (we will average x points, we are going to compete in x competitions, we will promote your products in x fashion, we will bring x tandems/fun jumpers into the dz, we will fill x loads of the otter per day) things will go better for you. when we were training, we filled 3 otter loads per weekend day (12 jumps, 5 slots per jump), that keeps the plane turning and keeps jumpers jumping, the DZO likes that. We also held a skills camp and organized occasionally. For gear, I would only jump stuff I believe in (some will believe in what ever is free).

Anyway, good luck, you might also want to contact GT Inviscid (i probably spelled that wrong). Allison and Jonathan post here regularly, and they are poor college students also.

hope that helped (and didn't discourage, I'm just trying to be realistic)

[airtwardo 7]

Use Your Resources!
I'm not aware of anyone sponsoring college skydiving...other than the military schools.
So it gonna be up to you. I was faced with the same situation a couple hundred years ago when I was in college.
It is going to be a lot of hard work, but funding your club on your own will be a better business education that any classroom.
Another jumper and I started a club at Southern Illinois, in 3 years it went from 2 members to over 1200. When I graduated there was 3000+ dollars in the kitty, we owned some student gear, and went to the nationals 3 times.
Times have somewhat changed since then, but I'm sure the basic ideas we incorporated are still valid.

Get involved in student government-Not only is this a great resume filler, it will allow you to see university policies from the inside. Find out everything you can about how the school can assist your club. Just because 'they' say there is no money, doesn't mean there aren't available resources. Do you have to be a 'club,' 'team,' 'student organization'...our school wouldn't help a club, but gave our 'team' a 15 person van to use for transport to the dz and nationals, gas and insurance was included. They wouldn't 'pay' for jumps, but we found a way to add equipment into the sports budget, we bought some used gear that was then put to work as rental rigs for the team...creating cash.
I worked a deal with the local DZO, I was an instructor there so I had a pretty good idea what we could get...
I sat him down and gave him my best sales pitch..."Help me help you" is the best approach. Our team got $20.00 for every first jump student we recruited and transported to the dropzone. 10.00 went to the club, 10.00 went as a discount to the 'new club member.'
Recruit students like mad! We gave presentations to other organizations, campus functions, went dorm to dorm and set up a table during dinner ... bring your gear...show videos...pictures...have an official sign up sheet and take a deposit.
You are surrounded by intelligent-motivated people with time to spend...use this resource! Have some graphics arts people make up a school specific tee-shirt design, and posters...sell 'em at a profit. We made up a really cool "SIU Sky Diving Team" windbreaker in school colors, 20.00 to make - sold them for 40.00...Everyone wanted one! I think we sold well over a hundred of them...It was great seeing our design all over campus and in the bars!
Several times a year local business owners would sponsor university clubs to work civic events, setting up a carnival, assisting with recycle day, painting and cleaning old buildings....build up your club membership and you've got quite a volunteer workforce...proceeds to go into the club account for the nationals or whatever.

Look at this challenge as a business that you are trying to start up and run. You're the CEO, have a mission statement to guide you, set goals, delegate responsibilities and follow up on progress.
Maintain a 'good' image with the city and the school.
Offer a service - product, at a profit.
Grow your organization, with size comes power...the first time I approached the school board for funding to get to the nationals, I could show them our 'club' of, at that time 400+ members was sending the best 5 as a 'team' to compete on a national level with dozens of other schools.
As in the 'real world,' I went to them suit & tie, all my ducks in a row-facts about our club, about the competition, projected costs, and how we would be representing our school, once again...help me help you approach.
They found a couple grand to help, which was used on lift tickets for practice and general expenses of the competition.
You can make this work, IF you want to bad enough!
Be creative, think outside the box.
Most importantly...
USE YOUR RESOURCES!!!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[Watcher 0]

Well other than the good advice everyone has already given you, I will start by saying its damn hard. Very very few teams are fully sponsored in this sport, some of the really good teams get gear support but that is ussually the extent. Dropzone's will tend to offer you deals if you happen to be big fish in small pond and your team really helps turn loads.

In the industry: Skysystems has been one of our better sponsors, good products, good deals, and good support. Skydive Atlanta our current dropzone is really helping us out this year. Shannon Pilcher has helped us get coaching support and some gear support. He is Tech Alumni along with the rest of the Genesis guys.

I sent them emails talking about what the team could offer them as far as exposure, both in competition and in our referal status for new students that we bring in. That is what we found with talking to within the industy.

Outside of the industry, well that proved to be very difficult. We approached companies that supported the school to see if they would help support our team. Risk management though in every case has shot us down, companies to not want thier name associated with a group that has the potential to die while training on thier dime so to speak.

We have a few options we are going to pursue this year to see what happens.

Now if the team wants to fund raise, the local pizza place (we have All-star pizza) and Krispy Kreme donuts would help, unfortuantly the amount gained versus the time it takes was deemed not advantageous to us.

We instead just got jobs we make money to cover 90% of our costs. The other 10% comes from SGA funding for a competition team with the skydiving club.

If you want to be seriously competitive expect to spend roughly 6-8 thousand dollars a year, thats packing for yourself, add packers the cost goes up.

Now as for the tax deduction idea, that has feasiblity only if the school is working closely with you because the school has to provide reciepts to the business donating money, and if its much like my college don't expect them to help much or at all, its more workload for them and the school gets nothing out of it.

Alumni of the college might be the best option, going to your alumni association and putting in your situation into their news letter (if they have one). Alumni always tend to want to give back some ways (if they enjoyed thier time and profited from thier schooling) an alumni that made some money and has always had that intrest in skydiving might be willing to send you 10 grand. Which would greatly help in your training finances.

Thats about the best I can offer you, good luck and if you do find success let me know so I can repeat.

Jonathan
GTInviscid
GTSkydiving

--

Jonathan Bartlett
D-24876
AFF-I

[BlindBrick 0]

Thanks for all the great replies everyone. Let me refine our position a little more to see if it generates any more ideas.

We would like to field a four way team and a couple of freeflyers for Nationals. Very few of us have our gear and those who do wouldn't mind competion oriented gear anway becuase of free-fly compatibility and other issues.

I know the whole economy is hurting right now so I don't expect any real sponsorship from the skydiving industry. I do know however; that there are a lot of manufactuers out there that do give substantial team discounts if you buy identical items. Given that I figure we need to budget about four grand per rig(w/ AAD). So that's 24 grand. Next, very few of us have jumpsuits so there's some more money out. Let's call it $2500 for 8 suits. Let's tack on another $2000 for decent helmets. Then let's say $1000 for altimeters. Let's assume that we spend another $500 in rubber bands, patch amterial, and other supplies. So gear cost comes out to $30 grand.

National entry fees are what $120 a person? That's ~$1000. Then we have transportation and food costs, so let's call it $3 grand all told.

Now we're up to $33 grand, but here's where it get's interesting...

The real rub is that the nearest DZ is ~250 miles away. So realistically, we need to entice a private owner into providing us with a jumpship. That why I was thinking of the tax exemption idea. I figured that with that and an off to pay for fuel, we might be able to get a bird. I honestly have know idea how much fuel would be but let's get some what conservative on fuel estimates and say another $7 grand.

So in sum, our budget calls for $40 grand and the enticing someone into providing a plane.

I know of one school-sponsored fund-raiser that guarantees a minimum of $2000. If we can show the studant senate that we are seriously comitted, we might milk a grand out of them. Assuming we scrimp durign the summer break, each member can probably chip in a grand. So now we just need to come up with the other $29,000.

Risk-factor aside, what I've read suggests that companies really only realize the marketing potential in sponorship when it's an olympic level event. Given that, I was thinking more along the lines of asking /alot/ of people for smaller donations. I know from previous experience that alot of people are fascinated by our sport and what we do. I think that we could probably peruade a lot of people to give $1 or so to vicariously be part of what we are.

I was also thinking about seeing if local/regional companies would be interested in departmental comeptitons to see which department could raise the most money.

Finally, some of us our native americans. I think we might be able to getting some help from our tribes. This may sound like hubris, but bear with me. There aren't a lot of native american role models out there. We all are pursuing higher education and have a strong desire to make somethign of ourselves. I think that combined with the excitement of being skydivers could be used to market us as positive role models to native american youths. Call me a sell out or fake if you want but I just want to jump. If I can do that and help inspire a few kids along the way, so much the better in my opinion.

Well those are my thoughts. I know that what prose is so daunting as to be almost ludicrous, but I beleive that wiht enough determiantion that it can be done. I would welcome any additional ideas or thoughts you might have.

Blues,

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[PhreeZone 20]

Here is an issue with getting sponsored through a school. If you spend the money on anything the school likes to keep it if its a physical asset. Use school funds to buy rigs and the school owns them and your gearless when you graduate. Because of this your stuck buying gear that has to be able to be handed down to other students. No Stilettos, more like Manta's in every rig.

My advice is to forget about getting gear bought for you and buy it yourself. You don't win any points for having all matching gear. Currency in the air and tunnel time are a better investment then matching gear.

One bad thing about not having a DZ nearby is that practicing as a team now gets harder. You have to make sure that everyone can commit going to a DZ at the same time. If one person is'nt able to put in that much time the whole team is in trouble. As for finding a local plane good luck. If you can find a 172 plane owner and pilot doing otter jumps will totally screw you up since the exit is so different. Practice Otter exits since thats the plane used at Nationals.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[RozeAY 0]

Needless to say finding sponsorship in this sport is extremely difficult. My teammate, Jonathan, has already mentioned most of the troubles we have had. You can contact several skydiving companies to see if they can help you out. They're not going to give you free stuff or a huge discount but if you tell them who you are and where you're coming from, they might be able to knock a little off of the price. After all, every little bit helps. When it comes to gear, find used rigs. Matching isn't important at all. Especially when you need to use the extra money to train. Luckily we all had our own rigs to start with. None of us had competition RW suits or helmets so we did get matching since we needed them anyway. My best advice is to keep trying to find sponsors and money but plan for not getting any. We all work hard at our jobs to make money to train with. The most important thing for a new team is to practice. Find gear that gets you in the air and leaves you money to jump with. Depending on the level of experience, if you can make it to a tunnel camp to work on individual flying skills, it will help tremendously with your 4way and save you a lot of wasted jumps and frustration.

If you have any questions about how we did things, feel free to email me. Good luck!

Allison
GT Inviscid
GT Skydiving Club

[RozeAY 0]

Quote

The real rub is that the nearest DZ is ~250 miles away.

Where are you located? Your profile says you are in Delaware in which case you have Skydive Delmarva in DE and 4 DZs in New Jersey including Cross Keys which are closer than 250 miles.

[BlindBrick 0]

oops, that was a mistake thanks to the scroll wheel on my mouse. We are actually in Durango, CO. Albuquerque has the nearest DZ and is about ~250 miels away. The closest turbine dropzone seems to be ~350 miles away.

The local sailplane park has a turbine towcraft, maybe we just need to find us one of those old WWII era gliders :-)

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[Watcher 0]

I'm going to have to say that your location really hoses you unfortuantly. That fact alone might keep you from ever getting a competitive team off the ground. Its doable if you had lots of money, but being poor makes it near impossible.

Does the school have a flying club that would like to fly your team to another DZ, or can you create your own DZ as a joint venture with the flying club?

--

Jonathan Bartlett
D-24876
AFF-I

[BlindBrick 0]

Quote

Does the school have a flying club that would like to fly your team to another DZ, or can you create your own DZ as a joint venture with the flying club?

Unfortunately no. The only way I really see this working well is to entice a plane to our location. We have airfields capable of supporting anything smaller that wide-body airliner, we just don't have the planes.

On the surface it's not a bad deal. We would pay the fuel so the owner's only out thier time and the normal wear and tear. Since we wouldn't be jumping back to back load after load that shouldn't be too bad. Whatever these cost are, they should be more than offset by getting to deduct the equivalent of a full paying load from their taxes. Assuming people buy that logic, the only real question is do we try to get in a true jumpship that sits idle during the week or try to get a cargoship that sits idle on the weekends?

There's a retired Air Force general, who used to be on the Joint Cheifs of Staff, living a few miles out of town. He's supposed to have a lot of connections and friends in the region's aviation industry. I'm gogin to try to get ahold of him this weekend and get his input.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[stylin 1]

You know, fraternities and sororities are always having these fund raising events, I dont see why yall couldnt. I dont imagine they slash the football teams budget, they never do. Unfortunatly, skydiving is one of those things that isnt exactly popular, so you bear the cuts.

This is a radical idea, but it sounds to me like you need a radical solution. Do something creative, like jump out on to the football field during a homecomming game or something like that that will get you noticed, then the school might be under a little pressure to help you out more.

Ofcourse, you want to make proper arrangements before doing something like that, otherwise it may make you less popular. Get my drift?

[Jimbo 0]

Quote

Unfortunately no. The only way I really see this working well is to entice a plane to our location. We have airfields capable of supporting anything smaller that wide-body airliner, we just don't have the planes.

On the surface it's not a bad deal. We would pay the fuel so the owner's only out thier time and the normal wear and tear. Since we wouldn't be jumping back to back load after load that shouldn't be too bad. Whatever these cost are, they should be more than offset by getting to deduct the equivalent of a full paying load from their taxes. Assuming people buy that logic, the only real question is do we try to get in a true jumpship that sits idle during the week or try to get a cargoship that sits idle on the weekends?

There's a retired Air Force general, who used to be on the Joint Cheifs of Staff, living a few miles out of town. He's supposed to have a lot of connections and friends in the region's aviation industry. I'm gogin to try to get ahold of him this weekend and get his input.

Good luck with that plan. Be sure to let us all know how it goes. I, for one, am interested in being kept up on this story.

-
Jim

"Like" - The modern day comma
Good bye, my friends. You are missed.

[skycat 0]

Quote

oops, that was a mistake thanks to the scroll wheel on my mouse. We are actually in Durango, CO. Albuquerque has the nearest DZ and is about ~250 miels away. The closest turbine dropzone seems to be ~350 miles away.

The local sailplane park has a turbine towcraft, maybe we just need to find us one of those old WWII era gliders :-)

-Blind

Hey Canon City, CO is 250 miles from you also and they have a Caravan, which has an otter style door and is a turbine aircraft. Also, the USAFA cadets train there and Bob (The DZO) has gotten them some awsome group deals on gear and such. PM me if you want more info about the DZ.

Fly it like you stole it!

[skycat 0]

I just read your profile and saw that you are a senior rigger with a back rating. That is definately a way you can make money. Go to the local airports and put up fliers saying that you are available to pack pilot bailout rigs. If you don't know how to pack a round I know of 1 rigger for sure here in CO who can teach you, (he even has his own rounds). It's a way to get known around your local airports and it's a service you can offer a DZ that your team decides to jump at in exchange for jumps or whatever.

Fly it like you stole it!

[motherhucker 0]

Quote

...if you go in with a well thought out plan...

That would be bad publicity then, wouldn't it?