Strategic Partnerships & Sponsorship Development
At The Executive Leadership Council, Libi Sprow Rice oversaw the organization’s corporate relationships and high-profile initiatives for more than a decade, collaborating with Fortune 1000 companies. Earlier, at Discovery Communications and CEB, she created customized partnership opportunities and executive-level programs for some of the world’s most recognized brands.
We help organizations identify and cultivate partnerships that expand their reach, resources and impact. Rather than viewing sponsorship simply as fundraising, we help build partnerships that create value for both the organization and its partners.
A sponsorship is a relationship with a renewal date
The difference between a sponsor who writes one check and a partner who renews for five years is almost never the logo placement. It is whether the partner can explain, inside their own organization, what they got for the money: visibility with an audience they wanted, association with work they are proud of, access to leaders they needed to know, or a story their own employees and customers care about.
So we begin with partnership strategy and prospective partner identification: which companies, foundations, institutions and associations have a genuine reason to care about your mission, and what they would need to see. Sponsorship strategy, sponsorship package development and customized partnership proposals follow from that, written for the specific partner rather than pulled from a rate card. Corporate partnership development and executive engagement strategies get the right people talking to the right people.
The second half of the work is the part most organizations skip. Partner stewardship, partner communications, partnership activation and impact reporting give a partner a reason to stay, and sponsorship renewal strategies make the ask before the budget cycle closes rather than after.
The partnership work we take on
- Partnership strategy
- Prospective partner identification
- Sponsorship strategy
- Sponsorship package development
- Customized partnership proposals
- Corporate partnership development
- Partner communications
- Executive engagement strategies
- Partner stewardship
- Impact reporting
- Sponsorship renewal strategies
- Partnership activation
Organizations that need partners, not just donors
Nonprofits and associations
Annual sponsorship programs, signature event sponsors, and corporate relationships that outlast a single gala.
Schools and education organizations
Employer partners, program sponsors and institutional relationships that bring resources and credibility to students.
Coalitions and campaigns
Institutional allies whose participation changes what a coalition can credibly claim and deliver.
Partnerships connect to the story and the stage
Signature Events & Thought-Leadership Programs
Sponsorship integration and partner engagement built into a summit or forum from the start.
Learn more →Brand Positioning & Organizational Storytelling
The impact narrative a partner can repeat inside its own organization.
Learn more →Strategic Communications & Marketing
Partner communications and the visibility a sponsor is actually buying.
Learn more →Tell us what a partner would get from you
Your audience, your work, your events and the partners you already have. We will help you see what is worth more than you are currently asking for.