SLA chapter cabinet officers and candidates brainstormed ideas to encourage chapters to add content to this wiki- - and thought that chocolate or a prize might inspire our members. So we searched Godiva and Hershey's and Whole Foods website for their sponsorship page and sent them email. We found that we needed to supply them content on who is SLA, and what is the benefit to each sponsor for helping us. In the end, because we had a member from National Geographic, we were able to give a large presentation book as the prize.
For Whole Foods we said:
"To encourage input, and to encourage healthy eating, we are hoping to add your logo/URL to our flyer.
Librarians are smart shoppers and love Whole Foods and we share what we learn with our friends so we thought you were the perfect sponsor. "
Lessons learned > >
- Start early, as this does take a bit of time.
- Add a request to use their logo in your publicity in your request.
- If a request is made by an employee of this company it carries more weight and more success - ask your members who they know that works for companies that might be able to offer enticing sponsorships.