Intro
Purpose of this post: Advice-seeking to create guidelines that give a yes/no on potential sponsorship opportunities.
Context:
- Gitcoin has historically had a “no sponsorships” policy
- We are being offered more and more opportunities to get involved in various initiatives
- The idea of a “sponorship” is being blurred more and more often between all sorts of unique, novel opportunities
- We have no evaluation criteria for sussing these opportunities
Structure/Content of this post:
- What is/is not a sponsorship?
- Your opinion on some recent examples
- Who decides on sponsorships?
Note: the post below is meant to be a strawman so that we as a DAO may better discover the answer to these questions.
What is a sponsorship?
A sponsorship is a type of financial or in-kind support provided by a company, organization, or individual to another entity or individual for a specific purpose or event. Typically, a sponsor provides funds, resources, or other forms of assistance to help the sponsored entity achieve its goals or objectives.
Sponsorship is often used as a marketing tool to increase brand awareness, promote products or services, or reach new audiences. For example, a company might sponsor a sports team, music festival, or charity event to gain exposure and connect with potential customers.
In return for their support, sponsors may receive various benefits such as advertising or promotional opportunities, logo placement, or access to exclusive events or experiences. The terms and conditions of a sponsorship agreement are typically outlined in a contract or agreement between the sponsor and the sponsored entity.
Recent examples
Given the definition above, how would you approach the following situations?
- Gitcoin supporting Zuzalu by funding 3-4 support roles
- Gitcoin being asked by ETHBeijing to use our logo without us participating in the event at all
- Gitcoin being asked to put in funds for an upcoming hackathon
- Gitcoin being asked to put an ad on a popular web3 podcast
- Gitcoin hosting an IRL appearance at a large web3 event
Who decides?
Typically, the marketing team of an organization oversees sponsorship initiatives. This is because sponsorships tend to be used for the purposes of increasing brand awareness, promoting products/services or reaching new audiences, all of which tend to be the responsibility of the marketing team.
Additionally, in traditional organizations sponsorship budgets are allocated at the beginning of the year as part of the overall marketing budget. It is up to the marketing team to determine how it is spent.
Roles and responsibilities
How would we like to fill out the following roles?
Driver (who drives the sponsorships)
Approver (who has ultimate approval over the sponsorship)
Contributor (who can contribute to the sponsorship)
Informed (who needs to be informed about the sponsorship)
*Note: if there is a better way to approach this, please make suggestions accordingly!
Below is a recommended structure for comments:
Definition of a “sponsorship”
- I conceptually agree with the definition in the post
OR - I conceptually disagree with the definition in the post and here are the changes I would make:
Examples of sponsorships:
- Zuzalu - I think this is/I don’t think this is a sponsorship because…
- ETHBeijing - I think this is/I don’t think this is a sponsorship because…
- Hackathon - I think this is/I don’t think this is a sponsorship because…
- Podcast - I think this is/I don’t think this is a sponsorship because…
- IRL activation - I think this is/I don’t think this is a sponsorship because…
Who decides
- I conceptually agree with the information in this section
OR - I conceptually disagree with the information in this section and here are the changes I would make:
Roles and responsibilities:
Driver: [who this should/could be]
Approver: [who this should/could be]
Contributor: [who this should/could be]
Informed: [who this should/could be]