Maker Faires cost money. Big or small, being able to fund your operation is very important and raising money doesn’t rank anywhere among the “fun to do activities” list of Maker Faire, unless perhaps last. Still, being able to pay your bills and emerging without debt makes this a critical undertaking. So what did we learn from our experience in San Diego?
Finding sponsorships needs to be one or more persons’ job and their efforts need to start early and with a plan. Who is most likely to gain benefit from working with Maker Faire? Who has missions that support STEM learning? Identify prospects, develop a message, work your network and start beating the bushes. This is business development 101 so be sure you have the right person on the job, they’ve got to enjoy it and be good at it.
Starting early and being persistent will be rewarded. Especially in the first year when there is no cushion from prior years, starting early is critical. Why? Because of a finance concept called working capital. You need money to be paying the bills before most revenue flows. Not only will most of your revenue come ticket sales on the day of your event but most sponsors will be a labyrinth of process and slow to pay. The founders of SDMMF had to fund 70% of all costs from our own pockets and weren’t reimbursed till weeks after the event took place. We had commitments from sponsors, it just took months to collect.
In the end we had a good news story. From five companies and a foundation we received over $20,000. When you add ticket sales to that number we were more than covered and also able to set aside a working capital fund for next year. It was a long road but one which led to a very satisfactory outcome. Good thing too. Without the generosity of our sponsors the resulting deficit would have had to be payed by SDMMF founders. Not good.
Now we have a network of sponsors and a track record. That’s wonderful and will hopefully make fund raising easier next year but that’s not all. Sponsors come aboard because they support what you’re doing. We’re now in the midst of all sorts of collaborations we could never have expected, never hoped for.
Sponsors are partners and they want to help you advance the Maker Faire agenda.
Thanks to MakerPlace, USD, 3D Robotics, & our Premier Sponsor: Qualcomm.
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