Sponsors

Sponsors are handled with one thing most software gets wrong: a 501(c)(3) fair needs some contributions receipted as donations and others invoiced as sponsorships, and the two are not interchangeable.

Sponsorship levels

Define levels per event — name, amount, and the perks that come with it.

Level	Amount	Perks
Blue Ribbon	$5,000	Banner at the main gate, full-page program ad, 20 tickets
Gold	$2,500	Banner, half-page ad, 10 tickets
Friend of the Fair	$500	Program listing, 4 tickets

The public sponsor form

A public page where a sponsor picks their level and pays online, on your fairground Stripe connection.

For handshake deals — the ones agreed in a parking lot in February — add the sponsorship manually.

Donation versus invoice

Each sponsorship is one or the other, and the choice is made per sponsorship.

Sponsorship (invoice)

The sponsor is buying something: signage, a program ad, tickets. It generates an ordinary invoice with context sponsor, payable the same way as any other.

Donation (acknowledgment letter)

The sponsor is making a charitable contribution. It generates an acknowledgment letter rather than an invoice, which:

• Subtracts the value of goods received — the tickets, the ad
• States the deductible amount explicitly

That is what a donor's accountant needs, and it is what a fair board gets asked for every January.

The two paths do not cross

A sponsorship set up as a donation cannot be invoiced, and one set up as an invoice cannot produce an acknowledgment letter. Pick correctly at the start — switching means recreating it.

Logos

Sponsors upload their logo, so the program and the signage list is assembled from files you already have rather than chased by email in the last fortnight.

Tracking

Committed versus received, per level and in total. The gap is what the sponsorship chair works from.

Still to come

Sponsor logo roll-up for the program — a single assembled export of every logo at each level, sized for print.