Pick the one that matches how your organization actually operates today.
Partner With a Local Pro or Minor League Team
You don't run your own sports program — you're a nonprofit like a well-known national organization, food bank, or shelter that wants to reach new donors and build awareness through the pro, minor league, or major sporting event already in your market.
Attract Sponsors for Your Own Programs
Your organization runs its own community sports programs, events, or teams — fields, jerseys, a season calendar — and you want to build a real sponsorship program around those assets.
The default nonprofit-sports partnership is a ticket discount and a scoreboard mention. It's easy to set up — and it caps out fast.
A structured partnership treats the team's audience as a channel, not a one-off favor — with multiple touchpoints across a full season.
Combined Community Events
Joint 5Ks or walks, a volunteer day with players at your facility, or a tabling presence built into the team's own community events — not a one-off, a recurring fixture on both calendars.
In-Game Interaction Moments
A pregame meet-and-greet, an on-field or on-court recognition moment, a mascot appearance at your own event — the kind of access that makes attendees remember your name.
Shared Social Video
A short player PSA, or behind-the-scenes content, co-posted across both organizations' channels — real reach-doubling, not a static logo on a banner nobody photographs.
On-Site Donor Capture
An email or text-to-give signup moment built into the game night — a scoreboard prompt, a booth, a raffle for team merch — so the night produces donor leads, not just a discounted ticket stub.
A Season-Long Structure
A recurring "Community Champions Night" series or a season-long cause designation, instead of a single date — so the partnership compounds instead of resetting every year.
Bundled Into Sponsor Packages
Brands increasingly want both visibility and cause alignment. A nonprofit tie-in makes a team's sponsorship package easier to sell — which gives your organization real leverage in the conversation, not just a favor being granted.
For the Nonprofit
- Reach far beyond your existing donor base and mailing list
- Borrowed credibility from a team or event your community already trusts
- A real donor-acquisition funnel — names and emails, not just foot traffic
- Authentic content (photos, video, player appearances) for your own channels
- A repeatable, growing relationship instead of a one-time ask
For the Team or Event
- A specific, differentiated community-relations story — not a generic "we give back" claim
- Real content: players and staff shown doing something, not just posing with a check
- A sponsor package that's easier to sell, because a cause is already built in
- Incremental attendance and goodwill from the nonprofit's own audience showing up
- A structured partner relationship it can point to in its own community reporting
We sit in the middle of this relationship the same way we sit between an organization and a brand sponsor — matching, structuring, and measuring it.
A local Boys & Girls Club chapter partners with its market's Double-A baseball team for a season-long "Community Champions Night" series: pregame meet-and-greets with players for club members, a joint volunteer day at the club's facility, co-posted video content across both organizations' social channels, and an on-site donor signup table at each game. The club leaves the season with new donor contacts it never had access to before — not just a stack of discounted ticket stubs.
How this is priced: brokering a partnership like this is scoped and priced per engagement, based on the size of your organization and the scope of the work — not on commission, since these partnerships often don't involve sponsorship revenue changing hands. Our How We're Paid page covers the commission structure that applies when we're finding and closing sponsorships for you.
If your organization runs its own programs, events, or teams, your mission creates authentic alignment that corporate brands are actively seeking. Zubie Five helps you translate that mission into a professional sponsorship program that attracts local businesses, regional companies, and national brands with CSR goals that match yours.
Get StartedMultiple branches or sites? See how a multi-location program works →
Most community fundraising works by asking the people who already paid. Members, donors, and supporters who already gave once get asked again — to sell, to donate, to show up, to ask their neighbors and coworkers, or to work a restaurant night where a missed mention, a forgotten code, or a distracted cashier means the sale happened and the program never saw a dime of it.
Sponsorship asks businesses with marketing budgets instead. A local business buys visibility in front of a community it wants to reach. It's a purchase, not a favor. Your staff and volunteers run the program, your board governs, your supporters engage with the mission — and no one has to stand outside a grocery store with an order form.
Someone still has to make the flyer, the tier sheet, the donation letter — usually a board member or volunteer with no design background and no pricing methodology to work from. The result is typically underpriced, because nobody involved has done this enough times to know what the ask should actually cost.
A local business asked for a small amount by a different program, a different volunteer, and a different letter every few months — with no idea what any of it bought them — has been trained by experience. Declining the next ask isn't a rejection of your mission; it's a rejection of a process that never worked for that business either.
That doesn't mean your gala, tournament, or signature event stops working — those build community beyond the money, and they're worth keeping. Sponsorship replaces the grind of product sales and repeat donation asks, not the events your organization is already proud of.
Netting $5,000 through a typical product fundraiser takes selling something like 5,000 chocolate bars at standard margins. The same $5,000 is about four sponsors at $2,000 each, after commission — conversations your staff and volunteers don't have to have.
Commission-only. We earn 15–30% of the sponsorship revenue we close for you, scaled to deal size — larger deals, lower rates. Renewal rates decline every season and never reach zero. We're paid only on money you actually collect, never on signatures.
We work with organizations where the total sponsorship opportunity is $1,000 or more per season. There's no minimum on any individual sponsorship — five outfield banners at $200 each is a program we'll build. One $200 banner with nothing else to sell isn't.
If you're not sure what you've got, our valuation tool is free and we'll walk through it with you.
See the full commission structure →Bringing this to a board? See the questions they'll ask →
Do we need an existing relationship with the local team? +
Does this only work for large national nonprofits? +
Does being a 501(c)(3) help us attract sponsors? +
Can we use sponsorship revenue alongside grants? +
We are volunteer-run. How much of our time does this take? +
How is Zubie Five different from just applying for grants? +
Our registration platform already offers sponsorship money — why do we need this? +
How do I know Zubie Five won't take our sponsor's money and disappear? +
What happens if we sign and it doesn't work out? +
Is this considered fundraising? Do we need to register as using a professional solicitor? +
What happens to our sponsors if you can't continue operating? +
These are a few of the markets we're building in — not the full list. If you're outside these markets, reach out anyway — we take on new territory when the opportunity is right.
Tap your city or county to see local market details.
Tap a guide below to open it.
Listing isn't selling. Sponsorship marketplaces put your inventory in a directory and wait for someone to find it. We build the packages, identify the businesses, make the calls, and close the deals. If nobody's reaching out to your program today, a listing won't change that.
No upfront cost. No contract term. Just results. Get started with a free sponsorship valuation today.