Companies often support HBA through event sponsorship (both virtual and in-person). Sponsorship types are defined as follows:
- Cash sponsorship: where a company provides a sum of money towards the event
- In-kind sponsorship or donations: where a company provides products, goods and services for the event (including but not limited to the event venue, food/beverage, AV, event security, etc) and no cash is exchanged. As a 501(c)(6) organization, the HBA must log and track all in-kind donations for auditing purposes so it is crucial not to miss this step.
Depending on the type of sponsorship you are dealing with, please follow these procedures:
Cash sponsorship (to be completed upon initial sponsor sign-on for the event):
- Upon verbal agreement from the sponsor, the HBA event or corporate relations leader should draft pages 1 and 2 of the HBA Invoice Request and Sponsorship Agreement Form v2023.pdf and then send to the sponsor contact for completion and signature.
- Please feel free to use the Cash sponsorship letter template.docx to accompany the form if desired
- The completed and signed agreement should then be sent to the Regional Treasurer for counter-signature and tracking purposes.
- Regional treasurer sends to HBA Central finance team (hbachptrinvoices@hbanet.org) for processing and notifies the appropriate CR leader and HBA event leader for their awareness
- HBA Central finance enters information into AMS system and generates the sponsorship invoice
- The invoice is sent to the billing contact for payment, copying the regional treasurer and HBA event leader
- Once invoice has been paid, HBA Central finance will notify the regional treasurer and HBA event leader. Note: benefits fulfillment (i.e. discount codes for sponsor attendees, etc) should not be given until invoice has been paid
In-kind sponsorship (to be completed immediately post-event when the total value of in-kind donations are realized/final):
- Immediately post-event, the HBA event or corporate relations leader should draft pages 1 and 2 of the HBA Invoice Request and Sponsorship Agreement Form v2023.pdf and then send to the sponsor contact for completion and signature.
- Please feel free to use the In-kind sponsorship letter template.docx to better explain the purpose/reasoning behind the request
- The completed and signed agreement should then be sent to Regional Treasurer for counter-signature and tracking purposes.
- Regional treasurer sends to HBA Central finance team (hbachptrinvoices@hbanet.org) for logging and notifies the appropriate CR leader and HBA event leader for their awareness
In the rare case that a company is providing both cash and in-kind donations for an event, please complete the HBA Invoice Request and Sponsorship Agreement Form.pdf twice, following the above procedures, once upon initial sign-on to generate an invoice for the cash sponsorship, and a second time immediately post event to record the in-kind donation value.
