5 Tips to Find Corporate Sponsors for Murals
July 7, 2021
Guest blog written by Ali Solonche from Northwestern Mutual Mid-Atlantic, a client of White Coffee Creative
Hi, I’m Ali, and I run the internship program for Northwestern Mutual Mid-Atlantic, based out of Baltimore. I was an art major in college and NEVER thought I’d end up in the corporate world, but here I am! I still love art- I love making it, collecting it, supporting local artists, and seeing it out in the community. Having just completed a community mural that joined my company — Northwestern Mutual Mid-Atlantic, 2 local artists — Jess of White Coffee Creative and Reggie of Insanely Dope Designs, and the Enoch Pratt Free Library system in Baltimore, I have a few tips to share for muralists hoping to find corporate partners and sponsors!
First, I think it helps to hear how our mural came to be …
A quick backstory: In Spring 2020 early into the pandemic, I was planning ahead for our summer intern volunteer opportunity as we typically do a group volunteer event every summer. Due to Covid, many of the typical opportunities were not available and/or they didn’t seem like they would work for our group, so I had to think outside the box. I figured something outdoors that could be socially-distanced would be our best bet, and I had always wanted to be a part of a mural project, so it seemed like the perfect time to explore that further!
I reached out to Jess on a whim as I had followed her on Instagram and loved her work- she said yes! Fast forward a bit — we brought in another artist, Reggie Lewis of Insanely Dope Designs, as they had recently finished another community project together. We thought they could collaborate on a design and their styles would mesh well together. We thought we had secured one site, a city school, but that fell through. We reached out to the Enoch Pratt Free Library System on a whim and they said yes! Of course we faced some hurdles and challenges along the way, but in Spring 2021 the mural was underway. We just completed it in April 2021! Due to timing, we obviously didn’t have our summer interns involved, but we were able to have other employees and staff participate in the mural and also held a trash clean-up/gardening project to help beautify the space.
What made the entire thing quite a bit easier was that our company, Northwestern Mutual Mid-Atlantic, was able and excited to sponsor the mural in full. Having a corporate sponsor reach out directly, funds in hand, ready to partner with you on an upcoming project sounds great, right? Well here are a few tips from someone on the corporate side…
1. Make new connections on social media
Obvious, I know, but you never know whose attention you may catch. Timing is everything so you never know when an opportunity may present itself and you want to be fresh in people’s minds.
Relating it back to our story, I followed Jess on IG- I follow a lot of Baltimore bases artists because I love art and love supporting local, and discovered her from someone else I followed. I loved Jess’ work, so when I had the mural idea, she was top of mind and I initially reached out through IG to set up an intro call with her. This partnership would not have happened without social media.
2. Research corporations and national companies that have a local presence
More likely than not, there are plenty of national corporations with local branches near you, so do a little research and give them a follow if they’re on Instagram. Hopefully they’ll follow you back and then they can see what you’re up to! Definitely don’t make assumptions about bigger corporations like I once did — there are lots of interesting people who are passionate about making an impact on the community and who appreciate art. It goes without saying, only follow companies whose values and mission align with yours as they’re more likely to be a better fit for you and your work.
Back to our story, Jess didn’t initially reach out to me (I followed her first), however, she was open to learning about our company and the impact we were trying to make. If she did a quick search, she could easily find out that our financial services firm is a mutual company, putting clients first since our inception. She could read about Our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion at a national and local level. She could follow our corporate IG and see a lot of recent partnerships and endorsements from other people that she is a fan of. And that ultimately, it could potentially be a great fit.
3. Be strategic about who you’re reaching out to
So you’ve found some bigger companies in your area, now what? It helps to reach out to the right person! First, see if you have any common connections — you may need to check various social media platforms. Maybe you have a common connection on Facebook, maybe on LinkedIn (if you have one, but probably not…), maybe on IG. If you have a common connection, start there. If you don’t have a common connection or don’t have one that’s strong enough, no worries, you just have to do a little digging!
I would typically avoid reaching out to the person at “the top”. For us, that’s either a Managing Partner who oversees a handful of offices in a region, or a Managing Director who oversees one specific office. They get tons of emails (don’t we all?) but they also wouldn’t be the one to spearhead and coordinate a mural project, so an email to them may get lost in the mix. Ideal people to target would be people whose role involves community engagement or philanthropy (they are looking for ways to be active in the community), marketing (they are looking for ways to gain visibility and boost their brand), diversity & inclusion (they may be looking for new opportunities to engage diverse communities and/or work on building their culture internally) or even someone who runs the internship, as in my case. From my experience, companies with robust internship programs typically incorporate philanthropy into their program and are open to various opportunities to get them engaged. Keep in mind that all companies are structured differently, have different roles and titles, and that my even vary from office to office.
In our case, I reached out to Jess, but if she had reached out to us, I’d imagine it would look something like this…
She reached out to “the top”. The email may have been accidentally looked over or bounced around from person to person until hopefully it found the right person. Even though you’re reaching out to a larger name, a local office isn’t going to be so large that your email would get lost into the abyss. It’s very possible it could still end up with the right person, so don’t worry!
She reached out to someone on our marketing team. This would likely have caught their attention. They may set up a time to chat OR maybe would have connected her with me since they know I’m looking for ways to engage intern volunteers OR maybe connect her with our D&I Council (I happen to co-chair and our marketing team is also on the council).
She reached out to me as the Director of Internship Development/D&I Council lead… ding ding ding!
4. Share your story and why you think it’s a good mutual fit
Corporations and bigger companies are asked for money, a lot! From fundraisers to sponsorships to scholarships and beyond, we are approached quite a bit, so it’s important to share a compelling story and have a vision. Why do you want to partner with that company? How did you find them? What about the company excites you? How might working together be mutually beneficial? What impact could it make on the community? And very importantly, who are you and what’s your story?
Keep in mind that especially in our industry (and likely many industries and corporations), companies may not be actively looking to do a mural. It may seem out of the blue for them or not something on their immediate radar. That being said, they may be looking for out-of-the-box opportunities, creative volunteer events, etc. so in actuality, they may be looking to do a mural, but they simply may not know it yet!
Again, our experience was the reverse since I reached out to Jess (evidence of why #1 can work), however if I were to receive a thoughtful email that included the above mentioned info, it would definitely catch my attention, it would be meaningful, and even if the timing wasn’t right, would leave an impression for the future.
5. Use this story as your inspiration!
Now that you know that Northwestern Mutual has offices all over the country, if you think our company may be a good fit for you, reach out to your local office. Cite this example in Baltimore, MD at Northwestern Mutual Mid-Atlantic. And if not Northwestern Mutual, another company! A few companies! Follow steps 2-4. You never know where it may lead. Word of mouth introductions are huge so even if it’s not right for that specific company, they have friends, family and professional connections, so they could pass along your info. In our business, we say that every “no” gets you closer to a “yes”, so really the worst thing that could happen for you is just not reaching out at all.
From JessHuge appreciation to Ali for writing and sending over such valuable information. She was a joy to work with, and I can’t be more grateful for clients like her!
If you want to talk about how to book more mural projects and charge your worth, schedule a 45-minute pick-my-brain session here today, and let’s dive into it!
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