Sponsorship Package Examples: Tiers a Sponsor Can Picture

A sponsorship tier is a promise of a moment. The logo is the receipt.

When a sponsor reads your package, they aren’t asking how big their name will be. They’re picturing a specific moment at your event, their banner going up, their person on the stage, their guests at the dinner, and deciding whether that moment is worth the price printed next to it. Take the moment away and all that’s left to compare is logo size. Logo size is a weak reason to spend more.

Below is a real, published tier ladder, read rung by rung from the sponsor’s side of the table, and then the steps to build your own. If the whole program needs rebuilding and not just the package, Events Authority works with organizer teams on designing a sponsorship program, from the first tier through to renewals.

What is a sponsorship package?

A sponsorship package is the document that tells a prospective sponsor what they can buy at your event, what each option costs and what it includes. Many packages are built in tiers: named levels, each with a price and a list of benefits. Three terms do most of the work on this page.

• Inventory is everything you can offer a sponsor. Stage time, booth or table space, tickets, signage, a meal or a break with a brand’s name on it, a mention in your emails. If it exists at your event and a brand could want it, it’s inventory.
• Activation is something attendees do with the brand while they’re there: a ride, a game, a demo, a place to stop and try something. It’s the difference between a brand being seen and a brand being used.
• Airtime is the time a sponsor’s brand is heard or seen doing something: a minute on stage, a welcome, a hosted session, a moment in the program that carries its name.

A logo tells people a brand paid. Airtime and activation tell them why it’s in the room. Build every tier around something the brand gets to do, then list the logo.

A real sponsorship package example: the Frederick in Flight tiers

For six years I have owned the sponsor relationships on the Town of Frederick’s festivals and built the tiered sponsor program behind them.

The Town’s staff run the events. My part is the structure sponsors buy into and the relationships with the sponsors themselves. The prices below are the Town’s, for its own festival.

Frederick in Flight is the annual hot air balloon festival of the Town of Frederick, Colorado. The table below reproduces the Town’s published 2026 sponsor opportunities for that festival.

The Town of Frederick’s published 2026 Frederick in Flight sponsor tiers (prices and benefits as the Town publishes them)

Tier	Price (the Town’s published price)	Benefits (as the Town publishes them)
Presenting	customizable, “starting at over $10,000”	prominent promotion across all marketing materials and in person; tailored opportunities; greatest number of balloon flights; first priority on launch days
Premium	$5,000	five 2-person balloon flights; 2x4 ft banner on the basket; sparkling cider landing ceremony; logo on marketing; four tickets to sponsor/pilot dinner; booth space
Stage	$5,000	banner on or near stage; 1-minute live or pre-recorded commercial spot on stage; logo on marketing; four dinner tickets; booth space
Skydiving	$1,500	skydivers jump Saturday with sponsor banner; one balloon flight; cider ceremony; name recognition; booth Saturday night only
Special Shape Balloon	$1,000	one special-shape flight; basket banner; cider ceremony; name recognition; two dinner tickets; booth Saturday night only
Hot Air Balloon	$500	one balloon flight; basket banner; cider ceremony

Here’s how I read that ladder from the sponsor’s chair.

Every rung has a moment. The $500 tier is three items long: one balloon flight, the sponsor’s banner on the basket and the cider ceremony. That’s a small tier. It’s also a tier a sponsor can picture from start to finish and point to afterward.

Each step names something new. One rung above the $500 tier, the $1,000 tier’s signature is a special-shape balloon. The $1,500 tier puts skydivers in the air on Saturday carrying the sponsor’s banner. Every rung has its own signature, so a sponsor moving up buys a different moment, not a louder version of the same one.

Two tiers at one price sell different things. Premium and Stage both cost $5,000. Premium leads with five two-person balloon flights and a 2x4 ft banner on the basket. Stage leads with a banner on or near the stage and a one-minute commercial spot, live or pre-recorded. One sponsor wants people in the air under its name. Another wants a minute of airtime from the stage. Both have a rung, and neither pays for the thing it didn’t want.

The biggest step below the top has visible reasons. The jump from $1,500 to $5,000 is the largest price step until you reach the presenting tier. Look at what changes: “name recognition” becomes “logo on marketing,” four dinner tickets appear, and booth space is listed with no Saturday-night-only limit attached. A sponsor weighing that jump can see exactly what the extra money buys.

The top stays open. The presenting tier names a floor, “starting at over $10,000,” and then lists tailored opportunities and first priority on launch days. A sponsor at that level is choosing the shape of the partnership, so the package gives them a starting point and a conversation instead of a closed list.

Sponsor retention on the Town’s festivals has been 100 percent for six consecutive years. That’s my statement about my own record. There’s no public source for it, and I don’t pin it on the table or on any one thing. The ladder’s shape is the part you can borrow. The rest of the job is the relationships: I own the sponsor relationships on those festivals year-round, so a renewal conversation doesn’t start cold. Step 6 below builds that into your package.

How to build your sponsorship packages, step by step

You don’t need a balloon to do this. You need a complete list, an honest view of what each item is worth to a brand, and the discipline to leave the top tier open. Work the steps in order.

1. List your inventory. Walk through your event from the first announcement to the last thank-you email and write down everything a brand could put its name on or take part in, down to the printed program. Don’t price anything yet. This step is finished when you have one list and nothing on it has a number beside it.
2. Group it by what the brand gets to do. Sort every item into four piles: airtime (when the brand is heard or seen doing something), activation (what attendees do with the brand), hospitality (what the sponsor’s own people get, such as a flight, dinner seats or tickets) and recognition (where the brand’s name appears). Recognition belongs in every tier. The other three piles are what make one tier different from the next. You’re ready to move on when every item sits in exactly one pile.
3. Give each tier one signature benefit. Pick one moment per tier that a sponsor can picture and point to afterward, and lead the tier with it. In the Frederick ladder, that’s one balloon flight at $500 and a minute on stage at $5,000. Your number of tiers comes out of this step: as many as you have distinct signature benefits. The check: can you name each tier’s signature in a short phrase?
4. Space the tiers so every step up has a visible reason. For each step up, write one line on what the sponsor gains that they could see, use or show their boss. If the honest answer is a bigger logo or a higher spot on the sponsor wall, merge the two tiers or move a real benefit up. Two tiers can share a price when they sell different kinds of value, the way the Town’s Premium and Stage tiers do. The step is done when every gap between tiers has its written reason.
5. Keep the top tier custom. Publish a starting price and a short description of what a presenting sponsor can expect, then build the rest with them. A fixed list at the top caps what your biggest sponsor can ask for. This step is done when your top tier ends in an invitation to talk.
6. Write what each sponsor gets after the event. For every tier, decide what the sponsor receives once the event is over: proof that each benefit happened, and a date for the renewal conversation. You’re finished when every tier has a follow-up line and every sponsor has a renewal date.
7. Price last. One warning before you set a single number: another event’s published prices describe another audience, so use them to check the shape of your ladder, not as a price list. Then set each price against what comparable sponsorships cost at events like yours, in your area or your industry, and against what each tier now lets a brand do. The step is done when a sponsor reading your tiers could explain why each one costs more than the one below it.

Pricing last feels backward. It isn’t. Price first and you tend to end up padding tiers to match the numbers, which is how a package fills up with logo placements.

What does a sponsor check in a package?

Switch chairs for a minute. When I weigh whether a brand should sponsor an event, four questions come first, and a good package answers all of them before the sponsor has to ask:

• Who exactly attends? Roles and seniority, not just attendance numbers.
• What is the event about? The reason people come, in a line.
• Who is speaking, and on what? Whether the program is led by peers and hosts or crowded with vendor pitches.
• When do sponsors and attendees actually talk? Meals, set visiting hours, networking built into the schedule.

Put those answers on the first page of your package. If a sponsor has to dig for them, your package goes in the maybe pile.

My rule on airtime is blunt. If a brand is being asked to sponsor an event for serious money with little to no airtime, the answer should be a simple and firm no. Read that from the organizer’s side: a big tier with no airtime is a tier you’re asking the sponsor to refuse.

The package is your full menu of tiers. The document that recommends one of those tiers to one sponsor is the proposal, and this sponsorship proposal sample walks through one section by section.

Why won’t a sponsor move up a tier?

A common way to build tiers is simple escalation: each level gets what the level below it gets, plus more of it. More logo placements, a bigger logo, a better position.

Bottom line, a tier that only adds a bigger logo gives the buyer no reason to move up. More of the same is not a reason. A sponsor comparing your middle tier with your top one is asking a specific question: what would my brand get to do at that level that it can’t do at this one? If the honest answer is “be seen a little more,” expect them to stay where they are.

The Frederick ladder above shows the alternative: every step up names a new moment.

Before you publish your packages: the check

Run your finished package through these five questions:

1. Do you have a written inventory list, with every item sorted into airtime, activation, hospitality or recognition?
2. Does every tier lead with one signature benefit a sponsor can picture?
3. For every step up, can you say what the sponsor gains besides a bigger logo?
4. Is your top tier custom, with a published starting price and room to build?
5. Does every tier say what the sponsor gets after the event, and is each renewal conversation on your calendar?

A no on any line means the package isn’t ready to send.

Common questions

What should a sponsorship package include? A short description of your event and who attends, with results from past years if you have them, then your tiers. Each tier needs a name, a price, one signature benefit, the recognition that comes with it and what the sponsor receives after the event. Close with who to contact and the date by which sponsors need to commit.

How many sponsorship tiers should an event have? There’s no universal number. The Town of Frederick’s Frederick in Flight ladder uses six. Build as many tiers as you have distinct signature benefits, and if two tiers would share the same signature, make them one.

How do you price sponsorship packages? Build the tiers first, then price them against what each tier lets a brand do and what comparable sponsorships cost at events like yours. Keep the top tier custom with a published starting point. Another event’s prices, including the Town’s, aren’t a benchmark for yours.

What is the difference between a sponsorship package and a sponsorship proposal? The package lists every tier you offer, for any sponsor. The proposal is written to one sponsor and recommends one tier, with the reasons it fits them. Build the package first; each proposal draws from it.

Where can I get a sponsorship package template? There’s a separate sponsorship package template to fill in once you’ve worked through the steps on this page.

Where to start

Give every rung a moment.

When you want your current package read from the sponsor’s side, start with Events Authority’s complimentary event assessment.