CITO Sponsors

[+Jedi Cacher]

Another cacher and I are organizing our very first CITO event. We are cleaning up along a trail system, lake and campground area. I have read through all of the tips and suggestions and has been very helpful. I think that for all of the cacher's hard work in cleaning up the environment that they should be rewarded by some type of door prize offers after the event. So far I have no sponsorship and have paid for a few prizes out of my own pocket. The food provided afterwards will more than likely come from myself and my CITO assistant organizer. I did get the Forest Service to provide the cleanup material, which is a good thing. But how do I actually get local businesses to become sponsors for our event?

 

I stopped by a local sporting goods store yesterday that usually sponsors all types of events. When I went in I thought I was prepared and had all of the information I needed to present. But felt like I could have done a better job at preparing my information since this was my first time doing this sort of thing. They said they would contact me next week with an answer, I hope it is a yes but feel like I bombed. Does anybody out there have any helpful suggestions on obtaining a sponsor and presenting the CITO information?

[+Indiana DNR]

Below is from this thread: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...mp;hl=McDonalds

 

We used the letter, tweaked for our local McDonalds and was successful in getting free drinks provided for our CITO a few years back.

 

When I consider that the majority may turn you down, I depend on writing a lot of letters to local businesses, expecting only a couple will help out. Of course, personally visiting probably gives you better luck than a mass mailing.

 

What should a formal request look like?

Here's the text from a letter I wrote (and will mail) to the McDonald's closest to our CITO event:

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

 

I am a student at the University of Memphis as well as a member of the Geocachers of West Tennessee organization. Geocaching is a fairly new outdoor activity, which combines the technology of the internet and the United States global positioning system (GPS) with the environment. Briefly, a geocacher hides a small container holding a logbook and small trinkets somewhere scenic or memorable and then publishes the GPS coordinates on the internet for other geocachers to seek. Right now, there are more than 150,000 geocaches worldwide, and more than 80 geocaches within ten miles of your restaurant. You can find more information about geocaching at: www.geocaching.com.

 

On Saturday, April 16, 2005, the Geocachers of West Tennessee will be participating in an international cleanup sponsored by geocaching.com known as Cache In, Trash Out, or CITO. Our group will be helping to pick up trash at the Peterson Lake Nature Center at W.C. Johnson Park located on Wolf Ridge Drive two miles north of your restaurant.

 

According to the McDonald’s corporate website, “Owner/operators and regional company organizations support local clean-up days with free meals for volunteers and promotional incentives for participation.” The Geocachers of West Tennessee would like to invite you to support our cleanup efforts by providing meals or drinks for the event.

 

Our group of roughly 25 to 30 kids and adults will be meeting at the park at 8:00am on Saturday, April 16, 2005. We would like to provide everyone with a light breakfast to begin our day of picking up litter.

 

Would you be willing to help us out? You can contact me on my mobile phone or through email.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

I didn't spend as much time on it as I might a resume or scholarship application, but I think it gets the point across, and it fits on one page.

 

Jamie

Edited April 5, 2008 by Indiana State Parks

[Laura612]

Hi, I just discovered geocaching last week and am loving it.

 

Anyways, I work for a family owned local restaurant chain and handle a lot of requests for various donations/sponsorships to non-profits. We have our charity of choice that we already give to quite a bit. For the small budget that we have left over, we won't even consider it unless we receive a letter explaning the event and what is being requested.

 

We usually say no to anyone that wants us to supply the food 100%, sometimes we go ahead and give a discount, but usually I'm able to at least give a door prize gift certificate... as long as the event is local to one of our restaurant.

 

Oh, one more thing, if you event isn't in the next couple of weeks then you have a better chance as well... it takes forever to get approval. Good luck on getting donations. I say hit up as many places as possible and you'll find people willing to donate prizes.

[magellan315]

At the babrbecue set up an ammo can for donations to help cover the cost of the food. I've seen it doneat other events and its an effective way to offset your costs.

[+salmondan]

I helped organize the Earthday CITO in our community this weekend. I had success by making a presentation to our local business association, and then going to other local businesses (that were not in the organization) and making a request for a discount for the products we were buying to supplement our supplies, buy food and small prizes.

Asking for a discount goes over better than freebies.

I had a brochure on geocaching that I brought with me. And a poster of our event.

Oh, and I got a donation of a water color that one of our members made and auctioned that off so we will have seed money for our next event. I was pretty pleased with the outcome.

[+joranda]

At my last event, I picked up most of the door prizes myself. You don't have to spend alot. Really you don't even have to have door prizes. If you ever order from cache stores on line, some of them donate too. One place I buy from sent me some stuff for my event too.