Handle Sponsor Inquiries and Signups

Goal: Move a prospective sponsor cleanly from "I'm interested" to "I've committed and paid" — without the friction that loses warm leads.

Two entry points

• Inquiry — prospect submits a form indicating interest and asks for a conversation. Best for higher-value packages where personal touch matters.
• Direct signup — prospect commits immediately by completing the package signup with payment. Best for lower-tier packages or repeat sponsors who already know what they want.

Both flows feed the same admin workspace.

When an inquiry comes in

The inquiry form captures:

• Sponsor name and contact
• Company / organization
• Package they're interested in (or "not sure yet")
• Their logo (optional) — see Collecting the sponsor's logo below
• Optional message

Two things happen the moment a prospect submits:

• Your sponsorship contact gets an email. The notification includes the prospect's name, contact details, organization, the package they asked about, and their message, plus a link to the logo if they uploaded one, with a button that opens the sponsorship dashboard. It goes to the Sponsorship Contact Email configured under Settings → Organization; if that's blank, it falls back to your organization's main contact email.
• The inquiry lands in the sponsorship dashboard. Open the Inquiries tab on the dashboard to see every submission, newest first, with a badge showing how many are still new.

Your team then:

1. Acknowledges within one business day (often via Communications template)
2. Schedules a call with the prospect to discuss fit
3. Sends a tailored proposal if needed
4. Records the outcome by setting the inquiry's status — Contacted once you've reached out, then Converted or Declined

Inquiries that go silent for two weeks should get one follow-up before being closed out.

Collecting the sponsor's logo

Both the inquiry form and the package signup form include an optional Your Logo question, so you get print-ready artwork at the moment of interest instead of chasing it by email while a signage deadline runs down.

What the sponsor sees:

• A drop zone they can drag a file onto, or a Browse Files button
• Accepted formats: PNG, JPG, WebP or GIF, up to 5MB (vector files such as SVG aren't accepted — ask for a high-resolution PNG if a sponsor only has an SVG)
• A thumbnail preview once it uploads, with Replace and Remove

Leaving it blank never blocks the submission — it's an optional question.

Where the logo turns up afterwards:

• From an inquiry — as a thumbnail on the inquiry in the Inquiries tab of the sponsorship dashboard. Choose Download under the thumbnail to save the full-size original, which is what you hand to your designer. The staff notification email also links to the logo.
• From a direct signup — under Sponsor Information on the sponsorship's detail page, the same field the sponsor can update later from their public dashboard. Choose Download logo below the preview to save the file for your designer.

Sponsors who don't have their logo handy when they fill in the form can always add it afterwards from their public dashboard, and your team can attach one from the sponsorship's detail page.

Setting your sponsorship contact

Under Settings → Organization, the Sponsorship Contact card holds the email and phone shown in the "Become a Sponsor" card on public sponsorship pages. The email doubles as the recipient of new-inquiry notifications. Leave either field blank to use your organization's main contact email or phone instead.

When a direct signup comes in

The package signup form captures:

• Sponsor identification (individual or organization)
• Contact details
• Their logo (optional) and how they'd like to be acknowledged
• Optional comments (e.g., "we want our logo positioned on the right of the program")
• Payment

A successful signup creates:

• A sponsor record (or links to an existing one)
• A sponsorship commitment at the chosen package level
• Initial payment record (if paid in full) or first installment (if paid over time)
• Benefit fulfillment records that match the package's benefits, in pending status

The sponsor receives a confirmation email containing a link to a public dashboard at /sponsorships/manage/:sponsorshipId. The link uses the sponsorship's UUID as the access token — no login required — so the sponsor can self-serve from any device. Authenticated sponsors with an Ayuna account can also reach the same content under /my-sponsorships.

The sponsor's public dashboard

The dashboard shows:

• The sponsor's commitment summary
• Payment history and any upcoming payments (including invoice numbers and due dates)
• Benefits delivered and benefits in progress
• A Request Renewal button when the sponsorship is renewal-eligible (sponsors near their end date)
• Logo upload control so the sponsor can supply or update their logo for public placement
• Contact link to your team

This is the URL you give to a corporate point-of-contact who's responsible for following through on the sponsorship — they can self-serve most questions without bothering your staff. Treat it like a magic link: anyone who has it can view the sponsorship, so reissue it (re-send the confirmation email) rather than sharing it broadly.

Payment flows

Sponsorships can pay:

• In full upfront — single charge at signup. The sponsor enters card or ACH on the public signup form and the sponsorship activates as soon as Finix confirms the transfer.
• In installments — schedule of payments over the commitment window. Each upcoming installment is tracked with its own status (pending, invoiced, paid, overdue, or cancelled).
• By invoice (two-stage) — staff creates the sponsorship without immediate payment, sends an invoice from the admin dashboard, and the sponsor pays later via an emailed link. The sponsorship stays in pending_payment status until the first invoice clears, then activates. This is the most common flow for corporate sponsors who pay by AP.

For installment plans, payment links are generated for each upcoming installment and sent via email reminders. The admin dashboard exposes Send Invoice, Send Reminder, Pause Reminders, and Record Offline Payment for each scheduled installment.

Automated reminders and how to pause them

Once an installment is invoiced and its due date passes, Omnivo emails the sponsor a reminder on its own: the first one a week after the invoice, then up to two more a week apart. After three it stops and leaves the follow-up to you. A reminder you send by hand with Send Reminder counts toward the same three.

Sometimes you know the money is coming and do not want the sponsor dunned in the meantime: a check is in the mail, accounts payable has confirmed a date, or the invoice is under discussion. Open the row's menu and choose Pause Reminders. The installment stays invoiced and the sponsorship is untouched; only the automated emails stop. You can give the pause an end date, in which case reminders pick back up on their own that day, or leave it open and choose Resume Reminders when you are ready. A short reason is optional and shows on the row so the rest of the team knows why the sponsor is quiet. Send Reminder still works while a pause is on, for the times you want to nudge once without turning the schedule back on.

Sending an invoice from the admin side

From the sponsorship's payment list:

1. Locate the installment in pending or invoiced state
2. Click Send Invoice to email a payment link with the invoice number, amount, and due date
3. The sponsor pays via the link or your team records the payment manually if it arrives by check / wire / ACH outside the system
4. The status moves to paid once the payment is recorded

Multi-year sponsorships

A sponsor committing to support a build over 3 years is best modeled as:

• A single sponsorship record with the multi-year commitment total
• Installment payments scheduled across the years
• Benefits scheduled per relevant event/year

This preserves a single relationship rather than fragmenting across years.

Tracking the pipeline

The sponsorship dashboard shows:

• Inquiries by status (new, contacted, converted, declined) on the Inquiries tab
• Active sponsorships with payment status
• Upcoming benefit deliverables
• Year-over-year sponsorship revenue trend

The dashboard's Recent Activity tab shows only the latest few sponsorships. To review the complete book of business, open All Sponsorships — the first quick-action card on the dashboard, or the View All button on the Recent Activity tab. It lists every sponsorship with summary totals (count, committed, paid, outstanding), lets you search by sponsor or recognition name, and filters by status, type, tier, and payment status. Click any row to open that sponsorship's detail page.

A weekly review of the pipeline catches things falling through the cracks.

Fixing a sponsorship created in error

From the sponsorship's detail page, staff with delete permission can use Delete to permanently remove a sponsorship that was created by mistake, along with its scheduled payments and benefit checklist. To protect financial history, a sponsorship with recorded payments can't be deleted — cancel it instead, which keeps the record and its payment history.

Common pitfalls

• Lost inquiries — submitted but not acknowledged; warm leads cool fast. Make first response a same-day commitment.
• Mismatched expectations — sponsor expected something not in the package. Document benefits clearly up front; capture sponsor-specific deliverables in the sponsorship notes.
• Late benefit fulfillment — the sponsor paid; your team forgot to deliver the logo placement. Use the pending benefits queue actively.
• Chasing artwork at the last minute — signage goes to print and nobody has the sponsor's logo. The Your Logo question on the inquiry and signup forms collects it up front; make asking for it part of your first reply when a sponsor skipped it.