Use Corporate Sponsorships to Raise Cash

This is a guest post written by Michael Armillay, a web writer and social media enthusiast

When I first saw that Social Vibe raised over $100,000 for charity, I thought, "wow, how did they do it"?  Then I learned the simplicity of their model. It works like this: a member of Social Vibe selects a corporate sponsor and plugs that sponsor's widget onto his website or social networking site.  Visitors see the widget and the corporate sponsor donates money to the member's cause.  That's it.  So put an Adobe widget on your Facebook page and raise money for cancer research.  And as an added bonus earn points for cool stuff.    

Using corporate sponsorships to raise money is part of a growing symbiosis between corporations seeking audiences for their brands and individuals willing to promote those brands for cash.  Social Vibe uses widgets to make a market that links corporations and causes.  However, other markets are opening up for corporations and individuals to find each other.  The web is becoming fertile space of all kinds of product placement opportunities.

• Storybids connects connect creators (that focus online) with product placement opportunities.
• Next Medium creates opportunities for brands to partner with content providers in any medium: webTV, film, music and video games. 
• Brandfame focuses on product placement for video sharing websites like YouTube.
• PlaceVine connects brands and agencies with content integration opportunities
• Zadby is another market maker that helps DIWO producers find product placement opportunities.
• Placement Spot finds product placement opportunities for video game developers, helping marketers place their products and the game developers offset production costs.

Such opportunities will only increase.  How far?  Why not have a corporation fund your entire project? 

In a recent DIWO Download post, Slava mentioned Filmmakers Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard, who partnered with Nike to help fund a five market launch for Beautiful Losers. Nike, apart from the brand recognition it receives from workshops, looks good for funding the arts while opening up its brand to a growing audience.  The filmmakers, apart from getting cash to promote their film, gain access to NIKE's base. 

It seems to me like using corporate sponsorship to raise money is becoming a more realistic option, and certainly one without losers. And as more tools become available for marketers to understand web audiences, corporations will provide more cash to fund individual projects. It's happening now.