Work with sponsors: tiers, exclusivity, and requests

Sponsors are local businesses backing your events with money or in-kind support in exchange for acknowledgment. The "Your sponsorship program" card shows the tier ladder events sell against and whether businesses can ask to sponsor on their own. Below it, Your partners lists the sponsors on your neighborhood's list. New sponsor adds one, and Invite owner (or the owner email on the new sponsor form) lets the business manage its own logo and profile. Pending invitations can be resent or canceled. Sponsors depend on your neighborhood's plan; if you need them and they aren't available yet, email [email protected].

Sponsorship Tiers holds your ladders (most neighborhoods need one). Give the set a name and tick "Make this the neighborhood default". Each tier has a label, a Rank (1 is your top tier, shown first everywhere), an accent color, an amount that's either fixed or "This amount or more", and a Slot limit. Then choose its placement on banners and flyers, on the event page, and in event emails, and whether it carries "Presented by" naming rights or industry exclusivity. A short description and one perk per line fill in the tier grid businesses see.

A tier with "Grants industry exclusivity" lets the first sponsor to commit lock their industry for that event, so a second realtor or bank can't take the same tier. The industry comes from the sponsor's profile. On an event's Sponsors page, a sponsor holding a category shows an "Exclusive" tag with the category name, alongside Featured and Hidden tags and the total committed across sponsors.

In Settings → Neighborhood → Sponsorships, pick the Default tier set and answer "Can businesses ask to sponsor your events?". Yes adds a public "Become a sponsor" option to your events: a business picks a tier and fills in its details, and the sponsorship is committed as soon as they finish (by email confirmation if they aren't signed in), within your slot and exclusivity rules. No means organizers arrange every sponsor. Each event can override this either way.

On an event, the Sponsors tile opens its sponsors, and Add sponsor records one you arranged. Choose the sponsor and tier, then the contribution: cash, in-kind, or both. For in-kind, the sponsor-stated value is what they say it's worth and the credited value is what you count. Under Display, set a public display name, "Feature above tier order", or untick "Show on public surfaces" to keep it private. "Override slot and exclusivity rules" adds them even when the tier is full or the category is taken.

"Request a sponsor" on the event's Sponsors page (or Request sponsorship on the Sponsors page) emails a business an invitation to sponsor. Fill in the contact name and email, pick an existing sponsor if they're already on file, choose a Suggested tier or "Let them choose" (a suggestion is preselected on their response page, though they can pick any open tier), and add a personal note. Preview shows the exact email and lets you send yourself a test. Their reply arrives through their own link, and Outstanding requests on the event's Sponsors page lets you resend or cancel.

Each tier's "On banners & flyers" placement decides who appears in printed material. In the event's banner studio, under Details shown, "Sponsor acknowledgment" turns the sponsor row on or off, and "Sponsor prominence" picks names only, logo tiles, or large logos. Sponsors without a logo always list by name, so ask new sponsors to upload one when they accept their invitation.