ICMA Transforms Its Sponsorship Program into a Partnership Program Supported by Staff Collaboration

By Dan Kowitz and Bruce Rosenthal

Jeremy Figoten, CAE, envisioned transforming the International City/County Management Association’s (ICMA) event sponsorships into year-round partnerships. As Managing Director of Conferences and Partnerships, he believed mutually beneficial partnerships would help ICMA and its corporate supporters better share resources and advance their missions.

However, this ambitious plan required the cooperation of departments across the association. The resulting collaboration led to “amazing revenue success”—an outcome your association can also achieve by following ICMA’s lead.

For leadership buy-in, gather data that supports your plan

ICMA wanted to generate a more diversified, consistent revenue stream that lessened their reliance on members’ wallets. They brought in JSB Partnership Consultants to help them transform their sponsorship program from an “a la carte,” event-based approach to customized, year-long partnerships.

Dan Kowitz, Founder and CEO of JSB, recommended first conducting research into member needs, sponsorship opportunities, and the competition for sponsors’ budgets. With this data in hand, Jeremy would have more success getting leadership and staff buy-in.

“Leadership buy-in ensures your program is viewed as a priority within the organization,” said Dan. “Bring leaders into the conversation early—when you’re beginning to research a new program.”

Conduct research to understand association assets, member needs, and partnership possibilities

Research began with a deep dive into the ICMA strategic plan, website (including the members-only sections), and member and conference attendee surveys. To get a sense of the member experience, JSB staff received newsletters and online community digests during the project.

In his interviews with ICMA staff and sponsors, Bruce Rosenthal, a sponsorship consultant with JSB, gathered the data required to make a case for a new partnership strategy. Staff interviews uncovered corporate revenue streams across the association and the value ICMA could offer partners from existing assets.

The JSB team helped the ICMA staff identify opportunities for new sponsorship offerings, such as blog posts, podcasts, and webinars, which would help fill content gaps and provide additional value to members. Sponsors expressed their preference for customized partnerships in which they could share their expertise through content for members.

Jeremy said, “Equating what members want—case studies, toolkits, resource materials—to what partners can provide is essential. It’s not just what the staff and I are saying. Members are asking for these revenue-generating opportunities—this sponsored content. When I put that data in front of my CEO, it became an easy discussion at the board level, and for gaining resources [to support the ICMA sponsorship program] in year two.”

Research and interviews with corporate sponsors and ICMA staff revealed that sponsors were spending their marketing dollars on partnership programs at competing municipal associations. Competitive analysis is a persuasive tool for gaining leadership buy-in.

Minimize staff resistance by involving them in the partnership project

The main challenge for Jeremy was assuaging two of his colleagues’ concerns:

• Jeremy’s team would take over relationships with “their” people
• The new partnership program would cut into their department’s revenue streams

Jeremy’s team-building approach turned this natural territorialism into collaboration. He started with one-on-one meetings with department heads. “Just ask questions,” he said. “What do you like in the current program? What are your goals? What initiatives do you have? Let them talk. Let them complain. When you simply ask questions and listen, you get a lot of information and suggestions.”

Everyone benefited from developing this culture of collaboration. “When staff help to build a new partnership program, it ensures the program serves their needs too,” said Bruce.

The mindset about sponsorship shifted. It was no longer Jeremy’s program. It was ICMA’s program, a program that would deliver value to members and generate revenue for departments. Jeremy never hesitates to remind his co-workers that this new revenue allows them to hire people, generate content valued by members, and work on new initiatives.

“With staff participation, you don’t have to do everything,” said Jeremy. He likens his teamwork model to the “all hands on deck” approach associations take for their annual conferences. Partners also prefer a coordinated team approach instead of having multiple points of contact and contracts.

Change the sales mindset

Jeremy advises associations to honestly assess the time commitment and staff resources required for a partnership program. “Selling partnerships is time intensive. It requires a deeper understanding of each partner’s business objectives and priorities for the next 18-24 months.”

Transitioning from transactional sales to partnership sales requires different sales skills. Sales people must know how to design proposals and partnerships that make business sense.

“Don’t pigeonhole yourself or your potential partner with set pricing options,” said Jeremy. “We don’t put pricing on our website. It’s customized. If the company only has $20,000 to spend, I can make that work. If they have $30,000, I can make that work too.”

Staff must also understand how to manage these deeper relationships. The relationship doesn’t end when the deal closes, it continues throughout the year. For example, staff must know how to teach partners to leverage opportunities to achieve their business goals and how to get feedback from partners about the program.

Maintain team momentum

Staff commitment to the partnership program will naturally ebb if you don’t strive to maintain it at a high level. In regular updates, show the correlation between their involvement in the program and the increased revenue and membership value the program is delivering.

Schedule regular check-ins with colleagues. Be open to their input and any changes they suggest. “What assets do they have that you can sell? Ten times out of ten, I hear things in these conversations that I didn’t know about,” said Jeremy. “If the professional development team is launching a new certificate course, we want to know because a lot of partners might be able to help with that. It’s always helpful to know what’s happening, whether it’s actually happening or merely a thought.”

Collaboration leads to success for the entire association

JSB helped ICMA identify and price new sponsorship assets, which led to the development of new types of partnerships. With the same number of sponsors and partners, revenue in the program’s first year increased by more than $750,000.

“Everyone at ICMA is thrilled about the revenue increase, of course,” said Jeremy. “Partners appreciate our new streamlined and coordinated approach. They’re not being assailed by multiple departments for the same pot of money.”

Bruce said, “Beyond revenue, one of the value propositions of a corporate partnership is providing content your members want, but your association doesn’t have the expertise or capacity to offer.”

ICMA is delivering content from partners that, according to the data, has been a hit with members.

• Record-breaking registration for a webinar about AI for city and county managers
• Strong open rates and forwards for an e-newsletter focused community growth and development
• Highest attendance for an education session on how AI is transforming the resident experience that featured case studies from cities
• Strong performance for podcast episodes about local government workforce trends

And when content from partners meets members’ need, companies see the value in partnering with ICMA to be positioned as a knowledge leader.

Never let up on illustrating the financial impact of your association’s partners. Bruce said. “During staff meetings, talk about partnership revenue and what it means to your association.” Partnership programs bring in revenue that allows your association to fund initiatives, deliver value to members, and hire team members.

Dan Kowitz is Founder & CEO of JSB Partnership Consultants; JSB helps drive revenue and strategy with partnership and sponsorship programs. Bruce Rosenthal is Principal of Bruce Rosenthal Associates, LLC; Bruce helps organizations boost revenue, enhance member value, and promote organizational stability with sponsorship programs. Bruce and Dan are Co-Conveners of the Partnership Professionals Network.