Finding sponsors for your club: what you can offer, and why your tickets help

Finding sponsors is not begging, it is a trade

Almost every club looks for sponsors: the football club for new shirts, the youth centre for a party, the photo club for an exhibition, the parents' association for a school fete. And almost every club runs into the same thing: the baker, the garage and the local bank are approached by ten clubs every year.

The club that raises the most is rarely the one that asks the loudest. It is the club that says most clearly what the sponsor gets in return. Sponsorship is a trade: the sponsor pays in money or in kind, you deliver visibility to an audience the sponsor wants to reach. The more concrete you make that return, the easier the conversation.

In this article we go through the steps: what you can offer, how to build a sponsorship pack, what to put in writing, the VAT question, and how to put your sponsors on every ticket in ClearTix.

Step 1: know your audience

A sponsor does not buy a logo, but the attention of a particular group of people. So first write down who comes to your activities:

• How many visitors do you have per year, and at which activities? Use your own figures: tickets sold, registrations, members.
• Where do they come from: the town, the region or further away?
• Who are they: families with children, young people, retirees, sporty types?

If you sell your tickets online, you already have those figures. In ClearTix, Statistics shows per event how many tickets were sold and, going by your check-in figures, how many people actually came in. That is stronger than "lots of people always come".

Be careful with personal data: give a sponsor numbers, never the names or e-mail addresses of your visitors. More on that in our article on GDPR-compliant ticketing.

Step 2: list what you can offer

Most clubs offer more visibility than they realise. A selection:

Channel	When it is visible
Poster and flyers	weeks in advance, in shops and on social media
Website and newsletter	all year or around the event
Banner or beach flag on the grounds	on the day
Mention by the host or DJ	on the day
Logo on the ticket	at purchase, when opening the e-mail and at the entrance
Free tickets or a sponsor table	for the sponsor and their customers or staff

The ticket is often forgotten, even though it is the item almost every visitor shows at the entrance. People open their PDF ticket when they order, sometimes again the night before to check the time, and show it at the door.

Step 3: build a few clear packages

A sponsorship pack does not need to be a glossy brochure. One or two pages will do, with:

1. Who you are: the club, the activities, how long you have existed.
2. Who you reach: the figures from step 1.
3. Two or three packages: for example a basic package (logo on the website and poster), a middle package (plus the logo on every ticket and a banner) and a main sponsor (plus free tickets and a mention in every newsletter). You set the amounts yourself, depending on your audience and your region.
4. Contact details of one point of contact on the committee.

Start in time. Companies often fix their budgets months ahead, and anyone knocking on the door two weeks before the event usually has too little time.

Choose sponsors that fit your audience. A bike shop fits a cycling tour, a construction firm an exhibition about the village in the old days. A sponsor who recognises their customers in your audience comes back more easily the year after.

Step 4: put the agreements in writing

Even for small amounts, a short written agreement pays off. Include:

• what the sponsor gives (an amount, or goods or services in kind);
• what the club delivers in return, as concretely as possible (for example: logo on all PDF tickets for the summer party, logo on 200 posters, two free tickets);
• for which period or which events the agreement applies.

That way everyone knows what was promised, even if the committee changes next year, and the sponsor has a document for their accounts.

Step 5: think about VAT

This is a simplified overview of the Belgian rules and not tax advice. Check with your accountant or the Belgian FPS Finance. Rules can change; checked in October 2026.

This is where many clubs go wrong. Sponsorship with something in return (advertising, a logo, a mention) counts as a service for VAT purposes, also for a non-profit (vzw/asbl). Usually you charge 21% VAT on it, depending on your situation.

Many small clubs fall under the small business exemption scheme: it gives an exemption up to €25,000 of turnover per calendar year. That threshold applies to your total VAT-able turnover, not just sponsorship. If you use it, you still register with a VAT number, you do not charge VAT and you cannot reclaim the VAT on your own purchases. For some sports, youth and cultural organisations there are separate exemptions as well.

The rules depend on your legal form and your activities. Check with your accountant, your umbrella organisation or FPS Finance before you issue the first sponsorship invoice.

Step 6: put your sponsors on every ticket

At the top of a ClearTix ticket is what the door needs: the event details, the ticket type, the name and the QR code. The bottom third of the page is yours. That is where your sponsors go.

Here is how to set it up:

1. Open Branding in the dashboard and scroll to Ticket layout.
2. Put your content in the editor: a heading like "With thanks to our sponsors", text, links and images.
3. Click Preview PDF to see what the ticket looks like.
4. Click Save. Every event now uses this default.

Does an event have its own sponsors, for example the main sponsor of the summer party? Open that event and go to Tickets → Ticket layout. There you choose between the organisation default, custom content for this event, or nothing. The custom content is kept if you switch back later.

A few practical tips:

• The space is fixed: about 18 × 8 cm. Anything that does not fit is cut off, so always check the preview PDF.
• A row of logos side by side? The editor stacks images vertically. Combine several logos into one image first, for example in Canva, and upload that.
• Upload the logos yourself. Images from other websites (pasted links) do not appear on tickets.
• Write web addresses out in full. Links work when the ticket is opened as a PDF on a phone or computer. On paper only the text is visible.
• Selling in several languages? Add a version per language. Buyers get the language they ordered in.
• Set everything up before sales open. The layout applies to tickets created after you save it. Tickets already sent do not change.

Without a sponsor, you can also use the space for your own promotion, such as the date of your next event or a discount code for the bar.

Ticket layout is included in the Studio (€29 per month + €0.25 per ticket) and Pro (€79 per month + €0.15 per ticket) plans. All details are on the help page about sponsors and ads on your tickets and on the pricing page.

Step 7: free tickets for sponsors, outside public sales

Many packages include free tickets. You do not want those as an ordinary ticket type in the public shop. So create a hidden €0 ticket type that only appears with an access code, and give that code to your sponsor. The sponsor orders themselves, gets a normal QR ticket, and the attendee list shows who used it. How that works is explained in our article on hidden tickets and access codes. A €0 ticket carries no ClearTix per-ticket fee.

Step 8: report back afterwards

A sponsor who hears nothing after the event has to be convinced all over again next year. Afterwards, send a short e-mail with:

• the number of tickets sold and, going by your check-in figures, the number of visitors who came in;
• a photo of the banner or the sponsor table;
• an example of the ticket with the logo on it (the preview PDF from the dashboard);
• a thank-you and the date of the next edition.

It takes little time and makes next year's conversation a lot easier.

Quick checklist

• Your audience in figures: tickets, visitors, region
• Two or three clear packages with concrete benefits
• A written agreement per sponsor
• The VAT question checked with your accountant
• Sponsor logos on the tickets before sales open
• Free tickets as a hidden ticket type with an access code
• A short report to every sponsor after the event

ClearTix was built in Haaltert, by someone who volunteers in an association himself and was fed up with expensive or limited ticketing platforms. Want to put your sponsors on every ticket this season? Create an account, set up your first event and try the ticket layout (Studio or Pro) with the preview PDF.