Guide
Sponsorships for clubs and associations
What is a sponsorship, what does it cost, is there VAT on it, and where do you find sponsors? The complete guide – and the platform that keeps track of them from first contact to renegotiation.
The club’s most important income – and the most overlooked
Most Danish sports clubs live off sponsorship income, yet they work with it the way they always have: a spreadsheet, a few email threads and a good relationship with a handful of local businesses. It works – until it doesn’t.
When the sponsorship manager changes, the relationships disappear. When deadlines slip, the club loses renewals. When a sponsor asks about the value of their sponsorship, there is no single answer. The club leaves money on the table every year – not because sponsors won’t pay, but because the follow-up and documentation don’t hold up.
How to build a sponsorship that lasts
- Find businesses that already know the club – local tradespeople, banks, shops and the parents’ workplaces
- Build packages from concrete products: boards, shirt logo, tickets, hospitality and networking
- Write an agreement with term, what the club delivers, price, payment plan and termination
- Send it for digital signature – and invoice once it is approved
- Deliver what you promised, and document it
- Renegotiate in good time – with the documentation in hand
Sponsorships deserve a proper system
Sportmanager structures all of your sponsorship work – from the first contact with a potential sponsor through negotiation and digital signature to deliverables, invoicing and renegotiation. You work with sponsorships as the B2B sales they really are, and the whole club sees the same picture.
- Potential sponsors from the Danish company register (CVR) and your own network
- Packages of the club’s own products – tailored per sponsor
- Digital signature, invoices and deliverables from the agreement
- Expiring agreements shown 1, 3 and 6 months ahead
Sponsorships in each sport
The sponsorship market looks different from sport to sport. Here is what we typically see at the clubs we work with.
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Football clubs
Denmark’s biggest grassroots sport and the most professional sponsorship market. Even smaller amateur clubs typically have 30–80 local sponsors: tradespeople, real estate agents, accountants, car dealers, banks and regional manufacturers. The challenge is rarely finding them – it is delivering and renewing on time.
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Handball clubs
Handball brings the local community together, and sponsors are closely tied to the town. Exposure in the stands, hospitality around games and B2B networking are at the core: manufacturers, transport, banks, accountants and the town’s shops and restaurants.
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Ice hockey clubs
A true spectator sport, where sponsors buy the combination of exposure, hospitality and networking. The rink is a compact arena where visibility can be documented precisely – industry, construction, cars and banks are well represented.
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Basketball clubs
A younger audience brings a different sponsor mix: apparel and sports brands, beverages, technology and education carry more weight than in the classic grassroots sports – along with local employers who want to reach young people.
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Volleyball clubs
A niche sport with strong communities, where relationships are closer. Most clubs have a broad circle of smaller local sponsors with ties to the members rather than a few large agreements.
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Badminton clubs
A solid, highly loyal membership base gives a strong starting point. Sponsors are typically local businesses where the owner or employees play at the club themselves: tradespeople, real estate agents, shops and healthcare.
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Golf clubs
The Danish sport with the strongest B2B element. Sponsors buy visibility on the course, hospitality around tournaments and access to the club’s business network: banks, lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, insurance and cars.
Frequently asked questions about sponsorships
What is a sponsorship?
A sponsorship is a commercial agreement in which a business pays a club for visibility, exposure or other benefits in return. Unlike a gift, it is a mutual agreement: the sponsor gets marketing and relationships, the club gets funding.
What is the difference between a sponsorship and a donation?
A donation is a gift with no requirement for anything in return. A sponsorship gives the sponsor something concrete back – a logo, tickets, hospitality or networking. The tax treatment is also different.
Is there VAT on sponsorships?
As a rule, yes. The club delivers something in return, so the main rule is 25% VAT on the agreement. Certain VAT-exempt associations are excluded – check with your accountant. Read our guide to VAT on sponsorships.
Can businesses deduct sponsorships from their taxes?
Yes. Sponsorships are deductible operating expenses as long as there is a commercial benefit in return and the expense is reasonable relative to its value. After tax, the agreement therefore costs the business less than the invoice amount.
Where do you look for sponsorships?
Four places: local businesses with ties to the town or the members, the networks of the board and volunteers, industries that match the club’s audience, and outbound sales based on the Danish company register (CVR). The most important source is almost always the people who already know the club. Read 7 strategies that work.
What does a sponsorship in a sports club cost?
From around DKK 5,000 a year for small local agreements to several million for main sponsorships at top clubs. Most clubs work with bronze, silver and gold in the DKK 10,000–250,000 range, plus tailor-made main sponsorships. See the price guide.
What is a sponsor package?
A set of concrete sponsorship products at one price. A gold package might include a board, a logo on the shirt, four VIP tickets per game, social media mentions and access to network meetings. In Sportmanager, packages are built from reusable products and tailored per sponsor.
How do you put together a sponsor agreement?
At a minimum, the agreement should describe the parties, the term, what the club delivers, the sponsor’s payment and payment plan, termination and what happens in case of breach. In Sportmanager, the agreement is built from the products the sponsor has chosen and sent for digital signature.
How many sponsorships should a club have?
A small association can handle 10–30 by hand. Larger clubs typically have 50–300 active sponsorships spread across main sponsor, partners and supporters. Without a system, it is usually somewhere between 20 and 30 that the club starts losing renewals.
How do you follow up on sponsorships?
Follow-up is three things: deliverables (did the sponsor get what we promised?), relationship (is the contact alive?) and documentation (can we show the value?). Sportmanager reminds you about deliverables, expirations and follow-ups, so no sponsor falls through the cracks.
Read more
Get your sponsorships under control
Create your club and add your sponsors – or book a demo where we follow a sponsorship from first contact to renegotiation.