Measuring the visibility of a social sponsoring

The question always comes at budget time: "What do we get out of it, and how do we prove it?". A socialsponsoring can be measured, provided you separate what can be counted from what can be told, and do not inflate one with the other. This article gives the method the Kern4Good programme applies in its end-of-cohort reports, and a dashboard you can keep yourself.

In short

• Separate three levels: means (what you put in), deliverables (what was delivered) and results (what it produced)
• What can be counted: visits, mentions, content produced, tracked contacts; what can be told: the associations' voice, quoted with their agreement
• An association's website speaks to a few thousand people a year: the figures are modest and lasting, not massive
• The end-of-cohort report ticks each counterpart with its evidence, and says what could not be delivered
• Keep your own records: screenshots, tracking link, the association's sentence

Why it is simpler than a campaign, and more honest

An advertising campaign produces immediate, abundant figures: impressions, reach, clicks, cost per click. They reassure, and they are forgotten. A social sponsoring produces fewer figures, but each one matches something real: a website online, a logo in a precise place, a sentence said by an association to its members. Measuring means documenting those facts, then observing what they trigger, without converting a mention into an "advertising equivalent" nobody could verify.

The three levels of a report that holds

The end-of-cohort report follows three levels, without mixing them, and it is the same framework public funders and foundations ask associations for:

1. Means: your amount, the working days committed, hosting, what each euro of the solidarity pool funded
2. Deliverables: the websites delivered with their addresses, your counterparts in place (logo, profile, dedicated page, campaign), with dated screenshots
3. Results: the visit figures six months after go-live, the mentions, the contacts citing the programme, and one sentence from each association on what the website changed

Each counterpart announced in the pack is ticked, with the evidence. What could not be delivered is said, and replaced by an equivalent counterpart: a report that never flags a gap is not a report.

What can be counted

Visits

The associations' websites measure their audience with a consent-respecting tool. The report gives the visits of each website over six months, and the share that goes through the partners page or the page dedicated to your company. These figures are modest compared with a billboard campaign, and that is normal: an association's website speaks to a few thousand people a year, not millions. The difference lies in the quality of attention and in duration.

Mentions

The publications by the associations and by KERN-IT that cite you, in the thank-you campaign and outside it: newsletters, social networks, activity report, a word at the general assembly. The report lists them with their date and their link when one exists. Shares and reactions are noted for information, without being added up into "reach".

Content produced

The profile, the dedicated page, the visuals of the thank-you campaign, the association's sentence: all reusable content for you, in your annual report, your answers to ESG questionnaires or your careers page. Their value is not counted in visits but in production hours saved.

Contacts

The requests received by your company that cite the programme, when you track them. It is the only figure that depends on you: without a tracking link or a question at reception ("how did you hear about us?"), it will stay empty.

What can be told

An association explaining to its members that its new website exists thanks to you produces a voice you cannot buy any other way. That voice is documented: a quote in the report, a publication, a word at the general assembly. It is not counted, it is quoted, with the association's agreement and without rewriting it. It is often the part of the report your management remembers.

When to measure: the calendar

An honest measurement is made on fixed dates, known in advance, rather than when someone asks for a figure:

• At signature: the list of counterparts and their planned date, the tracking link created on your side
• At each go-live: the screenshot of the logo, the profile or the page, sent the same day
• At the end of the cohort: the report, with the complete deliverables and the first mentions
• Six months later: the supplement with visits, late mentions and each association's sentence
• One year later: a short update, on request, for a sponsor that renews

What the report brings to your ESG file

The ESG questionnaires of your clients and banks ask simple questions that a company without a structured programme answers poorly: which social action do you run, with which budget, which result, which evidence? The cohort report answers each one: the amount (means), the websites delivered (deliverables), the figures and testimonials (results), the dated screenshots (evidence). It slips as is into an appendix, and the association's sentence makes a better opening for an annual report than any figure.

A sample dashboard

If you want to follow your sponsoring yourself, five lines are enough, kept at the start, at the websites' go-live and six months later:

• Counterparts: the pack list, with "in place on …" and a screenshot for each
• Visits: the total per website and the share via the partners page, provided by the report
• Mentions: date, channel, link, author (association or programme)
• Contacts: requests received mentioning the programme, via your tracking link
• Reuses: where you reused the report, the visuals or the association's sentence

What not to do

• Converting a mention into an "advertising equivalent": the figure impresses and does not survive one question
• Adding up the audiences of five websites as if they were one: they are different publics, which is precisely the point
• Expecting a return in sales at three months: social sponsoring works on credibility, and credibility is measured by the year

Three tips for your own follow-up

• Keep the screenshots of your counterparts in place: logo, profile, page, with the date
• Create an address or a tracking link for the contacts that come from the programme
• Reuse the association's sentence in your communication, with its agreement: it is your best argument, and it costs nothing

For the general framework, read Social sponsoring, the other way to do marketing. The packs and their counterparts are on the Companies page.