Sponsorships: your rights to realizing a profit.

• Author: Hattenbach, Ellen

The doorbell rings, and I'm faced with a choice: Thin Mints or Caramel deLites? My earliest sponsorship decision was not whether to buy Girl Scout Cookies, but which flavors to buy.

Ding dong. Doorbell again. This time it was our neighbor Bobby selling magazine subscriptions to help support the Special Olympics. Of course I gave. Who wouldn't?

Thank goodness on Monday I could escape to the office-oops, only to be met by the kick-off meeting for the UnitedWay campaign.

All sound, solid and sacred institutions. But is such fragmented giving really effective? It's no different in today's legal market, where sponsorship and charitable giving are taking on even greater roles. How many times has a client asked you or your partners to sponsor a table? Give to a charity?

With so many requests for sponsorships, particularly in this difficult economic environment, law firm marketing departments need to get serious about the planning and execution of sponsorship and charitable-giving policies. Getting serious can mean making difficult choices. Firms, especially in smaller communities, tend to spend a disproportionate amount of their marketing budgets on sponsorships. Once a charity has been sponsored it's hard to turn down future requests, especially if you detect that a client will be disgruntled or even leave if you say no. And sometimes the pressure is more direct, as when potential clients suggest that they will more strongly consider your firm if you donate to their preferred charity.

Given such complications, marketers can reassure themselves that sponsoring and donating to causes is simply the right thing to do. But focusing firm giving on the right causes, organizations and events is an even "righter" thing to do. So let's address your rights as a law firm that values the importance of giving.

Right 1--To set sponsorship and giving guidelines that align with your firm's mission, strategy, business objectives and brand.

Accounting firms, corporations, and major non-profit institutions are exercising this right. Why? Because they have found that unless giving is in synch with their brand, it may very well sink the impact of those dollars. Giving to too many causes may feel good, but it does not reinforce who you are, support what you stand for or bolster your reputation in the community where you operate.

Without guidelines, you have no spending limits. Reviewing the guidelines of other organizations can be helpful.

A major accounting firm funds...