When most people picture sponsorship, they picture a check. Someone signs an agreement, money moves from a business account to a club account, and a logo goes up somewhere. That's cash sponsorship, and it's the simplest version to understand — but it's far from the only currency sponsorship runs on. A large share of real partnerships are paid in product, service, or some blend of the two, and knowing the difference changes how you pitch, price and plan an opportunity.
Cash sponsorship: simple, flexible, harder to get
Cash is exactly what it sounds like — a business pays a fixed amount for a defined set of benefits, and you decide how to spend it. That flexibility is the whole appeal: €500 can go toward pitch hire, referee fees, new nets or a printing bill, whatever your budget is actually short on that month. For a sponsor, cash is also the easiest thing to approve internally at a larger company, since it's just a line item a marketing budget already exists for.
- Fully flexible for the organizer — spend it on whatever the budget actually needs
- Easiest to report on and reconcile at year-end for both sides
- Usually the highest-friction ask — a business has to actively decide to part with real money
- Slower to approve inside bigger companies, since it often needs a manager's sign-off
- Harder for a brand-new, unproven event to secure, since there's no track record yet to point to
Product and in-kind sponsorship: sponsorship without a checkbook
In-kind sponsorship is a contribution paid in goods or services instead of money: a bakery supplying pastries for 60 volunteers, a print shop producing banners at cost, a physio clinic covering matchday treatment, a hotel comping rooms for a visiting team. Nothing changes hands in euros, but real costs are covered — which is exactly the point.
- A sports shop provides balls, cones and bibs for a season instead of a cash fee
- A local restaurant caters the post-event dinner for players and volunteers
- A print or sign company produces the event's banners and vinyl at their own cost price
- A software company gives free access to scheduling or ticketing tools for the season
- A car dealership lends a vehicle for a weekend instead of paying a transport-sponsor fee
Why in-kind is often the easier first yes: For a small business, saying 'take 40 loaves of bread' feels completely different from writing a €300 check — even when the two cost roughly the same. Stock and time feel more available than cash, especially to a business that has never sponsored anything before. If you're chasing your first sponsor, leading with a product ask can get you a yes months before a cash ask would.
When to mix the two
Most experienced organizers don't force a single currency — they build a package that accepts either, or a blend of both. A €400 package might become €250 cash plus catering worth €150, which gets you the same total value while making the ask far easier for a sponsor to say yes to. It also spreads your risk: if one sponsor's product doesn't show up on time, you're not left with a full funding gap for the event.
- 1
Separate your real costs into cash-only and coverable-by-product
Venue hire, insurance and referee fees usually need to be cash. Food, printing, kit and transport often don't.
- 2
Offer both options explicitly in your pitch
Say plainly that you'll accept product or services alongside — or instead of — cash. Most sponsors won't offer this themselves unless you ask.
- 3
Set a floor for the cash you actually need
You can't run an event entirely on donuts and vinyl banners. Know your hard cash minimum before you start accepting in-kind offers.
- 4
Value each in-kind contribution against a real cash equivalent
Price it at what you'd have paid retail for the same thing, not at an inflated 'exposure value.'
- 5
Put both currencies in the same written agreement
Whether it's euros or espresso machines, write down what's owed and by when — see our guide on what to charge a sponsor for how to price either.
How to value an in-kind contribution fairly
The most common mistake is either wildly overvaluing a product offer ('the exposure alone is worth thousands!') or letting a sponsor claim credit disproportionate to what they actually gave. The fix is simple: price the contribution at what you would genuinely have paid for it, not at some inflated marketing figure either side invents.
- Ask for, or estimate, the retail price of what's being provided — not a wholesale or 'suggested value' number
- If a service is being donated (photography, printing, catering), get a comparable quote first so you're not guessing
- Write the agreed value into your agreement the same way you would a cash figure
- Don't let one dominant in-kind sponsor's benefits exceed what a similarly-valued cash sponsor receives
Whichever mix you land on, price it the way you'd price a cash deal — our guide on how much to charge a sponsor works the same whether the currency is euros or pastries. And if you're on the sponsor side wondering what a product-only offer looks like in practice, browsing live opportunities will show you real packages that already accept exactly that.
Ready to put together a mixed package?
List your opportunity once and let sponsors offer cash, product, or both — you decide what to accept.