Streamline Your Proposal Review Process: Best Practices
Explore smart strategies and powerful tools to simplify your sponsorship proposal reviews—boost efficiency and focus on building high-value partnerships.
Published at: Updated at:Understanding the Sponsorship Request Landscape
How to Review a Sponsorship Proposal: A Step-by-Step Guide
Sponsorship proposals can vary widely in format and tone, but the best ones share a few key characteristics. Whether you're a brand manager, marketing lead, or business owner, knowing how to evaluate a sponsorship request is crucial to ensure alignment, value, and return on investment.
Here's how to confidently review a sponsorship proposal-and how Touchstone™ can help streamline the entire process.
1. Assess Alignment with Your Brand
Start by examining how well the opportunity fits with your brand identity and business objectives. A strong proposal will demonstrate:
A clear understanding of your brand values and target audience.
Customization that reflects knowledge of your company’s goals.
✅ Ask: Does this opportunity support our brand strategy or marketing campaigns?
Touchstone™ automatically analyzes brand alignment by cross-referencing sponsor proposals with your brand’s strategic priorities and audience profiles.
2. Review Their Stated Objectives
Look for clearly defined goals. The proposal should articulate what the requesting party hopes to achieve—and how it connects to what YOU want to achieve.
Are they aiming for brand exposure, community engagement, or sales support?
Is there a shared objective that makes the partnership mutually beneficial?
✅ Ask: Are their goals aligned with ours in a measurable way?
Touchstone™ helps score proposal objectives against your brand’s KPIs automatically.
3. Evaluate the Audience Fit
One of the most important sections of any proposal is the audience breakdown. Pay close attention to:
Audience demographics and psychographics
Market research and data that validates their reach
Alignment between their audience and your customer base
✅ Ask: Is this the right audience for our product or service?
4. Analyze the Sponsorship Assets Offered
What, exactly, are they offering in exchange for your support?
Media exposure via Digital, Social, Print and/or Broadcast assets
On-site branding or experiential activations
Product placement, giveaways, speaking slots, etc.
The best proposals will clearly list deliverables and include tangible examples of past sponsor activations.
✅ Ask: Do these assets provide meaningful value for our investment?
5. Look for Creative and Strategic Thinking
Beyond the standard benefits, look for originality. Is there a unique angle, storytelling element, or creative activation that sets this proposal apart?
✅ Ask: Is there a fresh, compelling idea here that makes this opportunity stand out?
6. Understand the Deliverables and ROI
A credible proposal will outline:
What you’ll receive as a sponsor (deliverables)
Expected outcomes (KPIs)
Reporting mechanisms to track performance
You want transparency and a clear plan to evaluate success.
✅ Ask: Will we be able to measure the impact of this partnership?
7. Check for a Clear Next Step
The proposal should close with a professional, engaging call-to-action—ideally inviting you to discuss or customize the package further.
✅ Ask: Are they inviting a conversation or just sending a price sheet?
Touchstone™ Makes It Easier
Reviewing sponsorship proposals manually can be time-consuming, inconsistent, and prone to bias.
Touchstone™ simplifies this process by providing:
Automated scoring and proposal reviews based on your brand priorities
Centralized dashboards to compare sponsorship opportunities side-by-side
Intelligent insights and ROI projections to make faster, data-backed decisions
Whether you receive 5 proposals a month or 50, Touchstone™ helps your team stay focused on strategic growth—while reducing the admin lift.
Final Thoughts
Great sponsorship proposals are more than just pitches - they are partnership blueprints! By reviewing them with a strategic lens you'll be better equipped to invest your budget where it delivers the most impact.
Book a Demo Today!
Discover how Touchstone™ can simplify your sponsorship review process. From automated scoring to side-by-side proposal comparisons, our platform helps brands make faster, smarter partnership decisions—with less manual work.
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Maria Fernanda Valverde Font is a Sponsorship Senior Consultant, Analytics and Insights at Lumency, a global sponsorship marketing consultancy trusted by leading brands like PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Canadian Tire. As a sports marketing specialist, Maria creates impactful campaigns that empower people and help brands and non-profits achieve their goals. She contributes her expertise to shaping Touchstone™, Lumency's innovative sponsorship management platform. Passionate about sharing her knowledge and experience, Maria helps brands craft tailored strategies that drive meaningful results.
