Are you looking to try out sponsorships in REACH to see if it’s the right fit for your organization? You’ve come to the right place. 

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to add a few key records to help you determine if REACH is the right fit for you.

We will: 

1. Add & Review a Sponsorship Record
2. Sponsor & Review the Supporter Record 

Note: When you first login to your Admin Console and click Sponsorships from the dropdown menu. You’ll see this pop-up that links to our Sponsorship Checklist. This article lists the many options REACH provides for your sponsorship program for you to review.  

Add a Sponsorship#

Adding a sponsorship requires 3 main steps – setting up your custom fields, adding a sponsorship type and adding the sponsorship profiles and images. 

Step 1 – Add a Sponsorship Custom Field #

Sponsorship Custom Fields define what demographic and other information you want to capture about your sponsorships and can be shown publicly, to Admins only or to Sponsors only when logged into their account. Common examples are Gender, Grade, Favorite Activity. 

• Go to Data Setup > Custom Fields 
• Click + New Field
  • Note: For our example, we’ll set up Gender as a Sponsorship Custom Field
• Next to Title, type in Gender 
• Referral > Sponsorship Type 
• Type of Data > Dropdown Select 
• Options for Select > Add Option for Select > type in Male
  • Click Add Option for Select again > type in Female 
• Click Create 

Step 2 – Add a Sponsorship Type#

Sponsorship Types help categorize your sponsorships. For example, you might have one sponsorship type for Secondary Students and one for Primary Students, based on the attributes and cost of each. Sponsorship Types is also where you will set up your Shares(the number of ways the cost of a full sponsorship is divided); and, your Cost per Share, (how much does each share cost), ex: $50 per share (per month).

• Now, go to Sponsorships > Sponsorship Types
• Click + New Sponsorship Type 
  • Note: For our example, we’ll set up Primary School as a Sponsorship Type. To be fully sponsored, it costs $90/mo. We’ll split that into 3 shares, each at $30/month. 
• Next to Title, type in Primary School
• Next to Shares, type in 3
• Next to Cost Per Share, type in 30.00
• Recurring Period > Monthly
  • Note: You might also want to select any of the additional frequency options as well so you can try them in your demo process
• Click Create 

Once created, you’ll want to associate the Sponsorship Custom Field to the Sponsorship Type. Sponsorship Custom Fields can be unique based on Sponsorship Types, so this must be done manually.

Using our example, on the Sponsorship Types screen:

• Next to Primary School, click Actions > Edit
• Scroll down to Custom Fields, choose Gender
• Click Save Changes

Step 3 – Add a Sponsorship Profile Record #

Now that the Sponsorship Custom Field and the Sponsorship Type is setup, let’s add your first sponsorship profile record. 

Go to Sponsorships > + New Sponsorship 

• Note: For our example, we’ll set up a sponsorship with the name of Arin. 
• Next to Title, type Arin
• Next to Sponsorship Type > choose Primary School
• Next to Gender, choose Male 
• Upload an Image
  • Note:An image is required in order for the sponsorship profile to show on your public Sponsorships page. We recommend a square size of 900 x 900px, under 3MB in size. 

• Click Create

4 – Now, let’s review your Sponsorship Setup#

Let’s review what you’ve just setup:

In the Admin Console, on the Sponsorships page, you will now see Arin listed.

Click on his Title/Name to view his individual sponsorship profile record. Here is where can view his information and add New Sponsors as an Admin.

You’ll receive an email confirming Arin was created with a link to view his public profile record. 

At the top right of your Admin Console, click the pop-out icon to View Public Site > Sponsorships. 

Note: You can customize the main Sponsorships page by going to Settings > Portal Setup > Sponsorship tab. Here, you can add any text about your sponsorship program. 

You’ll see Arin listed on the Sponsorships page. Click to view his public profile where you will see the 3 Shares listed, each for $30 and that 0 of 3 Shares are Sponsored. Under Details, you’ll see Gender, the custom field we created.

Note: This is a very basic sponsorship profile. Should you choose, you can also add a description of your sponsorship, include more sponsorship custom fields and add a photo Album.

Sponsor a Sponsorship#

Now, let’s sponsor Arin publicly and from the Admin Console. This will automatically create a supporter record. 

Step 1 – Sponsor from Public Site#

On Arin’s profile, click Sponsor Now. 

You will see a Cart, where a supporter can then Sponsor Another Sponsorship or begin to Checkout. 

Note: You can customize your setup to bypass the Cart, and review additional options, by going to Settings > Account Rules > Sponsorships tab. The colors displayed here are based on your Settings > Portal Branding. 

Click Checkout. 

A few things to point out here: 

• On the donation page, the yellow box indicates where supporters can sign in to their Donor Portal. Once a supporter donates or sponsors, REACH automatically generates a supporter record for them and provides access to their Donor Portal, where they can view their donation and sponsorship information and download their contribution statements. We recommend you customize your email with first time login instructions. 
• If a current supporter donates but does not login, REACH will attempt to match the donation to the supporter record via their email address. 
• You’ll see the sponsorship listed and the item total. The Help Cover Transaction Fees amount can be customized by going to Settings > Donation Setup > Donation Form Settings. Here, you can also customize what information you’d like required, if you want a donation text message sent, and your donation thank you message. 
• The Frequency is where a supporter can choose to sponsor monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or yearly. This can be edited in your Sponsorship Type. 
• Supporters will then enter their personal and billing information.
• To test a sponsorship and/or a donation, you can use the test card information included in Settings > Donation Setup > Payment Gateway tab.

Step 2 – Sponsor from Admin Console #

Admins can sponsor on behalf of a supporter in the Admin Console. This should be done from the sponsorship’s record. 

For our example, go to Arin’s sponsorship profile. Click + New Sponsor.

From here, you can add a Payment Type (Online, Offline or Legacy), number of Shares, search for the supporter if already in the system or create a new supporter record. You can also associate a Soft Supporter, which is another supporter that is not providing any funds to the sponsorship but needs to be given access to the sponsorship, most commonly a family member of the supporter.

Click Create. If it’s an Offline donation, then the donation is complete. If you entered it as an Online sponsorship, Review the Cart. 

Click Checkout. Review the Donation information, select additional options to test, and click Create.  You will then be asked to add the Payment Details. 

Once the donation completes, you will be shown a Donation Details page. 

3 – Now, let’s review the Supporter Record #

From the Donation Details page, click on the supporter’s name to view their supporter profile. You can also view all supporters by clicking the Supporter’s link in the left sidebar.

The supporter’s profile record gives you detailed information about the supporter. 

Key details:

• Quick snapshot of Donations This Year and Total Donations, Payment Methods, Basic Info, Recent Donations, Current Sponsorships 
• The Contact Methods tab is where you can edit their contact information. 
• The Activity tab records all supporter activity, by the REACH system or the supporter.
• The Actions button is where you can Edit the record, add a donation or pledge, email or text the supporter, assign an Admin Task, generate a mail merge, download their contribution statement, merge in case of a duplicate supporter record and reset their password. 

4 – Now, let’s view the Sponsorship Supporter record#

Under the Current Sponsorships area, click on the sponsorship to be taken to the Sponsorship Supporter record. Additionally, you could go to the Sponsorship History tab, click the pencil icon and click View Details. 

The Sponsorship Supporter record is where you view and edit the details of a Supporter’s Sponsorship donation when needed. 

This is also where you will be able to view Past Due information, Change the Payment Method, and use the Actions button to Edit Shares and Recurring Periods and Cancel the sponsorship for the supporter. 

Next Steps#

• If you were using test records, you can delete or disable these records from the Actions button next to those records. We also offer a Clear Content option for those testing several records within REACH that will clear all testing content. Contact us if this is something you’re interested in.
• Have questions? Contact us. 
• If you haven’t yet had a demo, this is a great time to schedule one. Now that you’ve reviewed the basic sponsorship setup, we can discuss your additional questions. 
• You can also view our Demo Site, which is a fully setup REACH portal we manage and show during demos. You can view additional Sponsorships, Projects, Places, Events, Campaigns and more here, to see all you can do using REACH.
• View our Setup Checklist to begin your complete setup.