Restarting fest sponsorship for the new academic year
26 August 2026 · 2 min read · Simple Sponsors team
August and September decide most fest sponsorship seasons. The new committee forms, last year’s contacts sit in a graduated senior’s inbox, and the brands who backed you are quietly allocating this year’s campus budgets, with or without you.
The move is a fast, organized reactivation sprint, before your rivals write first.
Recover the record
Week one: assemble last year’s facts. Sponsors, amounts, deliverables, contact names, and any wrap-up reports sent. If the handover file exists, this is a morning’s work; if it does not, mine the fest email, the payment records, and last year’s posters, then build the handover you wish you had received.
Write the renewal note early
Before any cold outreach, write every past sponsor a short note: thank you for last year, one photo of their branding, this year’s dates, and first right to their old slot at a named price. Past sponsors close at a fraction of the effort of new ones, and writing early signals the organization brands remember fondly.
Mind the contact churn
Marketing teams shuffle over summer. If last year’s contact has moved, the note still works: forward-friendly, factual, easy for a successor to act on. Ask one line, are you still the right person for campus partnerships, and let the org chart route you.
Refresh the public record
Update your fest’s listing on Simple Sponsors with the new dates and this year’s packages the same week. Renewing sponsors get a live link to act on, new brands searching the season find you early, and the committee’s tracker starts the year with inbound instead of silence.