What goes in a sponsorship deck (and the slides to delete)
15 June 2026 · 2 min read · Simple Sponsors team
A sponsorship deck has one honest purpose: helping your champion sell the deal to whoever holds the budget. It is a forwarding artifact. Once you see it that way, most of the slides in the average deck are obviously dead weight.
Eight slides is enough. Here they are.
The eight slides
One: the event in a sentence, with date, city, and expected attendance. Two: the audience, with whatever splits you can defend. Three: proof, meaning photos and past sponsors. Four: what sponsors get, concretely. Five: packages and prices. Six: one activation example a brand could picture themselves in. Seven: the team and a named contact. Eight: the ask and how to proceed.
If a slide does not help a stranger approve budget, it goes.
Slides to delete
The mission slide, the second venue photo, the map of India with arrows on it, the slide listing every committee member, and anything titled Why Sponsor Us with clip-art handshakes. Sentiment does not survive forwarding. Numbers and photos do.
Design for the phone
Your deck will mostly be read on a phone between meetings. Big text, one idea per slide, dark text on light background, real photos over stock. If a slide needs pinch-zoom, split it or cut it.
The deck is not the close
Decks create meetings; conversations close deals. Keep the deck light and put your energy into the follow-up call where you tailor the package. A common pattern that works: short email, one-page attachment or listing link, deck only when someone asks for material to circulate internally.
A Simple Sponsors listing quietly replaces half the deck: audience, packages, prices, and an apply button in one link that never goes stale in someone’s downloads folder.