For associations
Your members’ trust is worth funding.
For four years running, associations have named non-dues revenue their top challenge. SonTeno finds the programs brands will pay to be part of, packages them, and brings the brands and capital partners who want more than a booth.
Non-dues revenue strategy
Start with what you already have.
Most associations already run the programs sponsors want. They are budgeted as a cost, not packaged as an asset.
- Audit your programs for sponsor value: mentoring, research, awards, events, credentials and emerging-leader cohorts
- Package each one as a year-round partnership, not a one-day logo
- Structure and price multi-year commitments that let you plan, not just fundraise
- Build the list of brands and capital partners that sell to your members, and make the introductions
- Report the outcomes sponsors renew on
Ask one question: what would you do for your members if money were no object? That list is your sponsorship pipeline.
Hear the play on The Growth Wizards Podcast → · See the twelve ways brands and capital come in →
Non-dues revenue, the top challenge associations name, four years running
Trade and professional associations recognized by the IRS in 2022
Their combined revenue
Sources: Naylor, 2026 Association Benchmarking Report, 665 responses; ASAE, Power of Associations, By the Numbers (IRS Data Book 2022).
The member side of DEAR
Satisfied members renew by default. Invested members renew because they belong.
The same framework brands use to reach your members describes why members stay.
Develop
Webinars and newsletters inform. Mentoring and peer programs develop: skills, confidence and careers, and a reason for early-career professionals to join.
Engage
Members who give their time and knowledge stop being consumers and become contributors.
Activate
Contributors become champions: they recruit peers, fill conference seats, volunteer, and pass on what they know before they retire.
Retain
Content is everywhere. Relationships are not. Leaving the association means leaving them.
The overlooked asset
Is mentoring your next sponsorship opportunity?
A conference sponsorship lasts a day. A mentoring program runs for months, and gives a sponsor something to contribute at every stage. Here is what it offers a partner.
Workforce development
Talent, leadership and education priorities companies already fund, tied to a program with the association’s name on it.
Year-round visibility
Onboarding, participant communications, mentor spotlights and milestones, for weeks or months instead of one conference day.
Employee engagement
Company leaders serve as mentors, speakers, judges and advisors, inside the community their buyers belong to.
Talent pipeline
Access to rising professionals before traditional hiring begins.
Executive visibility
Kickoffs, graduations, leadership forums and the conference stage.
Measurable impact
Satisfaction, leadership growth and career advancement: outcomes a sponsor can take back to its board.
The article · Growth Owl · August 2026
By Lori Zoss Kraska, MBA, CFRE, and Bijay Alex Mathew.
Sponsorship and capital
Partners who want more than a booth.
We work both sides of the market. The brands that sell to your members want in; we bring them to you with naming rights, program partnerships and multi-year commitments built around what your members value.
AI for the member experience
Put decades of knowledge to work.
Standards, session recordings and member answers, put to work with frontier AI models: answer member questions from your own material, turn conference content into year-round programming, and produce sponsor reports without staff hours. Better engagement is what makes a sponsorship worth more.
Every new member benefit should face one question: could this become a sponsorship?