The main-men behind the Kuttawa Cannonball Run in Old Kuttawa, Ky., Jeff Hoefling and Terry Martin opened sponsor registration last week. Packages for would-be backers start at $2,500 and go up to $10,000.
Sponsor support is crucial for nonprofit, charitable fundraising events such as the Kuttawa affair, which come May 29-30 will celebrate is 10th anniversary. Because no matter how humble or grand the trappings, powerboating events take money to produce. From feeding the masses to securing insurance to printing commemorative T-shirts, costs quickly add up.
“Sponsorship involvement is crucial to our success and directly reflects how much we are able to donate to our charities,” Hoefling explained in a recent speedonthewater.com article. “Not only does it take several-hundred of hours of planning by our team members, the amount of money that it takes to put an event of this caliber is substantial.”
That the Kuttawa affair has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities in Lyon County, Ky., also is substantial. The event helps make lives better at the local level.
The most obvious go-to event sponsors are, of course, marine industry business such as Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats and Performance Boat Center, which are two of most of most supportive entities in the go-fast boating realm. But there also are participants/sponsors such as the Kuttawa Cannonball Run’s Donnie and Cara MacLeod, who never hesitate to spring for a top-pier sponsor package and run a boat in the event.
Generous as they are, the MaLeods are by no means unusual. Backers of the Boyne Thunder Poker Run are, in fact, mostly participant/sponsors. For the July 10-11 event in Boyne City, Mich., the 60 available sponsors slots sold out by noon on the day they opened. That’s what happens when you combine limited supply with intense demand.
There are just 120 spots, one half for sponsors, the other half for general participants. Registration, which is tiered, costs more for sponsors than it does for general participants. So sponsor registration takes longer to sell out. To secure their place, those participants are willing to pay the extra freight required to reach sponsor level and—literally and figuratively—ensure their place at the docks.
For the sake of comparison, as noted above sponsor registration sold out for this year’s Boyne Thunder Poker Run sold out in a half-day. General registration, which opens March 1, sold out in less than three minutes.
“We are truly humbled by the enthusiasm for our event,” said Ingrid Day, Boyne Thunder’s events coordinator, following the rapid sell-out. “I wish we had space for everyone.”
Though January and February are a little slack when it comes event registration for sponsors, participants and combinations of both, most everything opens in March and April. We’ll keep you posted as event sign-ups, sponsor or otherwise, come online.