Become a Sponsor
Become a sponsor of the Festival and show our community that you want to celebrate ethnic and cultural diversity, educate our residents about other cultures, promote cultural appreciation, and empower our community’s international residents!
The Sponsorship Committee can develop a customized package to maximize your goals including Presenting Sponsorship. For more information contact: director@bginternationalfest.com or (270) 779-3830.
Sponsorship benefits your company and your employees. Use this opportunity to engage your employees by having them participate, volunteer, or attend!
We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (Fed. ID #61-1225815). Download W9 here.
Sponsorship FAQs
Want to become a sponsor but have more questions? Visit the frequently asked questions below for details regarding committing to a sponsorship level, the associated benefits, deadlines for inclusion in promotions and more.
How does my organization become a sponsor?
Becoming a sponsor is quick and easy! Choose the method that works best for you: complete the online commitment form or download, print and mail the pdf version. (Links to both options can be found above.)
We are grateful for all donations to support our mission; therefore, we have no minimum. If you are looking for specific benefits in exchange for your donation, please see the chart above to learn which benefits accompany each sponsorship level.
We welcome donations year-round! There is no deadline for becoming a sponsor—when your commitment is processed, we will add your information to the website.
If you are seeking a specific level of benefit, though, we encourage you to commit early in the year: the sooner you commit, the more places we will be able to include your organization in our promotional materials. (See below for specific deadlines.)
Promotional Deadlines:
- Jul 18 – Deadline to be included in the 1st commercials
- Jul 25 – Deadline to be included on festival posters
- Aug 22 – Deadline to be included in brochures & on 2nd commercials
- Sep 5 – Deadline to be included in travel guides
- Sep 15 – Deadline to be included on the onsite festival banners
Once your commitment form has been processed you will receive an invoice for your records. Use the link to pay online or the address to mail a check or money order. Address: Bowling Green International Festival, Inc. PO Box 50996 Bowling Green KY 42102.
You can download the festival’s W-9 here
Why does the sponsorship form ask for some of this information? Are you going to share it?
No. We use that contact information only to communicate with you regarding your sponsorship.
If your organization has a local (to Bowling Green) address, please include that one.
Include the URL that best meets your organization’s needs: it is often a website but can also be a social media page.
We want to make sure to maximize your organization’s benefits, and most sponsorship levels include a ticket discount for the sponsor’s employees. (See benefit chart above for discount amounts.) However, the “employee” count can include folks beyond official, full-time employees. For example, you can include those contracted from an agency.
We are always seeking opportunities to advertise the festival with banners, especially in high-traffic locations. As you may know, Bowling Green no longer allows banners to be placed on right-of-ways; therefore, events like ours ask for permission from private property owners to post our banners.
What about having a booth at the festival?
The short answer is “maybe”—any organization can apply for what we call a “special interest booth.” Special interest booths are booths that do not not necessarily match the festival’s theme of featuring foreign cultures represented in our community.
Because we recognize that many different organizations want to participate in our event, we set aside a small number of spaces for special interest booths each year. However, in order to support our festival’s mission, each new special interest booth application must be reviewed by our board of directors. The board considers several factors, including the space remaining for special interest booths that year, when deciding which applications to approve.
Sponsoring at the $2000 level brings with it a booth space if your organization chooses to claim that benefit.
The booth space application puts another process in motion and ensures that your organization receives all the information necessary to participate fully with its booth. Please submit your booth space application as soon as possible to allow us to reserve space for your organization and to start this process.
What are banners and where are they located?
To recognize our highest level sponsors, we produce large (2′ x 4′) color banners and display them at the festival. Each banner features one sponsor’s logo, tagline and web address. After organizations have fulfilled their sponsorship commitment, they may request one of the following locations for their branded banner to appear.
One premium location for branded banners is near one of the festival’s entrance gates, where we place the banners in a row. All are highly visible, high traffic placements.
Another premium location for branded banners is near one of three stages or festival activity areas (e.g., piñata bursts, children’s activities, or beer garden). All are highly visible placements in high traffic locations.
Where should I expect to see and hear my organization’s name before the festival?
One benefit of sponsorship is being included in the festival’s traditional media advertising. This type of advertising includes packages that we create and distribute through local television, radio, newspapers, or magazines.
We are happy to recognize our sponsors throughout our website! The presentation of organizations’ logos depends upon the level of sponsorship provided. We place linked logos of all our top sponsors in the footer of our website so that they appear on all pages. We group sponsors into levels with the size of the logos corresponding to the sponsorship level.
We dedicate one section of our website entirely to our sponsors! Highlighting sponsors all on one page allows us to recognize the range of support we have received from our sponsors. https://www.bginternationalfest.com/our-sponsors
We enjoy thanking our sponsors on our social media channels as we lead up to the festival itself! In September, our platforms’ busiest month, we post two types of thank-you graphics: one that contains all the sponsors at the same level and another that highlights individual organizations. We publish thank-you posts on Facebook, Instagram and X.
We also create posters to advertise the festival. We distribute the posters in several ways: digitally (via email, website, and social media) and physically (placing them in business establishments around Bowling Green). The posters feature sponsors at several levels. View the most recent poster here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iJaBF1adAVXCSKiK3pgZqAcSH7k-KPwT/view?usp=sharing
Where should I expect to see and hear my organization’s name at the festival?
We enjoy thanking all of our sponsors during our event’s opening ceremony, which formally opens the festival at 8:45 a.m. The opening ceremony also recognizes winners of the children’s poster contest.
Our three performance stages are booked with a wide variety of acts and managed by stage hosts. As they introduce performers and interact with the audience between acts, those hosts will mention sponsors at the Ambassador and above level.
At the festival, we distribute hard copies of and display QR codes for two items popular with patrons: brochures and travel guides. Sponsors are listed in both of these documents.