Know your audience

So in trying to get corporate sponsors for the table tennis team's trip to our national championships, we tried to sell the sponsorship as a good business decision and an opportunity to gain a stronger foothold in a fast-growing market. Well, one response went something like, "This idea has merit, but it'll have to be approved by marketing. [Therefore] We won't fund this."

The lesson of the day (I've been bad about keeping this updated) is that the paid philanthropists in a corporation don't care about marketing. They want to know why you are a good cause and not why you'll make them money. Now, this might vary from company to company, but generally, super-large ones are more horizonatally structured (?) and focused on accomplishing their purpose, not some other department's purpose. This is sad, because we had what I thought was a pretty compelling case.