Guides
Where to find sponsors for a hackathon and what they actually need
Why "give us money for the event" doesn't work, how to price sponsorship packages, and what offer closes the deal.
The question "where to find sponsors for a hackathon" is usually asked from the wrong angle. Companies don't sponsor hackathons out of love for the community. They solve their own problems: hiring developers, testing products, showing their brand to the right audience. As soon as you start selling a solution to their problem instead of just "an event", the conversation goes completely differently.
What a sponsor is actually buying
- Hiring. Access to a hundred developers over a weekend is cheaper than hiring a recruitment agency.
- Product. If participants spend the entire hackathon writing code on their API, it's a live stress test and a stream of feedback.
- Brand. The logo is seen by those who cannot be reached by regular advertising.
- Content. Photos, case studies, mentors in the frame, social media reach.
Understanding this changes the email. Instead of "support our hackathon" you write "we will provide contacts of forty middle-level backend developers who worked with their hands for two days instead of answering a test task".
How to build sponsorship packages
Three tiers work best. Not because it's a beautiful number, but because it's easier for a person to choose from three options than from seven. For example: general, partner, friend of the event. Each subsequent tier adds visibility and access.
Price the package based on what it gives the sponsor, not on your expenses. If the contact of one relevant candidate on the market costs a nominal 15-20 thousand tenge, then access to the participant database and a booth at the venue have a clear price that you shouldn't be ashamed to name.
- General: logo everywhere, own nomination and prize, opening slot, access to participants' resumes
- Partner: logo at the venue and on the website, mentors from the company, mention in the newsletter
- Friend: logo on the website and a thank you on social media
AI providers are the sponsors of the new era
A separate category that has grown alongside vibe coding is model and API providers. They need developers to try their tool in action, and a hackathon is the perfect testing ground for this. Such a sponsor often pays not with money, but with credits and access: you distribute keys to their API to participants through the platform, and they get a hundred teams that built something on their product over the weekend. On Stavleak, such keys are distributed to participants right in their dashboard, so the promise to the sponsor is fulfilled without collecting cards in chat.
Who to write to and how
Don't start with the giants. Local IT companies, product startups, banks with strong development teams, and educational projects agree faster and negotiate less. They have hiring pain points and a budget for HR branding.
The first email should be short. Who you are, when and for whom the hackathon is, how many participants you expect, what the company gets, and a single line calling for a fifteen-minute call. Attach a twenty-slide presentation only if requested.
How to deliver on promises to the sponsor
Selling a package is only half the battle; next, you need to deliver on it, otherwise they won't give you money a second time. When you organize an event on Stavleak, sponsor logos and tiers are displayed directly on the hackathon page, you set up the sponsor's nomination as a separate track with its own prize, and the list of projects and results are already collected there. After the event, send the sponsor a short report: how many came, what they built, links to projects, how many resumes were shared. If you want to organize your event the same way, check out the Stavleak demo.