Finding sponsors for your yearbook

Sponsors are the most effective lever on the price of your book. €400 of adverts across 120 copies is €3.33 less per copy — more than you would ever save through thinner paper, less colour or a smaller print run.

And it is easier than it sounds. You aren’t selling advertising to corporations. You’re selling half a page to the dentist half the year group has been treated by.

Who to ask (in this order)

1. Where your parents work. By far the most successful channel, and the one almost nobody uses systematically. Ask in the year group: “Whose parents have a business, or work at a company that does this kind of thing?” Out of 90 people you reliably get ten usable contacts — with a recommendation attached, which multiplies the acceptance rate.

2. Where you spend your own money. The bakery, the ice cream place, the driving school, the cinema, the café opposite the school, the phone shop. These shops know you are their customers, and you can walk in personally.

3. Local businesses interested in school leavers. Driving schools (almost always a hit), gyms, opticians, travel agents, the local bank, trades looking for apprentices. That last one is a strong argument: an advert in the yearbook is an advert to 120 people who are deciding right now what to do next.

4. Alumni. Somebody who left the same school ten years ago and now has a practice or a company says yes surprisingly often.

What practically never works: corporate head offices, chains with no local decision-making power, enquiries through contact forms on big websites.

What an advert may cost

Don’t quote a single price, quote a ladder. It makes the decision easier and raises the average.

Format	Guide price	Who takes it
1/4 page	€40–60	Small shops, single practices
1/2 page	€70–110	Driving schools, trades
Full page	€130–200	Banks, larger local businesses
Inside cover	€200–300	Your one main sponsor

These are guide prices and depend on your print run and region — at 60 copies in a village they’re too high, at 200 in a city too low. As a rough rule: a half page should cost about one euro per copy, and then you’re fair to both sides.

Don’t forget benefits in kind. Not everybody gives money, but many give vouchers, drinks for the ball, or print something for you. That is worth just as much and is often agreed more easily.

The letter

Short, concrete, with a number and a deadline. The letter that doesn’t work explains in four paragraphs what a yearbook is. The one that works says in ten lines what you get and what it costs.

Subject: Advert in the 2027 leavers' yearbook of [school]

Dear Ms/Mr [name],

we are the 2027 leaving year of [school] and are publishing our yearbook
in June — 120 copies, read by our year group, our families and the
school's teachers.

We offer advertising space:
  1/4 page    €50
  1/2 page    €90
  Full page  €160

If you would like to be part of it, we need your answer by [date] and a
logo or a finished advert by [date]. Once it's out we'll happily bring
you a copy.

Best regards
[name], [name]
Yearbook committee, [school] · [e-mail] · [phone number]

Five things that matter about it:

• A named person as the sender, not “the yearbook team”.
• The print run stated — that is the number a business decides on.
• The price in the letter, not on request. Making people ask costs you agreements.
• Two deadlines: the yes, and the print file. Almost everybody forgets the second, and then the logo is missing in May.
• A phone number. Many small businesses don’t reply by e-mail, they call.

The process that works

1. Build the list (one hour, in the committee): 25 to 40 addresses from the four channels above.
2. Send the e-mails — all on the same day, personalised only in the greeting and the company name.
3. Follow up after 7 days — this is where most of the agreements come from. Skip the follow-up and you lose about half.
4. Go to the local shops in person, don’t write. Two people, friendly, in the afternoon. The acceptance rate in person is several times the rate by e-mail.
5. Record agreements in writing: format, price, who sends the file, by when. A verbal promise in May isn’t one.
6. Bring a copy round after printing. It costs nothing, and the next year group gets a yes there in two minutes.

What to settle beforehand

• Invoices. Some businesses need one in order to claim it. Settle who issues it — usually that runs through the year-group fund; the school is normally not the right route. Agree it with the head before you make promises.
• Who keeps the accounts. One person, traceable, with a list. See Setting up the committee.
• Where the adverts sit in the book. Don’t collect them all on two pages at the back — nobody reads that, and the sponsor notices. Spread them out, but separate them visually from the content.
• What you won’t accept. Decide in advance which sectors you turn down (alcohol, tobacco, gambling, betting). A school publication with a betting advert is a conversation with the head that you don’t want to have.

Takeaways

• Ask first where your parents work. Recommendations beat everything.
• A ladder instead of a single price; rule of thumb: half a page ≈ €1 per copy.
• Price and two deadlines straight into the letter.
• Follow up after a week — that’s half the success.
• Go to local shops in person, don’t e-mail.

How it affects the price: What does a yearbook cost.