An Inside Look at the University of Puerto Rico Student Chapter's Corporate Sponsorship Program

Over one-third of AIChE Student Chapters receive funding from corporate sponsors. Many of these chapters attest that their corporate sponsorship program is their most effective source of income. The AIChE Student Chapter at University of Puerto Rico has allowed us an inside look into their successful corporate sponsorship program. Selected answers are shown below.

In your experience, what do sponsors most often seek from their sponsorship?

Companies are more attracted to sponsorship with AIChE because we help them to plan information sessions, information tables, the opportunity to attend our Company Night and finally because we provide a resume book. All these events occur during our Career Week.

How have your student members benefited from sponsorships?

Sponsorships allow us to carry out activities for our members. We plan a lot of professional, academic, and social activities. Members have the opportunity to participate in our Company Night, giving them the advantage of letting recruiters (our sponsors) preview their resume before getting to the University Job Fair. Usually, members get their first round of interviews because of the Company Night. In addition, we receive participation from around 80-90% of our membership.

Approximately how much money per student chapter member does your sponsorship program bring in?

We usually receive $5,000 to $7,000 from our sponsors. In addition, we have a membership of approximately 290 to 300 students. So sponsorships provide approximately $20 per student.

What advice or insight can you provide for a student chapter starting a corporate sponsorship program?

  1. Start with a proposal showing all future activities. Be creative and present the information as clearly as possible.
  2. Include sponsorship packages and give the corporate sponsor good benefits in each of them.
  3. Plan an activity where you can socialize with the sponsor. Meet and greets are perfect. For our chapter, a Company Night is good too.
  4. Look for ANY company that hires chemical engineers when looking for sponsors.
  5. Finally, give the company an offer that they can’t refuse: Good benefits, meet and greets, etc.

Does geographic location or local industries seem to play a part in which companies are interested in sponsoring your student chapter?

Geographic location has been never an issue when looking for sponsors. We sometimes receive sponsorship from local companies.

For more information about the University of Puerto AIChE, please visit its Facebook page.