We’ve been thinking of this also. My plan is to explore, first with our closest business participants, the concept of about $5,000–maybe %10K–as an annual sponsorship, akin to membership in other professional/trade associations. What they get is involvement when we work with elected officials on policy issues, such as meetings with legislators and committee staff about priority issues such as math ed or teacher recruitment, their name/logo on ads and at events that we do or co-sponsor with other more resourced organizations, etc. I.e., make it clear that our STEM ed network has influence and connections that companies want to foster for their business purposes. Then nonchalantly charge them for the service (as opposed to begging them for philanthropy).
