# Sponsorships and finances

> Define sponsorship levels, bring sponsors in through applications or your own outreach, and track every dollar in and out.

Two related views handle the money side of your parade. **Sponsorships** is where you sell and manage sponsor support. **Finances** is where you track all the money, both in and out, against a budget. This guide covers both.

## Sponsorships: levels, sponsors, prospects

The Sponsorships view works in three parts, shown as sub-tabs:

- **Levels**: your pricing tiers and the benefits each one includes.
- **Sponsors**: confirmed supporters, each at a level.
- **Prospects**: your outreach pipeline, the people you're still pursuing.

### Start with levels

On the **Levels** tab, define each sponsorship tier: a name, an amount, a description, and how many slots are available (leave it blank for unlimited). You can also build a list of **benefits** (branding, digital, media, program perks) and check which ones each level includes, so a "Gold" level clearly shows what it gets over "Silver."

![The sponsorship Levels tab](/help-media/sponsorship-levels.png "The Levels tab: sponsorship tiers across the top and a grid of benefits checked per level.")

### Two ways sponsors arrive

**They apply through your website.** Sponsor applications come in and appear in the **Sponsors** tab under a pending list. Review each one and either **Approve** or **Decline**. On approve, you can **Approve Without Email** (you'll collect payment another way) or **Approve & Send**, which emails them a payment link. On decline, you can add internal notes and choose whether to send a message.

**You go find them.** Use the **Prospects** tab as an outreach pipeline. Add a prospect, set their priority, the level you're pitching, and an ask amount, then move them along a status track (Identified, Contacted, Interested, and so on). When one commits, **Convert to Sponsor**, optionally sending a payment link at the same time.

Sending any payment link requires Stripe to be connected; see [accepting payments](/help/payments-stripe). Without it, you can still approve and convert sponsors, just without collecting online.

### Reconciling payments

When a sponsor pays online, the payment matches back to their record automatically. If a payment comes in that the app can't tie to a sponsor for this parade, it shows up in an **Unmatched Sponsorship Transactions** list on the Sponsors tab. Each one lets you **Create Sponsorship** from it, attach it to a **Different Entity**, or **Dismiss** it. Clear these so your sponsor list and your money match.

## Finances: goals, income, expenses

The Finances view tracks your whole budget across three sub-tabs.

![The Finances view](/help-media/finances-income.png "The Finances view: Goals, Income, and Expenses tabs, here showing progress goals.")

- **Goals** are progress trackers. Set a target (total raised, a fundraising goal, a spending cap) and watch actual numbers fill in against it.
- **Income** records money in. Online payments (sponsorships, application fees, gifts) land here automatically when they clear Stripe. For anything collected offline, use **Add Offline Income** and record the check, cash, or in-kind gift, including who it came from and which level it applies to.
- **Expenses** records money out, categorized (permits, insurance, vendors, supplies, and so on) with a payment status so you can separate what's planned from what's paid.

Every table exports to CSV for your records or your board.

## One contact, many roles

Behind all of this is your contact list. The same person or company is a single contact record, so when someone sponsors, applies, or volunteers, they link to one entity rather than scattering across the app. That's why an approved sponsor already has a contact, and why a sponsor's payments, soft credits, and history roll up in one place.