Sponsorship & Strategic Partnerships Lead — Fractional

I’m looking for an experienced sponsorship sales and strategic partnerships professional to help me build and activate a revenue channel around GoodFortune, a founder-led research and intelligence platform. I’m a senior strategist and founder with 15 years of experience across growth, marketing, organizational strategy, cultural strategy, and institutional transformation. My work has contributed to $5M+ in net-new revenue, $1B+ in enterprise investment mobilized, $24M+ in organizational capital deployment, and significant KPI improvement across enterprise and institutional environments. GoodFortune builds on that body of work by creating research-driven environments where brands and institutions can learn directly with the communities, practitioners, and leaders they want to understand. Proper Context, my proprietary decision-quality measurement system, structures the intelligence generated through that work. At this stage, the founder is an important part of the commercial proposition. You are not being asked to sell an unknown event company. You will be selling access to an experienced strategist, a differentiated research methodology, an emerging intelligence platform, and participation formats that allow partners to generate useful insight while creating genuine value for the communities involved. You can review my background at devtsmith.com. What We’re Selling GoodFortune is not primarily selling event sponsorship inventory. The commercial proposition is research, intelligence, participation, and useful affinity. Current partnership opportunities include: Research Partnerships, beginning around $60K, where an organization underwrites research and receives structured intelligence around a strategically important audience, community, market, or decision environment. Community Insight / Experience Partnerships, where GoodFortune creates facilitated research environments that combine curated participation, strategic conversation, Proper Context measurement, and hospitality. Larger multi-experience or research series partnerships, currently envisioned in approximately the $180K–$240K range, depending on scope. Select custom partnerships where a sponsor or institution has a meaningful question GoodFortune is uniquely positioned to investigate. Partners receive intelligence and strategic learning—not individual participant data or access disguised as research. The strongest positioning is: GoodFortune helps organizations build useful affinity with important communities by creating something valuable with them—not simply marketing at them. Proper Context captures what the relationship reveals so the insight can inform what the institution does next. Initial Engagement The initial engagement will be a small fixed-fee setup and activation phase, expected to be approximately $500–$800. This is not a strategy-only assignment. I want someone who can quickly understand the offering, sharpen the commercial motion where necessary, and begin taking it into market. The initial work should include: Review existing sponsorship/research partnership materials and offers Help identify the strongest initial buyer profiles and sponsorship categories Build a focused target list of brands, institutions, agencies, foundations, and/or other potential partners Identify the appropriate decision-makers within those organizations Prioritize targets based on fit, likelihood, budget, relationship opportunity, and strategic relevance Refine outreach language where necessary Establish a practical pipeline and follow-up process Begin direct outreach and business-development activity Open qualified conversations with potential partners Help position and advance opportunities once interest exists Provide commercial feedback from the market so we can refine packaging without endlessly rebuilding the offer I do not need a 50-page sponsorship strategy or a giant prospect spreadsheet. I need somebody who can determine who is most likely to buy this, get us in front of them, and help move the conversation toward revenue. Longer-Term Opportunity & Compensation The objective is to develop this into an ongoing fractional sponsorship and partnerships relationship. My preferred compensation structure is: Base/fractional compensation + performance upside. For qualified opportunities you directly source or materially advance, I am currently considering approximately 15% of collected revenue. Founder-sourced, existing, or house relationships may carry lower commission economics depending on your level of involvement. Commission would be based on revenue actually collected, not simply proposals submitted or contracts verbally agreed to. The intent is straightforward: If you create meaningful revenue, you should participate meaningfully in the upside. The exact ongoing structure can be finalized with the right person after the initial engagement. Who I’m Looking For You should have meaningful experience selling sponsorships, strategic partnerships, research partnerships, experiential partnerships, brand partnerships, or similarly consultative high-value offerings. I am especially interested in people who have sold to: Brand marketing leaders CMOs and senior marketers Brand partnerships teams Corporate affairs / social impact leaders Insights and research leaders Innovation teams Agencies Foundations or institutional funders Companies seeking meaningful access to creator, professional, cultural, or community audiences You should be comfortable selling offers worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, where the buyer needs to understand strategic value rather than simply compare CPMs, logos, tables, and ticket inventory. Strong candidates will understand how to: Open doors Find the actual budget owner Develop relationships Qualify opportunities Navigate long enterprise sales cycles Shape a partnership without immediately discounting it Advance a buyer from curiosity to a real commercial conversation Close or materially support closing high-value deals This role is not lead generation only. I need someone who understands the difference between giving me a list of names and developing business. When You Apply Please briefly tell me: What kinds of sponsorships or strategic partnerships you have personally sold. The typical deal sizes you have worked with. The types of buyers and brands you already understand or have relationships with. One example of a sponsorship or partnership you personally sourced and helped close. How you would approach the first 30 days of taking a founder-led research/intelligence offering like this into market. I’m looking for someone who can eventually become a trusted commercial partner around GoodFortune—not simply someone who sends cold emails. The goal is to turn an already-developed body of IP, research capability, founder credibility, and partnership inventory into a repeatable sponsorship and strategic-partnership revenue channel.