Co-Develop Programming on the Issues Your Organization Works On
SSF sponsors don't buy ads. They co-develop the webinars that put their expertise in front of the decision-makers they need to reach.
The Audience You Reach
SSF subscribers are professionals in government, academia, corporate sustainability and security, nonprofit advocacy, and consulting practice. The audience composition has been stable across 15 years of programming.
27,000+
Subscribers across government, corporate, academic, and nonprofit sectors
500–2,000
Registrants per webinar, with strong on-demand viewership
40%
Average live attendance; the rest and more watch the recording
300+
Webinars produced since 2009, building a deep archive
Who Actually Shows Up: A Representative Example
The Missing Link in Wildfire Mitigation (January 2026), the third webinar in the ASU Lightworks Wildfire series within SSF's Climate Adaptation and Natural Hazards track, drew 630 registrations from 41 countries and 49 US states.
Federal: FEMA, USDA Forest Service, NOAA, U.S. Department of Energy, National Park Service, plus 8 other federal departments and Congressional offices.
State and local: Washington Department of Natural Resources, Montana DNRC, Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, plus 50 other state and local agencies.
Universities and research: Arizona State University, George Washington University, University of Washington, Northern Arizona University, Sandia National Labs, plus 30 other institutions.
Energy, utilities, and consulting: Tucson Electric Power, Shell, Salt River Project, CPS Energy, plus 100+ other firms including TRC Companies, CDM Smith, and Parametrix.
SSF's next scheduled webinar, What Is Actually Wrong With the American Grid?(opens in new tab) (September 2026), an Energy and Security webinar, has already drawn 700+ registrations, including Edison International, CPS Energy, Enel S.p.A., ExxonMobil, Siemens, Black Hills Energy, FERC, Argonne National Laboratory, and 45+ other energy and utility organizations.
Breadth and seniority are consistent across topics. Energy and Security webinars draw deeper representation from utility and grid sector organizations. See recent and upcoming programming: Energy and Security(opens in new tab) · Climate Adaptation and Natural Hazards(opens in new tab) · Security and Society(opens in new tab)
Two Ways to Sponsor
SSF works with sponsors in two formats. The right one depends on whether you're advancing a single event or sustaining a presence on a subject across a series of related webinars.
Single Webinar Sponsor $5,000 to $10,000 typically for the webinar itself
For organizations advancing a specific campaign, research release, policy moment, or thought-leadership event. The most common entry point for new sponsors.
- Topic, framing, and panel developed in partnership with you
- Panel seat(s) for sponsor experts
- Sponsor named on the dedicated webinar landing page hosting the video and event details
- Sponsor logo on registration page, recording, and post-event materials
- Co-branded promotion to the SSF list, plus SSF promotion through outside outlets and social media
- Sponsor-defined marketing questions added to the event exit survey
- Audience analytics, attendee composition, and survey results delivered to the sponsor
- Recording hosted on its own landing page for continuing visibility
- SSF-assisted follow-up support available as an optional add-on (described below)
Topic Sponsor From $20,000, depending on series length and scope
For organizations sustaining a presence on a subject they work on. A Topic Sponsor takes on a defined subject area within one of SSF's three programming tracks and sponsors three or more connected webinars, planned together.
Includes everything in the Single Webinar Sponsor package, plus:
- Panel seat(s) for sponsor experts applied to each webinar in the series
- Joint development of the topic and series arc within one of SSF's three tracks
- A named topic page within the relevant SSF track, hosting the full series of webinars in one place
- The topic page carries the sponsor's logo, a brief description of the sponsor's role and interest in the subject, and links back to the sponsor's website
- Consistent sponsor branding across all webinars in the series
- Aggregated analytics and survey data across the series, not just per-webinar
- SSF-assisted follow-up support available as an optional add-on (described below)
Example: the ASU Lightworks Wildfire series, found in the Climate Adaptation and Natural Hazards
Why a Topic Sponsor Series Compounds A sponsor who buys three separate Single Webinar sponsorships on three unrelated topics reaches three cold audiences. A Topic Sponsor reaches one increasingly warm audience across the series. Registrants who return for successive webinars have demonstrated interest twice, three times, four times. That is a warmer, more qualified prospect pool than any first-time registrant.
If you're advancing a specific campaign, research release, or policy moment, the Single Webinar Sponsor format fits. If you're building sustained presence on a subject you work on, the Topic Sponsor format is the right investment.
SSF retains editorial control of webinar content. Sponsors help shape framing and suggest panelists. That editorial independence is what keeps the audience returning to the programming.
Getting Results From SSF Sponsorship
A webinar is like a good lunch. Someone pays the bill, everyone shows up, the conversation is real, and then people go back to their offices and the day moves on. It has a short tail. That's the missed opportunity many sponsors don't plan for.
The webinar itself is the broadcast: 500 to 2,000 registrants including federal officials, corporate leaders, university researchers, and consultants who chose to attend because they care about the topic.
That's top-of-funnel reach into an audience most sponsors could not assemble on their own. The broadcast delivers real value on its own. Sponsor experts get panel presence with a decision-maker audience. The recording keeps working on its dedicated landing page for months after the event.
The follow-up is the narrowcast: targeted outreach to the specific registrants a sponsor most wants to reach, informed by exit survey data and framed around the value the sponsor delivered on the panel.
The narrowcast is where webinar attendees become active leads.
SSF helps sponsors do both. The broadcast is what SSF runs. The narrowcast is what SSF helps the sponsor organize and execute, when the sponsor chooses to invest in that layer of the program.
Why the Follow-Up Matters
Attendees who signal interest have a short attention window. A registrant who filled out the exit survey with interest in what the sponsor does is warm now. In two weeks they're cooler. In two months they're back to cold.
Reaching them in the first three weeks turns interest into conversation. Waiting turns it into a lost lead.
ASU Lightworks has sponsored SSF for 14 years and roughly 60 webinars. What sustains the relationship is not the webinars alone. Lightworks treats each webinar as the broadcast and works with SSF to run the narrowcast against the audience it surfaces. That's the model that has generated collaborations and panelist relationships Lightworks wouldn't have built otherwise.
Before the webinar. Set clear objectives for what a successful campaign looks like beyond attendance. SSF and the sponsor promote to their respective networks. SSF also promotes the webinar through its own social channels and to media contacts and industry networks that reach adjacent audiences.
During the webinar. Position sponsor experts on the panel to establish authority with a new audience. Use the exit survey to ask sponsor-defined questions that surface interest and intent. SSF handles all logistics and delivery.
After the webinar. Every sponsor receives the full registrant list with names, titles, organizations, and sector classifications; attendance data showing who registered, who attended live, and who watched the recording; and exit survey results including the sponsor-defined marketing questions.
For sponsors who add follow-up support. SSF helps them turn the data into outreach. That includes identifying the highest-value prospects from the registrant list, segmenting the rest by sector, and shaping the outreach itself. Outreach can take a range of forms: email sequences the sponsor's team adapts and sends from their own systems, invitations to small online sessions with the sponsor, or other formats scoped to what the sponsor is trying to achieve.
The recording continues to work. Whether or not the sponsor adds follow-up support, the recording keeps drawing viewers on its dedicated landing page over the following months. Those viewers become additional prospects the sponsor can approach on their own timeline.
What the Follow-Up Support Costs Basic follow-up support typically runs 30 to 60% of the webinar delivery cost, scaled to what the sponsor actually needs. SSF and the sponsor scope the work together as part of the contract.
Sponsors who use SSF only for the broadcast still get real reach into a decision-maker audience. Sponsors who also invest in the narrowcast get the pipeline and relationships that come from working the audience the webinar surfaced.
How Sponsors Have Used SSF
Arizona State University, Lightworks Initiative
ASU Lightworks is the Topic Sponsor for Wildfires within SSF's Climate Adaptation and Natural Hazards track. ASU brought the topic. SSF and ASU framed the series together. The wildfire program currently includes three completed webinars, one in production, and two more in planning, with ASU team members appearing on panels alongside government land management agencies, finance and technology companies, and peer institutions.
Over time, Topic Sponsorship builds something a single webinar cannot: a recognized sponsor presence on a subject, and a growing network of relationships with the agencies, companies, and peer institutions that show up across the series.
"Lightworks works on energy and decarbonization, and the questions that touch them, workforce, technology, public policy, community action. SSF has been our platform for putting those subjects in front of policy and practitioner audiences since 2014, across roughly 60 webinars. We bring substantive perspective and the experts we know; SSF brings its own deep network for panel recruiting, editorial judgment on how to frame each conversation, audience reach, and the full production. We treat SSF as top-of-funnel and work with SSF to run the outreach that turns the audience into ongoing relationships. The results have been collaborations and panelist relationships we wouldn't have built through our own outreach."
Bill Brandt
Director of Strategic Initiatives, ASU Lightworks
Island Press
Island Press is the nonprofit publisher of books on environment, sustainability, and public policy. Across more than fifteen webinars over a decade, SSF worked with Island Press to bring its authors into direct conversation with the policy and practitioner audiences their books were written for. The partnership extended Island Press's reach beyond the audiences that book publicity typically touches.
"SSF was invaluable in connecting our authors with the policy audience. We collaborated on over 15 webinars across a decade of partnering. It was an opportunity to make significant impact to the current work and add to the discussions in a substantive way. SSF brings the right people to the table every time."
Julie Marshall
Vice President and Director, Marketing and Sales, Island Press
Bring Us Your Topic
Most sponsorship conversations start with understanding what your organization is working on and what kind of programming would advance it. Bring a specific topic if you have one or come ready to think one through together.
Executive Director, Security and Sustainability Forum
esaltzberg@ssfworld.org
(703) 992-3848
What the full picture, including case studies and program detail? Download the complete prospectus(opens in new tab)