If your group is small, you don’t necessarily need sponsors. Hosting meetups at coffee shops, restaurants, or people’s houses is fine.
However, you may want to organize trips, conferences, and other types of more costly events. If so, you will need to raise local group funds and ask local Python shops to consider sponsoring an event.
Research local companies and approach them. Often, a company that already hosts other meetups will be willing to host your PyLadies group. Ask them if they’ll provide pizza/drinks; if not, charge attendees a fee that covers food (and more, if you want to use the funds for future events).
The Python Software Foundation has been very supportive of PyLadies. They have a special donation page, where donors can use PayPal to make donations directly to the PSF that are tax-deductible, which can then be used to reimburse PyLadies organizers who pay for various event costs.
See our sample PSF grant proposal to raise money for t-shirts, tables, and chairs.
You can apply for a Python Sprints grant to raise money for food, power strips, name tags, and anything else you might need to run a sprint/hackathon, up to $300:
Some PyLadies designs and printing instructions are provided with this kit. The cost is roughly $500-750 for 60 shirts. Shirts can be sold for $20 each (you can adjust the price to meet your needs/currency, of course).
See the “T-Shirts, Stickers, and Other Merchandise” section for more details.
Many companies are looking for ways to give back to the developer community. You’ll want to put together a corporate sponsor info packet.
See our sample info packet at upload sponsorship doc to git repo. Borrow ideas from it, and customize it to fit your group.