Sponsorship

Sponsors are important partners that support AWM’s mission, exhibits, programs, and events.

Shortly after opening in 2017, the AWM was ranked #1 Best Attraction in Illinois in a USA Today Readers Best poll, and Fodor’s placed the AWM first in its listing of the 10 Best New Museums. Enthusiasm for the AWM remains high today, as the museum has a rating of 4.8/5 on TripAdvisor, including receiving a 2024 Traveler’s Choice Award based on these consistently great reviews.

Sponsorship Levels and Benefits

  • Free museum admission anytime for all company employees and their guests
  • Free use of the entire museum space for your private event
  • Publicity directed to the AWM’s well-read, highly-educated, and socially-engaged audience — in emails to 26,000 subscribers and in social media posts
  • Cross-promotional opportunities customized to the sponsor
  • Hospitality benefits such as free event tickets, private event discounts
  • Private museum tour with the AWM President
  • Listing on Museum Donor Wall and Donor Page of AWM website
  • Free museum admission anytime for all company employees and their guests
  • Free use of the entire museum space for your private event
  • Publicity directed to the AWM’s well-read, highly-educated, and socially-engaged audience — in emails to 26,000 subscribers and in social media posts
  • Cross-promotional opportunities customized to the sponsor
  • Hospitality benefits such as free event tickets, private event discounts
  • Listing on Museum Donor Wall and Donor Page of AWM website
  • Free museum admission anytime for all company employees and their guests
  • Free use of the entire museum space for your private event
  • Publicity directed to the AWM’s well-read, highly-educated, and socially-engaged audience — in emails to 26,000 subscribers and in social media posts
  • Cross-promotional opportunities customized to the sponsor
  • Listing on Museum Donor Wall and Donor Page of AWM website
  • Free museum admission anytime for all company employees and their guests
  • Publicity directed to the AWM’s well-read, highly-educated, and socially-engaged audience — in emails to 26,000 subscribers and in social media posts
  • Cross-promotional opportunities customized to the sponsor
  • Listing on Museum Donor Wall and Donor Page of AWM website

Every sponsorship opportunity is customized to the sponsor’s specific needs. We invite you to have a conversation with us about a mutually beneficial partnership. Ready to discuss ideas? Get in touch with Linda Dunlavy, Director of Development: [email protected], (312) 374-8762.

Sponsorship gifts can be designated for one of the programs described below, or they may be unrestricted, to support ongoing needs as well as new opportunities.

 

things to do in chicago: surprise bookshelf at the AWM

Write In Youth Education Program

Our Write In youth education program demonstrates our commitment to both advancing knowledge and understanding about American writers and inspiring students to be confident writers themselves. This program primarily serves students from low-income communities at no cost to the students’ families or schools, thanks to donor support.

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Family Free Days

On the third Sunday of every month, the American Writers Museum offers free admission for all visitors during our family free days.This is our busiest day each month and is part of our commitment to accessibility and reducing barriers to engaging with our museum. Visitors of all ages walk through our doors on these Sundays, and sponsorship is a great way to get your brand or business in front of them, as well as your employees, clients, customers, friends, and families.

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Public Programs

Our public programs and author readings feature award-winning and best-selling writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and other genres, often in partnership with leading academic scholars, to delve deeper into a specific new work and facilitate a discussion among our visitors. These events take place both in the museum and at partner sites such as the Chicago Public Library, universities, auditoriums, and other larger public performance spaces. Every program is recorded and added to our YouTube page, providing even more sponsor recognition. 

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Get Lit

On the second Tuesday of each month, the American Writers Museum serves up drinks, music, and themed activities at Get Lit! These events feature plenty of opportunities to get your company’s name in the spotlight. With themes ranging from a Grownup Book Fair to 80’s Night to Pride Night, Get Lit caters to a younger downtown crowd, for ages 21+.

Learn more

This place is really more of a shrine, a temple, a physical place devoted to an idea. Or in the case of the American Writers Museum to an infinite number of ideas created by American writers from every period of our history from every place and demographic and class and race…The American Writers Museum is a unique institution in this country, an enduring temple to American literary voices, writers, and readers.

Peter Sagal, author and host of NPR’s Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me!

To learn more, start a conversation with Linda Dunlavy, Director of Development:
[email protected]
(312) 374-8762

OnWord is the AWM’s annual benefit, a celebration of writing, reading, teaching, and learning. This year’s event will take place on September 29, 2026, at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago. The evening will include host Peter Sagal; the Beyond the Page Award presented to The Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan; the Founder’s Inspiring Writer Award presented to two-time National Book Award Winner Jesmyn Ward; and the Inspiring Teacher Award presented by Celeste Ng to a teacher who inspired her as a writer.

OnWord sponsorships start at $6,000.

The American Writers Museum is grateful to the corporations that have provided sponsorship support.