Aug 1, 2012, 11:48 AM
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Skydiving Demographic
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Hi,
Im looking into writing a sponsorship letter to a company that is interested in our noob team. But one of the concerns expressed was what kind of people are skydivers as in what work do they do and what kind of people come to skydiving events besides the hardcore skydivers, The company is a friends IT support company. Im sure there has been some kind of study/search about this already so the question is if anyone knows where to find this info? Any help is welcome.
These are the results from the USPA's membership surveys (scroll down for the occupation data). Not perfect, but there's some data there.
It would be hard to use the annual survey for anything…..they don’t ask the same questions or provide the choices each year.
Sparky
I wouldn't use it for anything where I had to get it peer reviewed for statistical significance, no. But for saying "Here's some data from a membership survey" that might make a sponsor happy enough for sponsorship, it might do. (Though data from his home country might be more valuable).
(This post was edited by NWFlyer on Aug 1, 2012, 12:23 PM)
None of these surveys will provide you a true picture of how diverse skydivers are as a group. The perceived demographic is quite skewed and the skydiving community is much more diverse than people believe – even to active skydivers in the sport for many years. The “kid living on raman noodles” will tell you his life story; the person making a few million a year will keep purposefully quiet or be quite vague about his stature.
To your potential sponsor, you can note that skydiving has been utilised in-house with clients/staff within companies such as Credit Suisse, UBS and Fortis. Has featured at events within the hedge fund and private equity industries. In Europe, active skydivers include several CEOs and chairmen of financial and corporate firms.
However on any given Saturday/Sunday, you will not readily spot these types of persons at the dropzone. Not because they are not there, but due to the fact that they generally keep that “quiet” and just want to be a “skydiver” like everyone else. At the end of the day over a beer; it’s just about the days jumping.
But for saying "Here's some data from a membership survey" that might make a sponsor happy enough for sponsorship, it might do. (Though data from his home country might be more valuable). 
