Anybody out there had any experience raising large amounts of funding for a non-profit through sponsorships?

Ok, I have one of those wild eyed ideas that I would like to make a reality.

One of the great opportunities that the Boy Scouts of America offers is the opportunity for older scouts to participate in various high adventure activities. I would like to help a group of scouts fulfill their dream of the ultimate high adventure trip, space.

Basically what this will take is around $200K per seat. Of course, there is no way that most of the boys or their families can pull a chunk of change like that out of their pockets. OTOH, that’s really just a small drop in the bucket for many large corporate advertising budgets, and helping send a bunch of scouts into orbit has a very high cool factor, not to mention the type of thing that plays well in the press. I’m hoping I can talk a few major sponsors into being large contributors in exchange for the huge opportunity for great press.

Problem is, I’m not exactly sure how to go about being taken seriously by potential sponsors. I suspect it’s a bit more complicated than sending an email to somebody that says something like “Hey, wanna give me $200K to send a kid into space in exchange for some great press and a nice tax write off?”.

Anyone out there with real practical experience in soliciting large scale corporate sponsorship for a non-profit who might be able to offer advice?