How Would You Handle Group Advertising?

I’ve been asked to run a contest that would have, as its prize, some amount of direct advertising for finalists and winners. The sponsor is committing to a budget of at least $5k per year.

Background:

A couple of days ago, a self-published science fiction author was banned from a small-time science fiction award for self-published authors, because of alleged violations of a Code of Conduct that had only been written on Sunday. This author had no idea that someone had submitted his novel, and (according to what I’d read, though I have no direct knowledge of this) some of the judges were refusing to read it because of his social media comments. As a result, many authors eligible for the award have pulled out in protest.

I’m not a follower of the author in question, but I was interacting a lot with those who did. There were some questions on how to create a new award that didn’t include moral policing, and I made a few suggestions on creating an award where the authors themselves were the judges, so that one was judged by one’s peers.

Me being me, I took an hour to write up a serious proposal just as a bit of exploration. If I were to run it, it would mean about three to five days’ work each year, which was doable as a volunteer thing. I’d just need to tabulate submissions and ballots, write some releases, and maintain an email list for it.

This morning I woke up to an offer from an individual committing to a minimum fund of $5,000 per year for five years, if the prize included advertising for finalists and winners.

Needless to say, if I were to do this, it would mean more than three to five days’ work per year. I told him I’d do some research and get back to him.

Costs for this would mostly be for advertising, but that would include paying someone to create ads images in the first place. It would also be per category (though on some platforms I could advertise the whole contest), which increases the cost.

I would not want to put any particular burden on these authors, including requiring price promotions.

I should set this up as a 501(c)(3) so that I can take donations, which would also require approval time.

I’ve been following the Novel Marketing Podcast for a while, but as you might imagine I haven’t been listening with this in mind, so I figured I’d come here to ask for advice.