In our first design, we focused on simplicity. We wanted to make the process of searching for businesses to donate to an event as easy as possible for the user. We provided the bare essentials of the interface by using a wizard metaphor. The wizard would guide the users through the necessary information entering phase, and then provide users with a list of recommended businesses to contact.
The first "step" of the wizard would take in the minimum needed information that a business might want in order to decide whether or not to sponsor. The next "step" was optional for the user and asked for more specific information about the planned event.
We designed the wizard with consistency to the usual wizard model, so the interface would be immediately familiar. This would greatly improve learnability and safety.
After the wizard, the user would receive a page of results for recommended businesses. The results would be sortable by various additional criteria. Clicking on a business result would bring up an information "profile" page on the business. The user could then contact the business with the contact information available on this page.