Past research has found mail surveys with government and university sponsors obtain higher response rates than surveys sponsored by other organizations, possibly resulting from the increased perception of legitimacy and authority associated with these sponsors. With mixed-mode web and mail surveys of the general public, our ability to convey the legitimacy of a survey may be even more difficult. While few studies have considered sponsorship effects on response to web surveys, to our knowledge, no study has explored the effects of sponsorship on response in mixed-mode surveying. We tested the effects of survey sponsorship by a local (in-state) university sponsor versus a distant (out-of-state) university sponsor on response rates and respondent samples using an experiment conducted in spring 2012 with an address-based sample of residents from two states in the U.S. This study produced a number of findings, including: (1) local-sponsored surveys obtained higher response rates than distant-sponsored surveys, regardless of whether a mail-only or mixed-mode (initial web request followed by a mail questionnaire offered in the fourth contact) design was utilized; (2) mixed-mode (2web+mail) designs obtained lower response rates than mail-only designs, regardless of sponsor, and (3) for 2web+mail sample members, receiving a local-sponsored survey significantly increased one's estimated odds of responding by web (relative to not responding), but did not significantly increase one's odds of responding by mail (relative to not responding). This research demonstrates preliminary support for our concerns...