What grants have you done?

[Micah Chetrit]

Hi,
I was just curious what other teams have done grant wise this past year. Such as what grants did you apply for (if any) and did you get them. maybe how much it was worth is good as well. Other details are always appreciated. The reason I am asking is I feel like we have run our sponsors dry (we are a rural team) and big companies seem hard to get, so we are considering resorting to grants and was wondering what are the "best" ones.

[Ankit S.]

Our team did the Platt grant and the Verizon grant. We asked for 5k from each, hoping to get 2.5k. We have not gotten a response from either, but we just turned in Verizon recently.

Hope this helps and good luck.

[treffk]

The coach of our team is currently in a grant-writing class so during these summer month when we do not have things to do we fundraise. This year we are focusing on grants. We have applied to Lowe's, P&G, Walmart, and many others. We have been asking for 5k from each. We tried to do the Best Buy grant but did not qualify because they do not give money to schools.

[SenorZ]

We received a Rookie JC Penney Grant and a NASA grant. I believe both were for 6.5K. The JCP was solely used for registration for FRC, and the NASA for purchasing parts, tools, etc. We still have some of that money left over.

I'm not the grant writer at my school, but I'm pretty sure JCP will supply grants to second year and even some veteran teams.

[Micah Chetrit]

Thanks for all the quick input. Our team has already applied for 9 grants this summer for 5K each. We hope to get at least one.

[waialua359]

Thanks for all the quick input. Our team has already applied for 9 grants this summer for 5K each. We hope to get at least one.

That is pretty darn impressive.

I spent this whole summer so far and intially from late January, trying to do one.
It ended up being 61 pages though.......and submitted 2 weeks ago.

The hard part is when you actually get it and reporting back. :ahh:

[purpleandplasma]

Our team got the Boeing grant. It covered our kit of parts and first regional (5,000). It was super helpful. To get it, a person that works for boeing must submit your team for the grant. We have been sponsored by them for the past few years. Super helpful, and well worth looking into

[purpleandplasma]

Thanks for all the quick input. Our team has already applied for 9 grants this summer for 5K each. We hope to get at least one.

what grants did you apply for and how do apply for the nasa grant.

[Micah Chetrit]

I spent this whole summer so far and intially from late January, trying to do one.
It ended up being 61 pages though.......and submitted 2 weeks ago.

The hard part is when you actually get it and reporting back. :ahh:


Most of our grants end up being about five pages on average. I couldn't stand doing 60+ pages for a single grant. how much did you ask/get on that one?


what grants did you apply for and how do apply for the nasa grant.
I will see if I can remember all of them. Lowe's, Verizon, Best Buy, Adobe, Ford, AMD, Motorola, 3M, and Coke (plus JCP and NASA from the fall). we did not finish the Toshiba grant yet.
We were hoping to find a lot more, but that is all we could find. But Boeing does look like a good possibility.

[nnfuller]

Does anyone have their NASA or other grant proposals for me to look over, I am trying to prepare my team for a sustaining grant after our loss of sponsorship this year.

[purpleandplasma]

Our team did the Platt grant and the Verizon grant.

What's the Platt grant. I couldn't find any info about it when i googled it. may have been google-ing the wrong thing though

[nnfuller]

What's the Platt grant. I couldn't find any info about it when i googled it. may have been google-ing the wrong thing though

I believe it is handled through your Regional Director, it might not be something that can be found online, I know that when our team submitted we simply emailed our proposal to the person in charge of the Oregon region submissions.

[treffk]

I will see if I can remember all of them. Lowe's, Verizon, Best Buy, Adobe, Ford, AMD, Motorola, 3M, and Coke (plus JCP and NASA from the fall). we did not finish the Toshiba grant yet.
We were hoping to find a lot more, but that is all we could find. But Boeing does look like a good possibility.

I'm curious on how you qualified for the Best Buy grant? When we took the eligibility test it said we were not able to apply. When I looked further into the reasons why I discovered a clause stating that they do not give grants to schools. I'm just curious.

[waialua359]

I'm curious on how you qualified for the Best Buy grant? When we took the eligibility test it said we were not able to apply. When I looked further into the reasons why I discovered a clause stating that they do not give grants to schools. I'm just curious.

Best Buy does give grants to schools.
Maybe you are referring to a different/revised one?

[ebarker]

A great many companies give grants to 501(c)3 foundations.

A school is NOT a 501(c)3.

However, many school systems have one or more 501(c)3 foundations that are setup to support the school. Those foundations MAY be eligible to serve as a conduit for the grant.

For example, in our school district many schools have football booster or band booster foundations at the school. In our district we have a general academic foundation available to all the district schools. This particular foundation is setup to specifically access grants such as Best Buy and other similar organizations that give grants to academically oriented 501(c)3 foundations.

.

[treffk]

I just went back and looked and I realized where we made the mistake by reading something wrong. Thanks for the clarification.

[Ankit S.]

I believe it is handled through your Regional Director, it might not be something that can be found online, I know that when our team submitted we simply emailed our proposal to the person in charge of the Oregon region submissions.

That is correct. We got it at either Davis or SVR. Most likely SVR 2010.


I am trying to prepare my team for a sustaining grant after our loss of sponsorship this year.

I would suggest looking into getting a new sponsor rather than doing grants. Our team currently does grants to earn money, however we have learned that they are not the best things to rely on, unless done correctly or in a huge mass. As a result, we are looking for sponsors.

[RoboMom]

Does anyone have their NASA or other grant proposals for me to look over, I am trying to prepare my team for a sustaining grant after our loss of sponsorship this year.

Some resources here:
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/content.aspx?id=14042

Rich Kressly did a great job on hints for preparing a NASA grant in 2009. Much of this information should still be relevant. This paper is housed in the white papers on these forums.

Also some grant writing resources on NEMO: http://www.firstnemo.org/resources.htm

[Trying to Help]

You should also look for small, local foundations. One year, we received a grant from a foundation that was created in memory of a local public figure. We've applied for grants from local women's clubs and other small regional foundations.

Hope this helps!

[Micah Chetrit]

You should also look for small, local foundations. One year, we received a grant from a foundation that was created in memory of a local public figure. We've applied for grants from local women's clubs and other small regional foundations.


Thanks for the idea. I never really thought of that. But I doubt there will be many just because of our small city size (which is the reason we're reverting to grants in the first place)

Thanks anyways

[purpleandplasma]

Thanks for the idea. I never really thought of that. But I doubt there will be many just because of our small city size (which is the reason we're reverting to grants in the first place)

Thanks anyways

If you need any help with trying to get sponsors, our team has a sponsorship presentation that has gotten us a lot of sponsors. I can e-mail it to you, or help you out if you'd like. We are the only team in our city, yet I don't belive we have any sponsors from our city, we go to places where family members of the team members work (they always feel more obligated to sponsors, plus they see first hand the thrills we get from FIRST). Anyway, if you want any help, just send me an e-mail. kellyc@rmhsrobotics.com

and if anyone needs any help, send me an e-mail, we aren't doing so well with grants, but sponsorship wise is pretty good.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Thanks for the idea. I never really thought of that. But I doubt there will be many just because of our small city size (which is the reason we're reverting to grants in the first place)

Thanks anyways

You might be surprised. 1729 is a regional team because of the VERY small towns (note: not city) it serves.

Also, most states have websites listing local charities that give grants to only local groups. In NH it's http://www.nhcf.org/. You might want to google your state + charities. ;)

[Ornocarbo]

I submitted one to subway and got approved, Microsoft, Working on apple, hp, Dell, Acer, Sony, Toshiba, Asus, Target, Best Buy. Places yet to try Hardware Stores. Also have contacted applebees and ruby tuesday to do a representation and get some of the nights profit. Bagging at local grocery stores will work as well for a nice amount depending on if you choose the right time.

[xitaqua]

Hello !,

A word of caution on large company sponsored grant. Some of those grants are part of a partnership between the company and FIRST Robotics. I recommend researching info on the grant by doing a search on google to find out when was the grant officially announced, when was the first year the grant was awarded and what is the duration of the partnership.

Also some grants has a certain period of application, and also a given period of award, I recommend finding this information and have a mentor leading the effort who can pull all the team information necessary and keep track on grant application from year to year.

Cheers,
Marcos.

[tsaksa]

I would suggest looking into getting a new sponsor rather than doing grants. Our team currently does grants to earn money, however we have learned that they are not the best things to rely on, unless done correctly or in a huge mass. As a result, we are looking for sponsors.

Unfortunately in smaller towns this is not always practical. Our situation is very similar to the OP. A smaller city without even any large department stores, or a shopping mall nearby, only a couple of large employers. The largest employer in town made it clear they are not interested in funding a First team any more, and the next two employers down the list are non-profits that are unable help sponsor a team. The nearest other cities are quite far, and I can tell you from experience it is really difficult to get any interest in sponsorship from companies that are 25 to 50 miles away. Many even have policies that restrict applications for such support to a specific geographic distance.

Robotics is an expensive endeavor. Once you get down to the point where you are relying on contributions from mom and pop operations it is really difficult to get enough support to run a team. You can do all the car washes, light bulb sales, and restaurant fund raiser's you want, but at some point you need some serious funding, and grants may be the best option in some situations.

[xitaqua]

A recommendation for teams in small cities, it to keep their old robot and invest on a second cRIO. Having a functioning robot, you can raise money buy having stakeholders to own the old robot.....

TIP: Teams should not only get engagement from the students on involvement but also financially. As an example for a team with $12,000 budget we recommend them to sell shares at $20 with a total of 600 shares available. Anyone owning 50 shares can have the robot for their use for one month after the competition. So for $1000 a student can own the robot for one month of the year for the life of the robot, until the robot is "sold off", when the robot is sold off the stakeholders get the proceeds per their percentage of ownership. At $1000, many professional organizations will be happy to sponsor and them have the students come demonstrate the robot at their membership events. http://vimeo.com/33093562/

[MysterE]

We've received the DOW Promise Grant for 16k. We applied for 25k. We have applications in with the Shaw Group (10k and No Decision), Exxon-Moble (10k and Denied), Shell (10k and No Decision), Entergy (1k Microgrant, No Decision), Albermarle (5k will be given to highest Baton Rouge Team in Bayou Regional).

Thats all I can remember right now and my kids wanna go play outside. I'll post more later.