Re: Broke
 

Team Stealth has done many things over the years. We ask school clubs like the optimist club, PTA, and booster club for donations to cover certain items we purchase. The booster club normally pays for out wristbands that we pass out at regionals.

In addition to that we send out hundreds of letter to local, national and international companies. A very large portion of these do not ever respond but a few of them do. As others have mentioned we have a tiered donation scale.

After this weekend we are taking over the school craft fair that happens in the Fall, Winter and spring. For each of these events we should make at least $1000. Previously we only did set up, tear down and helped run the event for $300 per event. Maybe there is a community event that you can have the team help with that they will donate money in return.

We also are given the opportunity to have parents work a concessions stand at a high school football game to help raise money. This is open to any club at the school. Maybe there is something similar you can check into.

Applebee's offers a pancake breakfast fundraiser that is fairly simple. We have never done it but I have known other programs who have and found it successful. Many food restaurants have a fundraiser night that schools and programs can take advantage of.

Other local teams have a yearly auction where they collect donations of items and hold a silent auction and dinner.

Recently I have seen teams try to fundraiser on kickstarter.com I do not know how successful this has been though as we have not tried it.

I hope these give you some ideas if you would like more information about any of these feel free to send me a message.

Re: Broke
 

I second this, grocery stores have been our saviors the past few years. Our local shoprite allows us to bag for tips, with about 8 students on at a time in shifts over ~9 hours we break $1,000. If you're not allowed to bag, but you can stand out front of the store, bring the robot and demo it (people love shooter bots). We did this a few times this year, for $500 a pop.

One mentor for a team is very rough. Try reaching out to Alumni if any are still in the area, or contact your areas senior mentor(s) and see if they know anyone that will be willing to help out. Even asking other teachers in your school can't hurt.

Re: Broke
 

One of the things FRC Team 1501 T.H.R.U.S.T. does is we have a robot catalog where people can buy parts for our robot. Anywhere from $5.00 for a box of rivets to $5000.00 for a regional. Funny thing though, we have not had anyone buy us a regional :D It's easier to ask for parts for your robot as opposed to just asking for money.
Another thing we do. The local Pizza Hut allows us to come in a on a certain Monday's and for every buffet they sell, we get $1.00 plus all the tips. The students take orders, bus tables and generally keep the salad bar stocked. Last time we made over $500.00.
Another thing, you don't need to find one sponsor for $5000.00. You might be able to find 5 sponsors for $1000.00 or 10 for $500.00.
Just keep after it

Oh and a couple of more mentors couldn't hurt :D

Re: Broke
 

Team 3737 built a robot with $400 last year... granted, all it could do was drive and drop the bridge, but we placed 17th out of 53 teams because we consistently did coopertition every chance we got.

It was mainly due to time mismanagement than shortage of money.