Robotics teams supported by Non Profit Group
 

I am looking for teams that are supported by non profit organizations. How many teams out there are supported by non profits for their team or school?

Can you provide links to the teams as well as the non profit organization?

Thanks,
Norman

Re: Robotics teams supported by Non Profit Group
 

If I may ask why? Just out of curiousity.

Re: Robotics teams supported by Non Profit Group
 

I know that several teams in the Pacific North West are supported by non-profits such as Boys and Girls Clubs of America or 4H clubs. For example the 4H Cloverbots https://sites.google.com/site/cc4hrobotics/

It's not uncommon for teams to be supported largely by organizations like that! Hope that answers your question.

Re: Robotics teams supported by Non Profit Group
 

Its also common to form a non profit to support a team.

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We (the Space Cookies Team 1868) are also supported by a non-profit (Girl Scouts).

Space Cookies: http://frc.spacecookies.org/

Girl Scouts of Northern California: https://www.gsnorcal.org/

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A group of parents on FRC766 recently incorporated a 501(c)(3) to support the team as a subsidiary of Parent Booster USA

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Both teams I work with are sponsored by a Non-profit organization. Both are 4H FRC teams.

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The Blue & White Foundation supports our team, 1678 Citrus Circuits. To my knowledge they provide us with a 501c3 that we can make use of by proxy for donations, management of at least one of our accounts by way of their organization(I know we have at least 2), and I am sure there is more that they do for us as well.

In addition our school district also supports our team, primarily by way of facilities but also financially. They are one of our top team sponsors.

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A few years ago, we (a group of mentors, teachers, and parents) formed a 501(c)(3) to support robotics programs on our island. The Kauai Robotics Alliance provides fundraising and logistical help to all youth robotics programs, including our multi-high school FRC team. We have helped to set up new programs (including providing seed money for our first FTC team this year), and we hope to someday construct a facility where we can have workshops and hold competitions (pipe dream, but we're trying).

KRA is, in turn, a United Way participating agency, so we get some money from the UW, which we use to support robotics. We have recently used the UW funds to hire a grantwriter, in hopes of reeling in more (desperately needed) funding. It's very expensive for our teams to ship parts here and travel to competitions.

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Team 701 is supported by our own 501(c)(3) non-profit known as the Vanden Robotics Foundation. The Foundation also sponsored the team we started last year, 5496 Robo Knights.

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My team is a "club" of the School (public school). So, tax-deductible donations can be made to the club via the school.

Re: Robotics teams supported by Non Profit Group
 

Thanks to all who have responded.

Hope some others can find some ideas or get jump started on the non profit support as we have had since 2010.

Derek,
Short answer: just wanting to see what others are doing to support their program and maybe have some ideas shared that others might check out.

Long answer below with more explanation:

I am the lead of our robotics program here at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. I am also the lead contact/teacher for robotics within our school district.

FRC 2468 Team Appreciate is our FRC team and we have 6 FTC teams at the high school.
Westlake is a single high school district with feeder elementary and middle schools. We have experienced growth not only at the high school but at the middle and elementary schools. WESTA is our 501(c)3 non profit for our robotics program and was officially established in 2010. It would be impossible for us to be functional as a team and program without WESTA.

I am having conversations with our district administration about our program on a variety of fronts including new building we move into next Fall, additional building space for the future to hopefully include field space for FTC and FRC, new staff and funding. The administration is fully aware of WESTA and its support.

I ask because I am always looking at what others might be doing that we are not. Not more to the request than to get names of teams and non profits that are working together for us to look at.

In addition, I believe that this kind of thread may raise some interest of some other teams to begin to look at a non profit to assist their program.

Thanks

Norman

Re: Robotics teams supported by Non Profit Group
 

3946 is supported through a 501 (c) (3) named Slidell Tiger Robotics Booster Club. As I understand it, we set it up starting with a template from our school's band boosters.

Re: Robotics teams supported by Non Profit Group
 

Norm,
WildStang is a team that accepts students from any school in our district and the district does provide quite a bit of support although not the only source for us. We are also a credit class in the district. District 214 is the largest Illinois school district outside of Chicago Public Schools.

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MOE 365 is not associated with any school or district, and gets no support from any school (a continuing source of irritation for us, but I digress). We currently have students from 17 different schools. We formed a 501(c)(3) in 2003 to help with fundraising, but now supports two FTC teams as well. (Each team does their own separate fundraising).

We gave a presentation 10 years ago on how to become a nonprofit entity. Here is a copy of the presentation; the links are dated but the basic information is still the same:

http://moe365.org/moeu.php

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3999 is supported by a non-profit(Shadetree Mechanics Inc.). As you know, we are a community based team that is not tied to any particular school or single organization.

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The tin mints are supported by two separate non profits. One of them being the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania. As well as our parent booster club, the Eastern PA Robotics Alliance.

This allows for our parents club to put on fundraisers despite what Girl Scouts can and can't do.

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FRC Team 4063 is supported by a 501(c)(3) (Team 4063 Booster Club) and the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District. We could not function without the support of both parties, especially during the build season.

Re: Robotics teams supported by Non Profit Group
 

Great responses here from many teams and mentors I know and recognize from either name or personally.

It will great a little adventure to check out the teams mentioned and read about the support structure for their non profit.

I hope other teams who are looking into creating their non profit will contact these teams and individuals on how to go about setting up your own, asking questions here or seeking advice.

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Thanks for starting this thread Coach. It was just what I was looking for.

We just started our non profit. We haven't even paid the registration fees yet. It will be up and running by the end of the month.

I am interested to see how others have used their non profit to benefit their programs. I feel like we have this big powerful tool at our disposal and don't know how to use it yet.

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Team 2706 Merge Conflict is a community-based FRC team in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. As we are not supported directly by any school, we started our own non profit organization called Ottawa West Community Robotics to be the legal entity "in charge" of the team. The board of directors of OWCR consists of the founding mentors for Team 2706.

We followed closely in the footsteps of the W.A.F.F.L.E.S. (4476) a similar community based team in Kingston, Ontario. They went through all the organizational paperwork already so they showed us how to do it. We also had feedback from Team 781 Kinetic Knights, who went a step further and registered as a Canadian charity.

Our team relies 100% on the generosity of our sponsors who provide everything from a place to meet and store our equipment, to donations of tools, equipment, straight up cash, and of course providing mentors.

The hope is that Ottawa West Community Robotics may one day run other area FRC, VEX, FLL teams, all with the goal of promoting STE(A)M in our community.

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Team 1306 is supported by a 501(c)(3) corporation that was formed by the FRC team and now supports multiple FTC and FLL teams across southern Wisconsin.

Our website is http://www.badgerbots.org/ and you can contact director@badgerbots.org for more information.

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FRC 2493 - Robokong - formed in 2008, Riverside CA.

Community team, started at River Springs Charter. Moved out of the school around year three and worked out of a Kiwanis build space. Finally may have found a "permanent" home at La Sierra HS in Riverside CA.

Up until this year we were hosted under the 501(c)(3) of our church. Finally this year we formed our own 501(c)(3) - STARS for a Better Tomorrow.

Being part of a religious 501(c)(3) has it's issues, mainly that most grants exclude religious organizations. Forming our own 501(c)(3) we hope will make it easier to raise funds through grants.

The Alvord School district we are now part of have been great working with us and allowing the 501(c)(3) to fund the team and permitting all students whether part of the district or not to join our team.

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What one must realize is that most Teams large corporate sponsors are funded through a foundation of the company and most are non profit status.

For example if you are a Dell Grant recipient then that money came from the Dell Foundation a non profit.

It all boils down to what is the best tax avenue for a company to use.

It should not matter.

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AIR STRIKE 78 is managed by Aquidneck Island Robotics (AIR) - a nonprofit incorporated in December 2014. AIR was initially formed as a 4-H club in May of 2008.

For the 2015-2016 season, AIR is managing 1 FRC team, 2 FTC teams, 1 FLL Team, and 1 FLLJR team. Each season we have students from 25+ schools from two states participating in AIR programs. More information can be found at http://www.air4h.org

We are always happy to answer questions if teams are looking to go this route.

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We are a club under our high school PTA. They provide our insurance and the District allows the PTA to use classroom space for free after school hours, as long as we don't charge a fee. We ask team members' families to make donations but no registration fee is required. It's been a good relationship over the past year. Before that, we were part of the school.

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1885 is supported in part by the USSTEM Foundation. The mentors started the non-profit in 2010 as a way to go after grants, sponsors and other sources of funding that do not want to give money to the school or the school district. We've since branched the foundation out and support several FLL, FTC and a couple of VEX teams. We also support a Explorer Post, but unfortunately haven't found a local Girl Scouts equivalent yet.

Advantages include streamlined accounting, relaxed fundraising restrictions compared to schools, acquisition of insurance for the mentors, flexibility in doing business with pretty much any organization, the ability to fund especially poor students' travel via targeted funding/sponsorship, and the ability to carry funds over from year to year. That last one is highly underrated - none of that "use it or lose it" money inefficiency that leads to unnecessary purchases. It also means that a GREAT group of students, parent and mentors can leave a very long-lasting impact on the team.

A good model for a simplified 501(c)3 is the band's booster club. Pro tip: In the US as of 2015, if the average yearly incoming revenue (including ALL sources of money) is under $50k per year then the taxes are so simple to do that usually it's easy to find an accountant to file the taxes Pro Bono.

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3005 is jointly sponsored by Conrad High School in Dallas ISD and Vickery Meadows Youth Development Foundation.

Our school strongly supports our work, but district purchasing policies make us unable to use them for much of our FRC purchases. Our 501c3 sponsor (pre-existing) provides us with an account to deposit into and a debit card against the account. We strongly considered setting up our own 501c3 prior to VMYDF offering to take care of it for us.

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5576 Team Terminator is financially hosted by Iowa Lakes Corridor of Development, our local non-profit economic development group, but the actual funding is donated to the Corridor by businesses.

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Kell Robotics is the public name of FRC 1311 and is under the hood, the 501(c)3 corporation called STEM Leadership Foundation.

Some of the corporate donations received by SLF are from for profit corporations, and other donations are from non-profit 501 corporate foundation affiliated with the company.

For example, the donation from Lockheed Martin I think actually came from the Lockheed Martin Foundation.

But some donations are direct corporate donations, not foundation affiliated....

Hope that helps

-eb

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Code Orange, 3476, established Code Orange Robotics, Inc. a 501(c)3 in 2014. We are a community based team with 2/3 of our students from surrounding schools and 1/3 home school. Code Orange started in a garage and focussed on sustainability for three years before we were ready to form the non-profit corporation. It has been a wild and wonderful adventure from that two car garage to our current amazing build location within an electronics company and a full field in a nearby warehouse. We are extremely grateful to all of our supporters. The 501(c)3 has attracted larger donations than we previously received.