Corporate Sponsorship?
 

My team, Madtown Robotics team 1323 is currently trying to get a corporate sponsor. Our past sponsors have all been local. I would just like to know from other teams if this type of sponsorship has worked for you and how you went about getting it. I would also liked to know how evolved they got with your team and how much you got them to help you. Did they give you funds? Or engineering help or workshops for to help your team develop?

Thanks very much

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

Our team is sponsored by Northrop Grumman (formerly TRW) and I am unsure how we originally received it.

but, it is very helpful. They provide engineers, a grant, some machining services and some internships for students as well.

From what I have heard from other teams, if you can get a corporate sponsor, it would greatly benefit your team.

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

116's primary sponsor is NASA. We receive a very large grant and an engineer ;) . Since we were only the 2nd NASA team waaay back in 1996 (and essentially the NASA pilot team), we went about a different way than most. Now though, you can apply for a NASA grant (http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/firs...ication_07.php) of various types. Note that most of the NASA grants are now meant to be temporary until a team can find other sponsors to help support it, but they are often a great starting place. They are also limited, and competative to get.
When approaching a potential sponsor, treat it like many other outreach events, act professionally, and be organized.

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

Welcome to Chief Delphi! There is a whole forum section on fundraising and sponsorship that you might find helpful. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=63

You might also like to download the white paper on "Creating a Killer Team Packet" which is to be used when approaching potential sponsors. It is available on the NEMO (Non-Engineering Mentor Organization) website in the Resources section.

There is a lot of information on Chief Delphi that you will find useful. Please search the forums first to be sure that your topic hasn't already been covered somewhere else, then try to post in the appropriate forum for best results.

Good luck with your sponsor search!

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

Thanks for your responses. I'm interested in hearing from more teams still

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

Chuck 84 was originally locally sponsored. We've recently picked up some Dupont Corporate sponsorship, for which we are very grateful. Since we're almost 11 years old, it does testify to the fact that it is possible to survive on local funding.

With that said, it's tough! You have to be very actively seeking funds from your local businesses and recognizing their contributions. We are fortunate in having 3 fairly large manufacturing plants on our area: DuPont, Osram Sylvania, and Craftmaster. In addition there are several smaller operations. Don't forget things like banks and other such institutions. Another good source of funding are organizations such as Lions, Rotary, and Kawanis.

Plus there are the fund raisers you can run. We've done chicken BBQs, yard sales, linen and tool sales (I can give you a vendor for this. It's been our biggest fund raiser in $$.), pizza tickets, Thanksgiving and Christmas pies, and tag days. Get creative.

No contribution is too small! $$ add up!

Good luck with your efforts. Feel free to e-mail or pm me.

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

Hi and welcome!
I would also like to add that working with any sponsor, including corporate sponsors, is an opportunity to give back. It is a two way street. Our corporate sponsor is National Instruments. NI is very generous in helping our team with financial support as well as mentoring. As a way of giving back, 418 participates in many of NI's programs. One example is the Lego Mindstorms event.
http://www.legomindstormsmania.com
Working with a corporate sponsor can provide a lot of wonderful opportunities for the teams to share and help develop terrific programs.

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

Cyber Blue 234 is sponsored by several coporate sponsors. Our main sponsors are from Allison Transmissions (GM) and Rolls-Royce, but they give more than just financial help. They provide several engineers and facilities for our CDRs (infront of a panel of non-team Rolls-Royce engineers) and demos. Our sponsor from Allison was by applying to General Motors, and they then said we were sponsored by the nearest GM facility, aka Allison Transmission. With Rolls-Royce, our team mentor went to one of Rolls' plants and asked if they wanted to be a part of this wonderful and extremely rewarding organization (of course they said yes).

If you need any more help, please don't hesitate to ask!

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

Check out two white papers that might help youdevelop your approach -


FIRST Sponsorship = Excellent Corporate Strategy

and

Sponsor Care

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

In order to get a corporate sponsorship, one need to have a connection within a company. I'm not sure about others, but mainly for our team Parents and Mentors have helped a lot in bringing in the corporate sponsors. Most of them work for some really prestigious companies, and have links/connections within to spread the word. The main idea is to get the parents involved as much as you can, because most of them work in a company (small or big).
As 612 is located in the Technology Hub of USA, our mentors, teachers, and parents have connections within the companies or most of them work for one.
Not only that, over the years we've been able to get help/mentors from sponsors too. Some of them are Northrup Grumman, SAIC, Raytheon, Mitretek Systems, IEEE, Lockheed Martin, OEC, Fiserv, etc. (I know its shocking that all the rival defence companies are sponsoring a team jointly :p )

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

another question... how much of your teams budget is provided by your corporate sponsors???

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

I don't know if I'm allowed to give numbers... but... if It weren't for Northrop Grumman, we probably wouldn't have a team.

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

well what about a percentage?

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

Percentages might be hard to nail down. Just in this thread we've seen teams who have several sponsors, teams who have one sponsor, teams who are working with grants, teams who have been working successfully and hard for over 10 years, and are just now reaping the benefits of working with a corporate sponsor. The percentage of the pie would be based on a lot factors. I can guess that the percentage could be significant but many teams still have to fundraise and find other sources of income and material donations. Also some sponsors provide the locale for build.

In 418's case, we have the generosity of our sponsor, as I mentioned, and we also work locally in our community all year. This weekend we are participating in the stadium clean-up at UT. It's another one of those give back opportunities: we work and make some money and the university here in our city benefits from working with many school teams and groups.

Re: Corporate Sponsorship?
 

You want to talk figures.........so lets talk figures...

It varies from year to year. Amount provided by corporate sponsors is directly proportional to how much you can impress them. For our team it was 40K last year. (We have saved from last year, and will be using it this year)

While on the other hand, Individual Cost of every regional/national is directly proportional to how much effort one put in to raise money. There is a specific fee everyone has to pay to attend competitions, but if you work hard on the alternatives (sell coupons help at Fair), that amount can be minimized too (in some cases to 0). Regional : $100 ; National : $150