Team 433 needs help
 

The 433 Firebirds of Philadelphia, PA, has recently lost their main sponsorship and needs the help of generous FIRSTers. The seniors of the team are on a weekend retreat but called and asked me to post a thread asking for help finding funds. If anyone knows of sponsors that would be willing to help a team continue their effort in encouraging girls to go into science and technology fields, please contact Karen, or Alicia, seniors of 433. They also welcome personal donations, and are willing to set up a paypal account if anyone is interested. Thank you for your time.

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

As much as I hate seeing FIRST teams go under, I dont think this will work. If the Firebirds want to continue competing, they are going to hit the streets and get a multitude of smaller sponsors.

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

Agreeing with Tom's statement above, a collection of smaller sponsors is probably their best bet. Although i do not know of the local organizations in that area, i do know that there are a multitude of national organizations intended to promote the involvement of young women in Science and Tech from whom Team 433 can likely receive at least some aid from.

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

I think they should try as many local metal shops and government agencies as they can. Most states have education grants that could be used for robotic sponsorships. They are a veteran team, so I take it they have some machines and parts already, so they basically need entry fees?

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

An easy way to raise money would be to draft a letter and then have every team member mail six of these letters to friends and family members. If you time it right, and send it out just before Christmas, I guarantee you will get a positive response.

If you have 25 people on the team, and they all send six letters, and (on average) people donate $10, you will make a tidy some of $1500.

Our team has done this for years; sponsor or no sponsor.

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

FIRSTers,

We aren't asking for help because we're taking the easy way out. We're asking because we're truly desperate. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not the kind of person who ever asks for help, so this is a big deal.

Here's the whole story:

Our main sponsor was McNeil Pharmaceuticals. They always paid our registration fees, and we stay in contact with them and keep them informed. They informed us by email on Thursday (yes, this last Thursday) that they wouldn't be paying this year. We've already pre-registered, but I've been told that the money is due December 7th, this Thursday. That gives us one week's notice to raise $6000.

On top of this, we have a very small team, and only a few truly dedicated members. We simply don't have the people to get this kind of money in such short amount of time. And as much as I'd like to believe that I personally can go out and get tons of money in time, this simply isn't a reality. It's been very hard for the people who really care on the team to accept that we are in desperation. Most team members have given up. The school is already treating us like we no longer exist.

There are about three girls on the team still working as hard as they can to get sponsorships, myself and Alicia included. We've called and emailed as many companies as possible, and while we have some possible leads, it's hard for a company to approve a financial move like that on such short notice.

We honestly don't know what to do. We can't sit back and accept defeat, and we love FIRST much too much to not compete, and that's the reason we're asking for help. We don't even know what kind of help to ask for.

So please don't think we're just asking for money. We're not. We're asking for help of any kind, advice, anything. We wouldn't be if we didn't absolutely need it.


Karen Hart, President

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

One More Clarification:

We do have a bunch of fundraisers planned, but they aren't going to raise all the money we need and the first one is happening on December 7th, so it doesn't help all too much.

-Alicia
Imagery Captain

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

Karen and Alicia -

Have you thought about the possibility of, for just this next year, participating as a FVC VEX team instead of a full FRC team? Among the many other strengths of the VEX program, it can also act as a great "safety net" for FRC teams that are having financial, organizational, or facilities challenges. When these occasions do arise, FVC can offer an alternative that would allow your team to continue to participate in the FIRST program at a different level, rather than having to drop away from the program completely while you re-group and reorganize.

-dave

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

Sending this off to my dad (Alicia knows how close we live to 433!)

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

haha. of course!

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

Hey, it's another all-girls team! Awesomeness!

Some people have already said this, but probably the best thing to do would be to go for all the small local companies. They're usually very eager to sponsor teams, since it gives them more publicity. So just write a few letters and spend a day walking into small businesses...

(Food companies aren't that bad either...)

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

Again, try getting other local companies to get behind you for this year. It sure gets a kick for people to read your name if it's like 4 or 5 lines long. (975 from Midlothian, VA has like 6 or 7 lines of sponsors). But I would also recommend applying for a big grant from a big sponsor pretty soon (Like Texas Instruments or UTC or Alion or even Comcast so you would have it in '07. Hey, since you guys are in the Philly area, it would make a lot of sense to get Comcast to help...after all they are Philly based.

If all else fails, get a bunch of other teams to pitch in. It's Gracious Professionalism in a really true sense.

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

Lots of unique fundraising ideas on these forums. I have cut and paste a lot of them into a running list that I can send to you to distribute to your entire team. The format isn't pretty.
email me at jbeatty@usfirst.org if you are interested.

Good Luck!

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

Thanks to everyone who's posted, we really appreciate it.

And here's an update:

We just received $1000 from a local company owned by the father of a girl at our school. YAY! Only $5000 to go!!

Karen <3

Re: Team 433 needs help
 

Contact your regional director. I know sometimes they have money that corporations want to give awa and they just need a team to claim it. Also if you give them a heads up now that you dont have your 6k and you explain why maybe they can give you an extension past Dec 7.