Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

There is an easy way to work around school regulations regarding the number of fundraising drives. Simply form a "Friends of Team ####" as a non-profit organization. Do all of your fundraising through this non-profit organization, then have that non-profit donate all of its money to running your team in a single annual grant/sponsprship.

Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

Our school district has a non-profit through which we do most of our financials (donations, fundraisers, etc.) We are lucky for now, in that they do not charge any administrative fee either. Running your own non-profit does involve some extensive paperwork and rule following - we have yet to find a volunteer to take that on (some think they want to do it, then they find out how much they have to do and decide it is too much work).

Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

That is one option, but I'm not so sure its that easy.
When we had to setup our non-profit account, it involved a federal EIN no. and State excise tax registration and we still have to file and pay taxes for fundraisers. We also have a 501c3 account, but that involves a board and the hiring of an independent outside accounting firm for our required annual audit.
Its another level of opportunity to get funding support, yet requires responsibility at a whole other level.

Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

The paperwork for the EIN alone is enough to make any sane person go crazy. It's rough work. The reward is worth it, but only few dare to take the insane journey...

Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

We did it, it is indeed insane...and then you get to spend the rest of your life figuring out just what you can and can't do.

We're getting there, a year and a half later.

Fortunately we have a head start on funds for this year. I hope the taxpayers of Arizona help us out as much as they have in the past...we have a great (voter approved proposition) state tax credit program that lets residents direct where some of their tax money goes, and robotics is one option!

Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

I'm not sure if our team's sponsorships has been affected by the economy, but most of our other fund raising activities haven't generated as much revenue as they have in the past

Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

So far are team hasn't reached out to many sponsors, but we were lucky that a sponsor actually contacted us. They offered us more money than previously years and are looking to see if we want some mentors, which has taken us by suprise somewhat. Also another company set aside some money in their budget for us because one of the people in charge is related to a teacher at our school.

Hopefully the other companies were are looking at will be able to sponsor us.

Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

That's awesome news! Glad to hear that a company would be so eager to help out. :)

Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

We've always just barely gotten by, so a tough time with sponsors isn't new to us. However, no doubt it will be even harder than previous years. I hate to think we'll only be able to get to our district events and nothing else. Whatever happens, we'll just have to persevere.

Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

Its been great to see all the ideas that you all have shared. I would be curious to see where you all are in a few months. It looks like the economy is going to go downhill for awhile. I want to hear from more Arizona teams. Az really depends on the construction industry and with the mortgage crisis in the US, I think its hitting us first. So it would be interesting to hear from more teams than our good ol buddies team 1726 The Nerds!

Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1677

This is a paper presented at the 2005 Championships.
It still has some good points for you to consider with sponsors.

Re: How has the economic crisis affected your team?
 

Our team is from Michigan, as you know Michigan has been having a huge economic crisis. It has affected us with sponsorship. Being that we are from Michigan, there aren't many businesses that can fork out the extra money right now to help us.