Here is a generic letter that my team uses, we alter it slightly depending on who we are sending it to, but it is basically as follows:
Dear ______________________,
You are receiving this letter because our high-school robotics team is asking for your help.
We are from Sir Oliver Mowat C.I., which is located at Lawrence Ave. East and Port Union Rd., in Scarborough, Ontario. The school has about 1500 students in it, with about 50 involved directly with the Robotics team.
Our team, Mobotics, is competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition. American inventor Dean Kamen founded the competition in 1989 and the competition now involves over 650 high-school teams across the USA and Canada.
Last year was our teams’ first year in the competition, and we competed at the Canadian Regional Competition. We finished in 4th place (of 44 teams), and we were awarded the Rookie All-Star Award for being the best rookie team at the competition (there were 25 rookie teams competing).
This year we shall be attending three competitions: Again the Canadian Regional in Mississauga, the Great Lakes Regional in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and finally the National Competition at the Epcot Centre at Disney World, Florida.
Last year our team budget was about $10,000. This year our budget will be substantially higher – about $30,000 – and this is where you come in.
Most of our money comes from corporate sponsorships. These sponsorships usually take the form of either money, or product donations (which we can use in raffle draws). Any additional funding comes from the students, and parents of those involved.
By supporting the team you will be helping to fund a program that opens doors of opportunity to those people who might not otherwise have the chance to explore interests that may someday become their profession. Our goal is to make the FIRST Program affordable for everyone at Mowat.
To learn more about the FIRST Competition, please visit:
http://www.usfirst.org.
For more information on Mobotics, or if you wish to contact us for any reason, please e-mail us at:
mobotics@rogers.com.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Harrison Ruess – Student Team Leader
&
Robb Gerber – Teacher Coordinator
Printed out with our teams letter head on the paper, that is exactly 1 page.
We also have big corporate sponsorship packages (they are several pages and include MUCH more detailed information about every aspect of the team) and they also include team CD that has all sorts of info, as well as promotional videos and what not.
To date my team has just over $23,000 (visit
http://www.mobotics.ca to view our current list of sponsors).
And I just mailed out another batch of about 25 Corporate packes to various companies. The rate of return varies depending on who you send them too. But, if all works out we are predicting another $10,000-$20,000 from this set.
Another GREAT way of raising money is through beer bottle drives. Distribute flyers in a residential area, then a few days later get about 20 people together in 4 or 5 groups/zones with mini-vans and have team members go door-to-door asking people for their empties. I dunno about in the US of A, but in Ontario you get 10 cents per bottle, and 5 per can. We've done 2 of these so far, and raised just over $1000.
If you want to know more, or want promotional videos or anything, send me a message -
mobotics@rogers.com and I'll see what I can do about getting some to you (via ICQ, Email, Normal Mail, etc.).
"Show me the money!!!"