[EricH]

Originally Posted by First3729

And EricH, what did you mean about "don't treat that as an option".

At this point, with the administration effectively shutting down your funding, getting them to competition is not optional for your team. It's mandatory, or just about, if the team is to survive for long. There are a number of positive things that would come from this. (It's not an option because it's something that you need to do.)

I'd estimate a given team's budget at between $10K and $15K, per year, depending on such things as practice robots or second competitions. Some teams go much higher in a given year.

With you being allowed $1500 and nothing else in terms of funding, you'll need to exercise every contact you can get. That means that someone has to pay FIRST the registration fee directly (depends on sponsor whether that can even happen--with NASA, it does; with other sponsors, who knows).
Many supply places will have some policy against donations of materials, but may be able to offer a discount (which doesn't help you very much). The machine shops are where you're probably going to have the best success in terms of donated services.

If I was in your shoes, I'd talk to the school about having a fixed cap on fundraising in the $10K range, including donated goods, to allow you to be able to pay FIRST and build other stuff. Any monies that are paid directly to FIRST would count against that limit. (Not including donated goods and services in the limit, $6500-$7500 is a more reasonable request.)