The economic conditions are not affecting Cyber Blue. In-fact, this seems to be our best season, as far as our financial situation goes. We have new a new sponsor
LHTEC who has stepped in for this season with another possible big time sponsor on the way. We have also recieved grants that we applied for during last season, that are finally taking affect. We have lost a couple of engineers, but not due to the economy. One of our female engineers has gone back to school and another one of our engineers is splitting his time between team 234 and rookie team 1018 from Pike High School in Indianapolis.
I think we are a lucky team, seeing how the economy is right now. A large portion of our team funding comes from
Rolls-Royce and
LHTEC which are both aerospace companies. We are dependant on the airline industy and the military contracts. We just have to cross our fingers that we will continue to get support from these companies.
There are other ways for teams to find funding in addition to corporate sponsors. Cyber Blue sells 34 shirt back sponsors to local companies and businesses for $200 a spot. That brings in $6800 itself. It's a good way for the community to support. We also do carwashes at McDonalds during the summer and bring in about $300 per session.
Applying for grants is a good way to get funding. Lots of times, your school district may have an endowment or foundation that give out grants for funding. There are lots of science and technology grants out there that teams can apply for. Sometimes you cannot get the grant until the next season. You should still apply so that you can at least have some funding for the next season.
If you know that you will be hurting for cash this season, try to find ways to cut costs. If you usually go to 3 competitions, go to 2 this year so that you can save on costs. It would be more wise to save a little cash for the next season by just going to 2 insead of trying for 3 and going into debt or having to make other unfortunate cuts. You may not want to do it, but sometimes you have to make sacrefices.
There are many ways to find funding, you just go out and try new or different ways.
If you would like one of our advertising contracts that we sell to businesses, you can check out the
Downloads section of our website. Anybody may modify or change the contracts to their team needs.
....enough of my ranting.