Quote:
Originally Posted by lynca
I have no problem at all with Minnesota taking over the Texas thread ! Texas has a lot to learn from the Minnesota model.
I don't see a lot of details about how new teams are funded in Minnesota. What is the typical funding process for a rookie Minnesota team (i.e. 2 years of funding , connecting sponsors to teams) ?
What is the name of the Minnesota non-profit that raises funds from the corporate community ?
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As far as I know, there is no regional grant process in Minnesota. Many teams are securing initial funding from national rookie grants and then later finding small local businesses to fill in costs or larger companies like 3M to support then in the long run. We also have some teams that are absolutely fantastic at finding sponsorships, like 1816, who are very willing to help other teams learn from their practices.
MN FIRST is the organization that secures funding for regionals in the state, but as far as I know they don't fund teams.
We also have a relatively high amount of tech companies like 3M, Honeywell, Boston Scientific, PTC, and others who sponsor multiple teams long-term. An interesting fact in this regard is that while in many states health care or financial sector businesses represent the largest lobby, in Minnesota tech companies are the largest lobby at the state legislature. While we don't get funding from the state level, recognition from the state government and initiatives like MNDRIVE, which fund robotics industry growth, raise awareness both in businesses and in the public mind about robotics, which (and I'm just guessing here), makes STEM program growth and funding appealing for schools and businesses. Combined with Minnesota being a significantly smaller state than Texas, where the majority of teams are clustered right next to the majority of tech businesses, and it's a pretty good mixture for robotics growth.
A little bit of further conjecture, but I'd also say that Minnesota's largest robotics program is FLL is also a contributing factor to funding and team sustainability-- there are over three times as many FLL teams as there are FRC teams, which means there's a pretty large pool of students that already exist who are likely to be interested in programs down the line. Many teams will speak to the value of feeder programs, but I think that was and is a pretty important factor in the explosive growth and continuing sustainability of teams MN has experienced.
Hopefully this was at least vaguely useful. I'm sure Evan probably has a bit more to chime in.