[Joshua May]

Originally Posted by Lisa Perez

I thought there might be a thread already discussing this topic - guess not. I'm writing this because, as of now, 573 is in the beginning stages of talking to different businesses about sponsorship for next year.

How did your team approach your sponsors and convince them to sponsor you?

Our local area is home to the aerospace industry (Mojave Desert/Edwards AFB) so we were able to find great sponsorships in the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and this year we also got a sponsorship from Northrop Grumman. We also got lucky because we were mentored by a 5-year team who had long-standing relationship with NASA, so they already knew about the program in the local aspect. The person who founded our team also worked at Lockheed, and she was able to talk to management as well as fellow engineers and that got us very good sponsorships.

Looking into next year, we plan to visit local businesses for more money, as well as drive the robots around to generate some interest. We will be at the local fair this summer, and that will provide a good sales-pitch center.