Encourage someone from your team to join NEMO (Non-engineering Mentor Organization) -
www.firstnemo.org - they may get more ideas by polling the membership... Download the NEMO white paper "
Creating a Killer Team Packet" which contains ideas for creating a professional looking information packet to present to potential sponsors. Also look at "
25 Ways a Sponsor Can Help" which explains non-monetary ways that sponsors help FIRST teams.
Identify likely corproate sponsors in your community through your local chamber of commerce or via online or print resources - "top 50 businesses in X City" for example. Look for technology-related companies as these will be more likely to want to help out. Poll your membership to see if anyone is related to these organizations in any way (as an employee, etc.). Check to see if they support community activities and find out who the person in charge of those decisions is. Make an appointment with that person and sugest a technical person also be brought in. Choose your most articulate student and an adult to represent the team (while they may wish to hear the story from the student, they might also want reassurance that management of their funds will be overseen by an adult). Practice like you would for a Chairman's Award interview or job interview. Make it short and to the point. Talk about success stories - competition-wise and from a human nature side (all five seniors from last year's class went on to pursue higher education or something like that). Explain what benefits the company will have by supporting the team (As a Gold Level Sponsor, your company's name will be on our robot, announced at each of our competitions, and on our t-shirts). Allow time for them to ask questions. Don't use FIRST jargon that an outsider won't understand. Leave them with a way to contact you, and follow up with a thank you and a follow-up call a week or so later. Invite them to a local competition if there is one in your area so they can come and see it, and call about a month ahead to remind them of the date and specifics, especially if they did not sign on to be a sponsor this year.