Hi there,
As far as raising money to cover travel and construction expenses goes, one really useful thing that our team has done for the past few years has been to make up a press packet and send it out to major companies in our area over the summer. A press packet is just a nice folder with our team logo on the cover. It contains a one-page letter from the presidents stating our missions as a team and explaining what we do, selected quotes from our team members, a CD with a short video showing us building and competing, and a chart that lists the monetary amounts of contributions that a sponsor can make and the corresponding publicity they will get for each amount (e.g. if a sponsor gives more than $1000, their name will appear on our T-shirts, more than $2000, on our T-shirts and our robot, etc.). Sending out a press packet is a good idea for the summer because companies generally formulate their expenses for a fiscal year June through August (or so I heard). But if you want to give it a shot in the fall, it certainly can't hurt you! A press packet is simple to put together but can look quite impressive.
Also, another word on raising money:
1. Give sponsors a ballpark idea of how much it costs to run a team. They don't necessarily know that it costs thousands of dollars just to register at one competition.
2. Sponsors will be more willing to give you money if they see that you will put it to good use. For example, let's say you hold a bake sale at school the last Friday of every month, and every time you do it you raise 250 dollars. If a sponsor knows a) that it takes a projected X thousand dollars to run your team this year and b) that giving it your best shot, you can only muster up 250 dollars a month, they'll know a) that you are trying and b) that you can't do it without them. They need to know you're dedicated to your team before they'll give you money, or else there's no incentive for them to think you'll spend it wisely.
Hope that helps. If you want to talk to our marketing president about this sort of stuff in more detail, he'll likely email you back a novel on team-starting. PM me if you like, or email
pdanilyuk@gmail.com, and I can give you his contact info.
- Polina