Brianna,
Great job on the IE award. Our team 1511 won the same award at the FLR, and it's both a lot of work and a great honor. It shows how dedicated your team is!
I'm going to be working with our team (1511) next year on fundraising, but I have a general background in fundraising for Not-For-Profit (NFP) organizations that may be of some assistance. I participate on the boards of a number of NFPs.
I have a presentation that I've done for a couple NFPs that talks about how to solicit corporate sponsors for groups or events that applies to just about any NFP - including a FIRST team. I'd be happy to forward that presentation to you. I typed it up in such a way that it's a terrible powerpoint (too much information on each slide) but the slides themselves make great notes for the presentation (I've been handing out the slide/notes rather than giving the presentation using an overhead). Feel free to contact me directly to get info on how to get the presentation and/or do a quick conference call with your fundraising team on how best to go about accomplishing your challenge. I'd hate to see you lose a chance to attend Atlanta because of money.
This thread has my presentation, and additional funding source site tips.
Please feel free to drop me a private message and I'll be happy to set up a time to chat with your team about fundraising ideas.
Cheers,
Lee Drake, Parent, 1511