[DFTF] Paying the Piper

[Tom Line]

Dr. Joe, do you have a JCPenny nearby? If you have one within 20 miles or so, they have been in the process of sponsoring a large number of FIRST teams recently. You may want to call them ASAP. Unfortunately, I have no contact information handy. Perhaps someone else can help with that.

[Brandon Holley]

Joe-

It would certainly make the decision easy if you had money at the ready, but many many rookie teams start the year with nothing. Many teams even register without the promise of a school fronting the cost for the first year. Now, whether that is a good practice is dependent on your team. Fundraising is no easy task, it takes hardcore dedication, and sometimes it doesn't pay off like you hope.

That being said, being a FIRST team has its perks. We have access to things like the LED bulb fundraiser (which is great by the way), Hexbugs and more recently some name recognition to the general public. As another cool perk, you happen to reside in the Greater Boston area (like us). There's a hotbed of innovation here, and technical companies that "get" what FIRST is trying to do. Forming a corporate sponsorship is a very likely possibility for your team.

If I were in your shoes, I would hold off on paying until the last possible day (Dec. 2nd I believe), but I would commit to being a rookie this year. Once you set yourselves as "doing it", you can really push hard to raise funds.

If the NUTRONs can be of any assistance in your efforts, please let me know.

-Brando

[SenorZ]

We applied (well, our managing mentor did) for NASA and JCPenney grants. We ended up getting both. While this was immensely helpful after we received the funds, we were stressed out up until that point.
We did not get a promise of our school/district covering costs. This was because our district was (and is) in bad financial condition. Looking for sponsors hasn't yielded anything yet.
We did do an online fundraiser with IndieGoGo.com over the summer. That netted us about $700... great for FTC, but not FRC. If we had done more to advertise the fundraiser we might have gotten more donors.

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

Dr. Joe, do you have a JCPenny nearby? If you have one within 20 miles or so, they have been in the process of sponsoring a large number of FIRST teams recently. You may want to call them ASAP. Unfortunately, I have no contact information handy. Perhaps someone else can help with that.

This is a great idea, but bad execution. Do not call the jcpenney directly. Call your regional director instead. The RD is the person that coordinates the grants from jcpenney stores. Calling the store directly could jeopardize the chance for a grant from that store.