Finding Sponsors

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I suppose I'll tall you about our regatta, our main source of sponsorship.

About 5 years age, team RUSH started the Team RUSH Regatta, which has been integral in bringing in 170 sponsors from around our local community just last year. It's a cardboard and duct tape boat race we hold over the summer, and alongside the competition to create the fastest, longest-lasting boat, we'll also compete to see who can gain the most sponsors. Because the students are put into groups of ~4, it's an excellent opportunity for the veteran students on the team to start being leaders for the team, and consequently it's very helpful for getting rookie students integrated into the team. We get our list of companies from our chamber of commerce, which we've formed a very close partnership with. The students are trained on the "art" of cold calling companies, so they can be more confident and successful in their endeavors over the summer, and also become overall better speakers, a really useful skill in general.

I could write a lot more on this topic, but I'll just direct you here, where you can download the FRC Toolkit For Success from our website. Chapter 4's all about the Team RUSH Regatta.