Solicitation letter feed back

[1683cadder]

I've wrote a solicitation letter for my team and would like feedback from the Chief Delphi community. Please comment on the doc or the thread for feedback.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing
Thanks,
1683cadder

[Mark Sheridan]

I think its better for the letter to seek a meeting to discuss sponsorship. I think letters are ineffective for gaining sponsors. My team as been a lot more successful using phone calls and direct meetings. Letters and emails are so easy to loose. What you have is a good format to discuss what a potential sponsor in a meeting. Its much more powerful being delivered by a student in a meeting.

This also can be a format to call companies. We also practice an elevator pitch were you have to explain your team's and FIRST's purpose in under 30 seconds. Thus I think you can cut down a lot of the content to get straight to the point. Basically you want the person on the other side of the phone to be willing to give you their email so you can send them a packet showing your robots, team and school. If you make them curious, you have won half the battle. Then you can start asking for a meeting.

Also don't be afraid to show what you need. If you need money, show your current budget and where you can use that money. If you need services, be specific. Sometimes we solicit to be looking for used equipment or scrap metal and walk out with a sponsorship instead.

Lastly, over the phone, you may not know who you need to call before hand, so you sometimes have to play the guessing game of who at the company you need to talk to. Sometimes is head of HR, others its an owner or CEO.

So you may want to retool this letter as a format to set up meetings and how direct companies to make donations.