sponsors and Fundraising

[depth_Finder]

Originally Posted by annie1939

I think depending on a fundraisers that consist of only kids selling something is the wrong way to go. Those fundraisers are important because the students feel the front line involvement; however, many times it ends up being the relatives bearing the burden. You need a mixed attack. We are a town of 18,000 in the middle of Oklahoma and I try to raise at least 30K a year. In our rookie year it was 45K with grants. It is also a town with a high rate of poverty. We do have some big industries, but they have not been as forthcoming as the smaller companies that are locally owned. First go to the local rotary club witha presentation. That is where you will find the local business owners. On the Glenwood Spring website http://www.ci.glenwood-springs.co.us/ is a link to the Chamber of Commerce. You have 12 engineering companies listed. Contact them all. One of the benefits of Colorado (having lived there for 10 years and still kicking myself because we left ) is that you have wealthy retirees or business owners that can afford to live further out. They have the money and believe in education. Find a way to get to them with your message. Find a mentor that can spend full time making contents. We have a locally owned hardware store that donates the nuts, bolts etc that we need for about $500/ year.

Make sure that your name is constantly in the paper or on the radio so that people know you and what you do. My background is engineering so I attacked it as an engineer. I figured out who and what I needed to know. Read books and studied successful teams documentation. There are a lot of fundraising books on Amazon. You need to have packets ready to go so you can respond instantly to a lead.

Ask big. If you ask for $100, that is what they will give you, but if you ask for $1000 you might get it and you will probably get at least $100 to send you away. I used jigsaw.com now https://www.salesforce.com to start. That will tell you companies in your area and how much they make in a year and you can base your ask on that.

Train a group of kids to go with you. They can observe and interact as time goes on.

It is also all about contacts. I am the spouse of the city manager. I am introduced to the people who run the town. When I meet someone, I proceed to "spew" at them about FIRST. When my husband interviewed for the job, I talked about robotics at the reception. That paved the way. I am now working with one the fathers of a team member who works with new business at the bank and can point me to business to ask. The Chamber can use the fact that they have a robotics team to lure new business to town. We promote our team by talking about the fact that we can help produce more technologically literate residents that they can hire for the future. Find someone that knows the residents and where the money is hidden. Main street businesses get hit up all the time by every sports team. Nobody goes to the little engineering company. I have gone to the most nondescript buildings and come out with $2500.

We did a mailing this year targeting everyone in the Chamber of Commerce directory, and got in about $2000. We sent out a sponsorship sheet with different levels. My mistake is that I had an option of $100 dollars. I think if I had put it at $500 as the lowest, all of my $100 donations would have been $500. Ask big. They can only say no, but they might say yes. And "no" may not mean "no" forever.

Also do not go in with the attitude that you are asking for charity. You provide a needed service to the community. And you directly affect the community. You have the ability to transform the city and the graduates they produce. Bring that into your presentations.

Good luck,
Ann

That was a very helpful response. I was just struck by it. Our team doesn't have too many problems with fund raising, but can I use this post to help other teams in our area?