Fundraising Goal

[Jon Stratis]

Definitely come up with a budget. Your coaches should have a good idea of the average expenditures for your team. A rough example might be:

5,000 - registration
5,000 - Robot parts
1,000 - PR/Team supplies
5,000 - Travel
3,000 - Second event registration
etc...

Once you have your base budget, you can start looking at additional items. For example develop a "wish list" of tooling - once you have your basic budget covered, you can raise money specifically for your wish list. You might also have a wish list for projects. Want to try swerve drive out in the off season? Figure out how much it's going to cost (buying swerve modules/raw materials if you're making them yourself, control system components, robot frame, etc) and fund raise specifically for that project!

You also want to start some savings for the team. My team has always managed to bring in a little more than we've spent, and as a result paying for champs this year wasn't all that bad - we got a little more from existing sponsors, and didn't have to do any major fundraising effort for it.

[John Retkowski]

One good thing you can do is find a major company willing to sponsor your team. It may take longer, and more effort than other fundraising paths, but big companies can provide a variety of resources for teams. (not all of them money) Plus they'll usually continue sponsoring your team year after year. You just need to keep good relations with your sponsor.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

You also want to start some savings for the team. My team has always managed to bring in a little more than we've spent, and as a result paying for champs this year wasn't all that bad - we got a little more from existing sponsors, and didn't have to do any major fundraising effort for it.

Quick comment on this: If you can, you want to build up enough for registration for the next year in your savings. (The "if you can" refers more to "if the school bureaucracy will let you without taking some or all of it", BTW.) That way, if for some reason you have a really bad year fundraising, you can at least field a robot the next year from a financial standpoint. Now, raising that all at once might be an issue, but you can build up to it.

[Orion.DeYoe]

As suggested, create a budget and know what you're going to spend money on. Teams can operate on a huge range of budget amounts.
That being said, as a rough starting point (and fairly ambitious goal) I would start with $20,000. That's one robot (comfortably), two events, a few people traveling, and other miscellaneous purchases. Many relatively competitive teams operate on less than this. If you're going to only one event then you're looking at the $10,000-$15,000 range. I strongly advise going to two regionals. The improvement from your first event to your second is unbelievable.
With some good corporate sponsors these amounts are fairly easy to get if you're willing to talk to companies around you. Offering to have the students make a 5-10 minute presentation about your team to these companies is a good idea (as well as robot demonstrations).

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by Orion.DeYoe

these amounts are fairly easy to get if you're willing to talk to companies around you. Offering to have the students make a 5-10 minute presentation about your team to these companies is a good idea (as well as robot demonstrations).

Obligatory disgruntled comment about underestimating the difficulty here. OP, if you are going to be pursuing corporate sponsorship in earnest I can PM you some of the stuff we learned this year about the difficulties and successful approaches you can take. My team certainly aren't pros just yet but I know a whole bunch of stuff that doesn't work

[daliberator]

Originally Posted by Monochron

Obligatory disgruntled comment about underestimating the difficulty here. OP, if you are going to be pursuing corporate sponsorship in earnest I can PM you some of the stuff we learned this year about the difficulties and successful approaches you can take. My team certainly aren't pros just yet but I know a whole bunch of stuff that doesn't work

That would be great! Any help is greatly appreciated.