Attn. Corporate Sponsored Teams:

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Jack Jones

I'll save you some time - it's Las Vegas!!!

No seriously, it seems to me that your team may be missing out on a unique opportunity. Engineering help should be easy to find – we love it! On the other hand, finding the kind of financial help a team needs is not easy. And, finding engineers with enough influence to get their companies involved is hardest of all, especially in places like Vegas where industry and manufacturing are not a large part of the local economy.

In the Detroit area we have the auto industry, but Vegas has casinos. Do you realize that the casinos have large staffs dedicated to public relations and promotions? They wouldn’t blink an eye at the kind of money we’re talking. What they care about is name recognition – setting them apart from the rest of the strip.

I’d lay odds that that one of them would be more that willing to put their name on the sides of your robot. Technology smeck-nology! Go where the money is!!

Just to add to the Vegas thing. I do believe that jack has a point and I believe that the hardest part is going to be getting through to the right person to talk to. You also might have difficulty because of the under 21 issue; ie. Why would a casino want to give money to people who can't go to their casino's, but that will be more of how you answer the question then the actual problem. In addition each casino especially big strip ones have full engineering staffs. Believe it or not there are engineers who design and build things for the casinos, so you might be able to get them also.

Although if I was in Vegas i would defiantly look these guys up. They are the ones who are trying to build a space hotel. http://www.lasvegasmercury.com/2004/.../24250261.html

[JohnBoucher]

Corporations large and small are more generous if they can write it off.

Incorporate as a non-profit 501(c)3

If the relationship with the school is such that that cannot happen, start a boosters club and incorporate that. The booster club can pay the bills.

[Donut]

Definitely try to get your team considered a non-profit group so that sponsors can write the donation off. I think it's alot harder to find the "large" corporate donations you might be looking for without this.

Assemble some kind of sponsorship packet or brochure to present to corporations (I definitely recommend looking at the NEMO White Paper for this, our team just finished one based off of this and everyone who has seen it has been impressed). Then just try to talk to any (or every) corporation you can. You tend to get better results when there is someone connected to your team that is an employee or part of the corporation (parent, mentor, friend of a member's family, etc.), and local ones will probably be more willing to do it, but there's really no harm in trying anyone (unless you're afraid of the word "no").

I would definitely recommend talking to casinos about this. I don't know what they can donate for money, but one of our member's family has a friend who works at a casino in Vegas, and they talked to him about what we do and whatnot. It will depend upon when the Las Vegas Regional is next year, but the friend is pretty sure he can get us 4 or 5 free rooms for the duration of the Regional if we go to Las Vegas next year. I'm guessing with all the members, mentors, and teachers on your team, there's probably someone who knows a person in the casino business.

[KathieK]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

Incorporate as a non-profit 501(c)3

Carol Perrotto and Bill Enslen of FRC 365 MOE presented "501(c)(3) Nonprofit Status - What Is It, Do We Need It, and How Do We Get It?" at the 2006 FIRST Conference this year. Their presentation can be found here (and also linked from the NEMO website).