How do you get big corporate partners?

[archiver]

Posted by michael bastoni, Coach on team #23, PNTA, from Plymouth North High School and Boston Edison Co.

Posted on 5/16/99 9:29 AM MST


In Reply to: How do you get big corporate partners? posted by Kate Leach on 5/15/99 9:50 PM MST:



Kate,

The very best way I know of to get corporate involvement is through the
'Grass Roots' approach....The issue with corporate partners is not
money......In this economy they have gobs of cash to throw around...

The problem is the human resources...the bright energetic motivated
young (and old like me) technical types you need to help get the job
done....This demographic is usually concerned with helping develop
FIRST teams but they are also concerned with getting ahead in their
careers, raising families and traveling for their company in order
to pay the bills at home, not to mention sick parents leaky roofs and
all the other things that fit into the hectic 10 weeks needed to
design build and produce spare parts for a robot.....

So...here's my advice

It's about the kids....get as many kids as you can find that are not just interested
in science math but also in doing something cool...The chances
are good that one of those kids has a parent that works for a potential
sponsor...and parents as a rule ....will do almost anything for their
kids....remember that parents have skills too, after all someone is paying the mortgage
somehow....

so....

You have that kid's parent pitch the idea to the potential sponsor(employer) with the
added thrust of your pitch being that the parent of that kid will assume
the corporate side of the responsibility....This is a big issue in
potential corporate sponsorship.....not the money...but whose going to
do it....

so simply put...

You need to find someone on the inside...a parent of a student interested in being on your team
is a good place to begin..but there are other grass root 'windows' to use
in accessing corporations....

A fundemental problem with the current FIRST model is engineering/corporate/education
burnout...legitimate life situations compete for the time and resources of these volunteers as
mentioned above...and there simply is not a cadre of folks trying to push these volunteers
aside so they can run the FIRST teams in their companies...The result is that the same
volunteers are expected to do the program every year...and that is simply an unfair expectation
on a volunteer basis....so that is why I council you to access parents that are
part of the corporate sponsor to be targeted because they have a value added reason
to become involved...THIS IS WHY YOUTH SOCCER RULES THIS COUNTRY. The moms and dads
of the participatin kids are the coaches and organizers.

Anothe interesting way into a corporate sponsorship is something we have dabbled in this past year
and we found this quite accidently.

We think it is viable to do the following.

FIRST teams are rich with young ambitious and highly energetic high school kids...
What they lack in technical acumen they more than make up for in energy.

So

Try identifying a local charity already being sponsored by a corporation..
say Habitat for Humanity (a VERY POPULAR ONE WITH companies and a very worthwhile
cause)....Go to your local Habitat center for info...

And

VOLUNTEER your entire FIRST team for a Habitat Project....and work your
butts off for them....This will get you established as a legitimate entity
and provide you with the 'currency' you need to approach the corporate
decision makers with your request for say...20 thousand dollars...

You have to give to get..

We've adopted the building of a new Boys and Girls Club in our town
and we provide alot of technological support in the form of Power point
slide presentations, animations and desktop publishing as well as the equipment
to display the messages. LCD projectors and computer networking resources

In return the community views our students as worthy of the generous
support they receive...They are seen as givers not just receivers of
corporate largesse....

So go to work and good luck

mr.b