Fundraising/Community Outreach

[Vermeulen]

Trying to keep from going on a rant here, but this year, we developed an assembly line for and built sit-skis, which are cross-country skis that are adapted for athletes with disabilities. They were designed by college students at the UW, and we made 150 of them, which quadrupled the number of them in the world. Other people made more of them using our assembly line procedures later.

Most of our money comes from a robotics summer camp, which had about 90 middle-school age kids last year, and brought in over $30,000. The school gives us the room where we do it.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Vermeulen

Trying to keep from going on a rant here, but this year, we developed an assembly line for and built sit-skis, which are cross-country skis that are adapted for athletes with disabilities. They were designed by college students at the UW, and we made 150 of them, which quadrupled the number of them in the world. Other people made more of them using our assembly line procedures later.

Most of our money comes from a robotics summer camp, which had about 90 middle-school age kids last year, and brought in over $30,000. The school gives us the room where we do it.

About the Robotics Summer Camp thing... How is it run and about how much do you ask from each kid?

[TheFish]

As a followup question:

Do any teams have endowments where they can operate off the interest (and return on investments) and be sustainable without a major need for year-to-year sponsorships/fundraising?

[Mrs.Drake343]

Team 343 did several things this year:

We went out to different businesses and asked if they would be on a discount card we created. 17 businesses agreed and provided a "discount" for their business for the card. The cards were printed for less than $.50 each at a local print shop and sold for $10 each. We didn't sell as many as I would have liked, but we still made a nice profit (profit being the key) and shared with a couple of Lego teams.

We also run a Lego camp in the summer (this summer we are planing to run 2). We charge $85 per student and get scholarships for lower income students. We netted about $3000 from the first camp.

For those of you that live around college campuses, we have and are planning to running concessions at Clemson University sporting events. Each group makes 10% of the total sales for their area and at Clemson football games that can be as much as $2000 per Saturday!

Finally, and this is a long term fund raiser, is United Scrip. They are a company that happens to be local, but has groups from all across the country. Basically they buy gift cards from businesses and sell them to charities at a discount. The charity sells them at face value and keeps the profit. For example, if you purchase at $25 Belk gift card your group will make $2.50 because your group will get a 10% discount. Here is the link for United Scrip. If you decide to sign up please tell them that 343 recommended you!

http://www.unitedscrip.com/

[mama_tree]

This was our Rookie Year and we sold fruit snacks and collected new hats for Hats Off for Cancer (for children with cancer). We are talking about hosting a golf tournament this summer to help raise money and awareness of FIRST.

[Vermeulen]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

About the Robotics Summer Camp thing... How is it run and about how much do you ask from each kid?

We charge $500 for a 2-week, 4 hour a day session, and we have four sessions. The cost includes everything (food, supplies, etc.) We do offer scholarships for it. Last year, we has about 90 students enrolled, and this year, we're expanding the camp to 120 students. We pay students from our high school program to be counselors for the camp. The school district donates the classroom in the high school to us, and we get a discount on legos from Lego.
Information on our camp is here.

[Mrs.Drake343]

I will have some starter/information packets from United Scrip in our pit (343-Newton) if anyone would like to come by and pick one up. It contains all the information you need to open an account with them and what their program does.

[The Cyborg]

Innovationfirst I think still has a fundraiser where students sell Hexbugs or Hexbug Nanos.

A few fundraisers that I have done in the past with my team was sell pizza kits from Little Caesars, and worked the concession stands at a local venue. Both of these were effective fundraisers in the past.