Probably won't have enough money for FRC this season :(

[ChrisH]

The FIRST post has the best advice. Contact your Regional Director immeadiately. They often know of sponsors looking for teams and other sources of money. I was at a meeting with our Regional Director last night and he exhorted us to let him know if we became aware of a team in financial trouble.

The next best advice, for the future start your own 501(c)3 so administrators can't redirect your funds

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by ferret_guy

So on Friday, November 23 I learned the administrator in charge of giving out funds had just decided to not fund FRC. for those of you counting that's 14 days before the money is due, now I realise that budgets are tight (they decided to start a vex program from scratch) but it would have been nice to get much
more notice. After hearing this i decided to do something I had never done before I decided to fund raise. Now after calling ~112 local and national Technology and Engineering companies I had not a single person who could remotely help us in time. I did not directly reach a decision maker at 6 companies so I left a message and await a callback however I doubt very much that they will collectively provide the 5,000$ required for registration.

So have you learned your lesson about not fundraising year round?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

So have you learned your lesson about not fundraising year round?

why would you even post this phrased in this way?

[AdamHeard]

To the op, if this is important to you, you can make it happen.

The ability to overcome adversity and challenge is something I hope all my students develop on our team, and you have been given a mountain of a challenge to conquer here. This presents a potentially great life experience.

Rally your teammates, set a goal, make a plan and get to work.

My kids routinely make $500 at bake sales in front of stores; 10 pays your registration, you can do multiple the same day at different places. A fee per student could help too

[ferret_guy]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

So have you learned your lesson about not fundraising year round?

every senior member left and the person who took over coaching assured me we would have the funds and this being my second year I really wanted to have a team after the school pulled the funding at the last minute I decided to see what I could do.

[JB987]

Originally Posted by ferret_guy

every senior member left and the person who took over coaching assured me we would have the funds and this being my second year I really wanted to have a team after the school pulled the funding at the last minute I decided to see what I could do.

Ferret Guy,
I sent you an private message to discuss your issue in greater detail. I am in charge of team development for Nevada and it was my understanding for many months now that there was no official adviser for your team this year. Nobody at your school updated your FIRST registration info for your team this year to my knowledge and no contact was made with me, the Local Director or Senior Mentor asking for any assistance. I applaud your recent efforts to keep the team alive and would like to hear from you or the "person who took over coaching" to see what we can do for you at this very late point in time.

[yarb65]

In California we cannot charge fees. They must be voluntary. No peer pressure.

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by ferret_guy

So on Friday, November 23 I learned the administrator in charge of giving out funds had just decided to not fund FRC. for those of you counting that's 14 days before the money is due, now I realise that budgets are tight (they decided to start a vex program from scratch) but it would have been nice to get much
more notice. After hearing this i decided to do something I had never done before I decided to fund raise. Now after calling ~112 local and national Technology and Engineering companies I had not a single person who could remotely help us in time. I did not directly reach a decision maker at 6 companies so I left a message and await a callback however I doubt very much that they will collectively provide the 5,000$ required for registration.

Don't just ask tech and engineering companies. In 2001, at my first time at nationals when I was 15, I saw a team that had a full list of company names down the back of their shirt, there were at least 20 of them, small local business helping the local team out. Even Linda's Lingerie Shop was a donor.

If fundraising is something you haven't done before, try to find someone who has. I've met very few people that are naturally good at fundraising, you could likely improve your pitch and results. You can also find a lot of resources about fundraising here: http://www.firstnemo.org/resources.htm

Good luck.

Wetzel

[pntbll1313]

Our team started in 2007 with basically 1 sponsor. Since then we have diversified and reached out to many local business. We have had ebb and flow of team sizes in the last 6 years but this year we actually have enough to have a 2 person “business team” who are solely working on getting sponsors and funding. We are set up as a 501(c)3 headed by a mentor which helps in getting donations as they are tax deductible. We started a 100 for 100, in which we have contacted 100 local business asking for $100 each. It’s very early and we haven’t even sent out all of the letters but I know we’ve gotten at least 1 donation and are hopeful for the future. We also have a team fee which is comparable with sports teams. Spread the word about Scrip as well. If you can catch a family member doing a remodeling project have them buy 2 grand worth of scrip cards for Home Depot rather that spending the money directly at the store. I don’t know what the percentage is but say it’s 4% that’s still 80 bucks. Every bit helps!

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by pntbll1313

If you can catch a family member doing a remodeling project have them buy 2 grand worth of scrip cards for Home Depot rather that spending the money directly at the store. I don’t know what the percentage is but say it’s 4% that’s still 80 bucks. Every bit helps!

Wow this is a good idea. How unfortunate that my family is ending a six-figure project, we could have done this in the beginning

How does one go about purchasing scrip to support an organization?

[Phyrxes]

Several of our students organized a series of "spirit nights" (afternoons?) with a number of chain fast food places on short notice last year to help fund their trip to VEX Worlds. They went and talked to the places heavily frequented by the student body after school and ended up with a portion of the profits from those afternoons with minimal effort.

Don't think of it is where am I going to get XXXX dollars but how many people can the students talk to and get X dollars from each. Turn your students into a networking group it might surprise you with the number of companies you now have an "in" with.

[DELurker]

Another option for the OP since they are in Henderson/Las Vegas is to go to the casinos/hotels and see if they will donate to support the team. Alternatively, go to the restaurants in the various hotels and see if they would be willing to donate 5-25% of a given time period's take to the team. Some of our local restaurants will give us 10% of a night's receipts or 20% of each check returned with a voucher. I would think the buffet at the Rio could fund the team with 10% for 5-6 hours ($30 per person, about 300 people per hour, six hours is $5,400 or so).

[pntbll1313]

Originally Posted by dcarr

Wow this is a good idea. How unfortunate that my family is ending a six-figure project, we could have done this in the beginning

How does one go about purchasing scrip to support an organization?

Your team must be a nonprofit. I was not the one who originally set it up but according to scrip.com it seems pretty straight forward to enroll. Then:

"Once your non-profit is enrolled at ShopWithScrip.com, member families can register and place scrip orders on their own. Scrip coordinators can gather up individual family orders, release them after payment, and aggregate them into a single GLSC purchase order, with no additional key entry. "

[Golto]

I saw a few teams ask for donations as projects on kickstarter, and are just adding the individual donor's names to the bod, different type sizes for different levels of contribution.

[ferret_guy]

After getting the school to pledge half FIRST Nevada matched that and now we have enough!