getting school funds

[mrobrien]

I was wondering, among those teams who have had success making their team into a sport or getting their school to give them money in any way consistently, can anyone give us some pointers?

[Kristina]

Make friends with people in high places. This may sound funny but I'm not joking. The academic Vice Principal (we had 4 in total) oversaw us and we invited her to all the events and she even traveled with us. She helped allocate us money for our trips and am pretty sure helped us secure some funds from the district.

Additionally, I would treat a school just as any other business that you would go to for sponsorship. I was in ASB, student gov, and we decided where money would be spent. If we ever saw professional and organized type of presentation by the students, we would be impressed and more likely to give them money. So you want to make a powerpoint/brochure/slideshow pitch (however your team does it) to the administration or student governing board. Hope that helps!

[evulish]

Maybe do a faculty assembly...After school some time, have all the teachers/admin. come in and watch you run around with the bot. See if you get any nice stares or comments. Never tried it, but it could work.

[ChrisH]

Originally posted by Doanie8
Make friends with people in high places. This may sound funny but I'm not joking. The academic Vice Principal (we had 4 in total) oversaw us and we invited her to all the events and she even traveled with us. She helped allocate us money for our trips and am pretty sure helped us secure some funds from the district.

Additionally, I would treat a school just as any other business that you would go to for sponsorship. I was in ASB, student gov, and we decided where money would be spent. If we ever saw professional and organized type of presentation by the students, we would be impressed and more likely to give them money. So you want to make a powerpoint/brochure/slideshow pitch (however your team does it) to the administration or student governing board. Hope that helps!

Kristina,
You are wise beyond your years.

Paying for someone who has authority to spend money to come along on one of you're trips is an investment, not an expense. It can pay off for many years to come. The professional presentation should be an assumption. We are in the process of putting ours together now. It will be presented mostly by students and they will be professional about it, or else.

One thing to remember about large organizations is that they have policies and procedures. These exist so that senior management doesn't have to make decisions too often. (Would you like to spend your whole day approving travel accounts when your job is figuring out where to spend research money? just as an example). But VPs are generally the people who make the policies, so they can change them if they want to...

I personally spent some time a couple of years ago cultivating a relationship with a guy whose wife I used to work with. At the time he was a senior manager, but then he got shipped off to another division for a while. Now he's back, as a Vice President, my VP in fact. I expect that work a couple of years ago will pay off eventually, hopefully soon. I have been continuing to work on his successors (old position) and predecessors (new one) but the connection hasn't been there.

Having a connection to a really Good Friend in the Ultimate High Place doesn't hurt either.

ChrisH