Big Big Problem

[Ronald_raygun]

Our school has unfortunately banned the clubs to solicit for donations. (sponsorship, basically) Has anyone thought of a way to circumvent this?

I'm thinking of incorporating the team into a non-profit. so we can still be sponsored.

I also know that various fundraisers exist and we need much more than the yields they have.

Any suggestions?

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by Ronald_raygun

Our school has unfortunately banned the clubs to solicit for donations. (sponsorship, basically) Has anyone thought of a way to circumvent this?

I'm thinking of incorporating the team into a non-profit. so we can still be sponsored.

I also know that various fundraisers exist and we need much more than the yields they have.

Any suggestions?

Have you looked into creating a booster club - an organization not officially affiliated with your school's club that fundraises and then 'donates' the money into the club?

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Ronald_raygun

Our school has unfortunately banned the clubs to solicit for donations. (sponsorship, basically) Has anyone thought of a way to circumvent this?

Get your robotics group classified as a team instead of a club.

I'd be wary of trying to find ways around a school rule. You'd probably be much better off negotiating with the rulemakers, either to get a specific exception for robotics, or to identify a different way for you to get the funding you need without breaking the rules.

(One "different way" might be for a separate parents' organization to do the solicitations, rather than the robotics team itself, but I'd still run it past the school before doing it.)

[JohnBoucher]

Silly question, but it needs to be asked.. Did they offer to foot the bill?

Have you explained what how much this deal costs and what the rewards are? We are very open with the school. We are neither a club or a sport, we really are in a grey area and we do not get a dime from the school. We are a 501(c)(3) and the school encourages us to get the community involved through sponsorships.

Please join NEMO and pick their brains. Their support in this area is terrific. There is a conference where you can meet with them coming up on 10/01/05 in Worcester, MA.

jb

Originally Posted by Ronald_raygun

Our school has unfortunately banned the clubs to solicit for donations. (sponsorship, basically) Has anyone thought of a way to circumvent this?

I'm thinking of incorporating the team into a non-profit. so we can still be sponsored.

I also know that various fundraisers exist and we need much more than the yields they have.

Any suggestions?

[Beth Sweet]

Well, I pretty much doubt that any other group in your school has anywhere near the kind of budget that your team runs on. Perhaps it would be appropriate to talk to your school's administration and remind them that this is a program that makes their students exceptionally prepared for the real world, gives them a real step up and if they don't allow your group to solicit sponsorship, they will be shutting down your program.

If they still are not interested in changing their policy, my best advice would be to pull your affiliation with the school. Get the students and just don't affiliate yourself with them. If the school leaves you no other choice, you've gotta do it.

[sanddrag]

Say you are the Larryville High School Robotics Club/Team. What you should do, is form the Larryville Robotics Enthusiasts Group. By form, I mean not much more than call yourselves by that name and make sure it is not affiliated with the school except that students from the school are part of it. Then when you are fundraising, you are the Larryville Robotics Enthusiasts Group and then they collect all the money and make one big donation to the Larryville High School Robotics Club/Team which builds the robot.

Basically, just disassociate yourselves from the school for only the purposes of fundraising, and then have that disassociated group relay the money to the school club/team. You may want to have that group become a nonprofit though.

[Wayne C.]

Have your parents get together and create a parents booster/ support group and in the future have them incorporate and go for 401-C3 status. Given that they will have a much higher per child cost if you CAN'T accept donations it is in their interest to do so.

I would also go to the school administration and school board with a lot of FIRST info and expense information. Have all the parents available to force the issue home. Maybe the school board would jump at the opportunity to please the parents for just a few thousand dollars.....

Or they might back off when the sponsors make their offers and the parents are insistent..

Usually schools don't want kids going door to door soliciting money from the community. It is dangerous for the kids and makes the school look bad (since defeating school budgets is the biggest part of community involvement schools see). But frankly, parents approach adults better and you really should get them moving.

A team needs adults. Make sure it is their team as much as yours.

WC

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by Ronald_raygun

Our school has unfortunately banned the clubs to solicit for donations. (sponsorship, basically) Has anyone thought of a way to circumvent this?

At our school, we're not allowed to solicit either. As far as I know, no student organizations are allowed to. Clubs are allowed to have on-campus fundraisers though. We've talked to the administration about this several times, but it's all about politics. If we ask some company for $10k, the school won't be able to ask them for $50k later on for other things. And we're not allowed to solicit parents either. The rule is that we're not allowed to ask. But, if they happen to find out about us and donate something, they can request that their donation go directly to the robotics club. Again, we're not allowed to ask for donations, but if they find out that we are in need and want to give us something it would be rude to refuse them.

If we wanted full autonomy to be free to solicit donations, we won't be allowed to associate ourselves with the school. We could probably still use the facilities, but not the name.

Edit:
Addendum: We also found something interesting. Each club gets some amount of money from the school. The robotics club was an off shoot of the science club. I don't know if it's still true this year, but last year, both clubs existed on paper. Therefore, both clubs got money even though they were the same organization. This money is also in addition to the money the school throws our way for FIRST.

[Ronald_raygun]

Thank you everyone for your quick reply.

A booster club may be the answer, but I'll run it by my co.

Getting our robotics club classified as a team is possible, but unlikely.

The Parent Teacher's Association doesn't help much except hold our money. Sure I may be able to speak with the heads.

The only thing that the school provides is a facility to store and build the robot. We are still allowed to use those facilities. The main hurdle is that we cannot solicit various companies for donations. (Sponsorships they do consifer donations)

Negotiating with the admins seems the best way to go. But first I need to find out who made the rule.


Changing the name of our team may help. But I'm not too familiar with FIRST's policy about changing team's names and therefore losing the ability to pre register year after year after year. (I'm on Team 19)

[KathieK]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

Please join NEMO and pick their brains. Their support in this area is terrific. There is a conference where you can meet with them coming up on 10/01/05 in Worcester, MA.

Your team leader was recently sent information about the Southern New England Conference which contains a presentation on fundraising. Each team may send up to 3 representatives to the conference. I also encourage any mentors on the team who deal with non-engineering topics to join NEMO as you do not have anyone from your team in NEMO yet. We will also be holding a NEMO workshop at Bash @ the Beach. Please PM/e-mail me for more information about how we can help you.

[Ronald_raygun]

How about this.

We file any donations/sponorships as sales? I.e. we are selling the company advertising space on our equipment.

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by Ronald_raygun

We file any donations/sponorships as sales?

You may want to be careful about that. If they are buying something, it's no longer a donation. People may be less willing to give if they don't get the tax breaks that come with a donation.

And did you ever find out why the school instated the rule? If it's similar to my team's situation, the school might not go for that either. Even if someone "buys" something from you, they still might see it as a contribution to your school.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by sciguy125

You may want to be careful about that. If they are buying something, it's no longer a donation. People may be less willing to give if they don't get the tax breaks that come with a donation.

If they are not a 501(c)(3) it may not matter. Oh sure for you and me as far as we are concerned, it is a donation to a school club, but for some companies, a donation is base for some kind of kick back (re: tax break or writeoff) for a donation.

But the way Uncle Sam and the IRS see it is a totally different ball game.
your T's have to be crossed, and your i's dotted.

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

If they are not a 501(c)(3) it may not matter.

Well, I'm fairly sure our school is a 501(c)(3). The fact that our moderator was giving out tax exemption forms drives that suspicion home for me.

My understanding of the law is that nearly all schools qualify for 501(c)(3). However, I guess you also have to file paperwork to benefit from it. Is all that correct? If so, is there any reason a school wouldn't want to be a 501(c)(3)?

If your team is a separate organization, I could see why there could be some problems. It seems, however, that 19 is part of their school.

[mechanicalbrain]

623 is listed as a booster club and a nonprofit organization. It also helps in terms of getting donations since sponcers can take all the money they give you as a tax write off.