Team 121 sponsor search

[Rick]

Hi, I am a member on team 121 and would like to know how some teams get their sponsors.

We are a well performing team that has been overlooked by companies. We have one partner right now besides our school. That partner is the Naval Undersea Warfare Center and since it is a government company they can not give us any financial support. We fundraise with family, friends and community for travel money. We had to struggle this year to get to Florida with most of the expenses being paid by the members themselves.

We are the only team in Rhode Island, and as you can see in my signature, we did very well this year. We have been featured on local tv, local newspapers, the New York Times, the CBS Early Morning Show, CNN National Radio, and the 60 minutes II upcoming special on FIRST robotics.

I would like to ask any teams in the New England area to help us out if they could. If you have a large sponser, and they would like to see thier company associated with another top notch team please contact us by replying in this thread.

Any help big or small would be greatly appreciated.

If you already have a sponser tell us how you got it so we can do the same. Thanks in advance to all you great teams out there!

[Quain]

Get your name out in the masses and be known. Talk to reps.. send letters... have interviews.. and talk to your connections. You never know who someone knows.. or who a friend of a friend of a friend is.... Just become a name in your community and around the business district... maybe you'll get lucky.

A big part of our problem is that there are so few big companies in Rhode Island, and the few we do have are not interested in us. I'm wondering, does anybody have a connection to an international company, like cocacola or mcdonalds or something? Maybe even a company that wants to help out with FIRST but has little connection to the engineering world? (by that i mean they dont hire engineers directly, cause everybody is connected to the engineering world)

[David Kelly]

when is this 60 minutes II special on FIRST supposed to be on?

they told us it would be on in the fall

[Quain]

Originally posted by SharkBite
A big part of our problem is that there are so few big companies in Rhode Island, and the few we do have are not interested in us. I'm wondering, does anybody have a connection to an international company, like cocacola or mcdonalds or something? Maybe even a company that wants to help out with FIRST but has little connection to the engineering world? (by that i mean they dont hire engineers directly, cause everybody is connected to the engineering world)

There are many big companies up there. My dad was up there working on a nuclear reactor or something, they were building it. Supposedly it is a huge company and a company of that nature is always in need of engineers. Look around in unlikly places. Look @ the nuclear/manufacturing companies. Car companies? Food companies? Private donations? You technically don't need to look local though. E-mail coke or mcdonalds. Send a letter to NBC, ABC, etc... *shrug* Be creative, good luck!

seriously, we dont have very many big companies, i dont know what you are talking about

all we have is NUWC which is our sponsor, but they are government funded and cant give us money

there is only CVS, Hasbro, American Power Conversion and few others and they have all said no, or given us a very small donation

[Mr. Van]

Try forming a partnership with a College or University.

In addition, seek out any companies or corporations that are headquartered in RI. Try to deal with the top level people directly, if possible.

Of course, seek support from any small, local companies/groups that you can.

You can also use the fact that you are the only team from RI to your advantage...

Good luck!

-Mr. Van

Trust me, its easier said than done. We have contacted excessive amounts of people from various companies and its just not working. Unfortunately there are no big companies on the island we live on and it has been hard to gain awknowledgement from outside.

[Clark Gilbert]

You could email "respectable" mentors within FIRST and maybe have them write or colaborate some sort of "letter" to a company...

I think some people would be happy to do this since you are a great team and you guys keep getting better and better

thats actually a really good idea, thank you

and, you guys arent so bad yourself

also, if there is anyone from team 71 out there, could you email me and let me know how you got pepsi to sponsor you?

[Wayne C.]

I suggest that you do the following

1. develop a budget which outlines your exact needs from a potential sponsor. Set some goals for the 2003 season

2. contact the Rhode Island State Chamber of Commerce and see if they can help

3. contact all of your local politicians and see if they can help

4. go to the press with your dilemma. They love to support "hopeless causes"

You need an adult to really do this right. I suggesrt you get your parents together and rally the troops.

Hey you have the engineers you need and are able to build a great robot ( that much is evident!!!!). The money is out there- you just need to search for it.

Dont give up just yet!! You will survive this.

WC

the thing is we have already dealt with a lot of this stuff. given we have gotten more press this year than any other, it hasnt done much for us..... also the chamber of commerce has been contaced and nothing has come from that so far, except small donations..... we tried to contact a congressman through Dean, that never worked out either

there are numerous parents involved with this, everyone is pulling every string they can reach..... this is the seventh year we have been trying

despite the press i think the biggest problem is that nobody has heard about it.... after we came back from nationals our local paper did publish us, but they didnt think all our awards were worthy of anything more than a small box in the back of the paper.... i called them to talk about that and they stood by thier decision

hopefully that zoog movie scheduled to come out will shine some more light on FIRST and we might be able to get some recognition then

[Jay5780]

I work at abc6 in providence. You could try giving them a call. Your team did well this year and years past. Maybe you could try t get them to do a story and / or give a call out to viewers who may have conections that may help. You could even ask them to talk to the stations advertisers. You can do this with any of the stations.

I know it is hard for you guys. Well it must be since you guys are the only RI team. I would love to see more teams in RI.

Best of luck on the search.