Team 159 has a unique opportunity to reach out to a number of potential sponsors all at once. We have a document about the benefits of sponsoring the team (tax deductible, logo on the robot, etc) but we don’t have a document with a short, to the point description of what FRC is and why it exists.
If anyone has a document like this that they could share with me to use, or preferably edit for this specific purpose, I would appreciate it.
Unfortunately I need the document really soon (ideally by 10AM Mountain Time tomorrow). If you can’t get access to one that soon I understand.
159 is pretty new to marketing ourselves in this manner so any other advice about what to tell potential sponsors, or advice about acquiring sponsors in general is appreciated.
It’s not a written document, but I would strongly encourage you to consider the excellent videos FIRST has produced, including the one with Morgan Freeman and the more recent “This isn’t a Robot” video](https://youtu.be/mtE6Va6oOhU). I find that short videos are more impactful than a short, terse summary.
Somehow I missed the OP, but let me take a swing at it. As I missed the deadline, I’m going to run long, trusting that some English Majors out there can squeeze my text down better than they can expand on it:
Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and a great number of medical and third-world quality of life devices, created the United States Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (US FIRST) ca 1990. The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is FIRST’s premiere tool to meet its mission of inspiration and recognition of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at the high school level. Based on Woodie Flowers’ Introduction to Design and Manufacturing curriculum at Massachusets Institue of Technology (MIT), FRC presents high school students (and their teacher and local industry mentors) with a new, unique game challenge the first or second Saturday of each year. Teams have about 6-1/2 weeks to strategically analyze the game, and design and build a (mostly tele-operated) robot to compete in the game. Both through specific non-robotics competition and the high cost of competing in the robotics competition, FRC encourages its teams to develop scientific and technical talent, and to direct business/sales talent into supporting scientific and technological development and implementation. By supporting your local FIRST team, your business is not only achieving recognition through the team’s web site, shirts, robot signs, and such, but is also encouraging high school students in your neighborhood to pursue science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and business support careers, and is giving them an opportunity to develop these skills in the global FRC context.
Edit: in case it wasn’t obvious, I envisioned replacing “your local FIRST team” and “the team” with specific references to your team.