Hello, I’m Ebi, a member of a Japanese FRC team, and we’re facing a fundraising challenge. Our goal is to secure $20,000 for the upcoming season, but at the moment, we only have $4,000 on hand. The depreciation of the Japanese yen has added to our financial strain, making it challenging even to cover the participant fee.
We’ve been making efforts to reach out to local companies for support, but unfortunately, we haven’t received any positive responses from them so far. If anyone has any tips, strategies, or experiences to share, we would greatly appreciate your input. Thank you in advance for your assistance!
I would try Bridgestone if you haven’t already. I can’t speak to if our parent company aka Bridgestone Japan does the same community investments as the American division does, but the local manufacturing plants in my community in Bridgestone Americas provides my team with sponsorship.
Im unsure of how well this works in Japan or if any of the current Japanese teams there have attempted this but have you tried contacting your prefectural government? While they may not support directly, they may have some ways to help you connect with companies that may not have considered assistance previously.
You could also contact other Japanese teams to see what they have done to secure funding and sponsorships in your country. While im not sure of their status this season, im sure they may have suggestions regardless of if they are competing this season.
I don’t know if you’ve tried this already, but if you’re associated with a school, they often can give significant amounts of support (and not just financially - our school helps us with logistics, shop maintenance, and some computer hardware as well.)