How much do you need to raise?

Competition Fundraising
1

So, i’m not asking for your teams budget (too me thats kinda like a salary or a comission type question… its rude to ask)

but, i would like to know

a.How much does each team member need to fundraise to be on the team (in net dollars, not candy bars sold)?

b.How much does each team member need to fundraise to travel to each competition?

c.Are the travel expenses seperate from the team’s budget?

d.How do you fundraise your money?

answers for 868
a.$600
b.$1000
c.not really
d.going for donations from cooperate sponsors

2

We were planning on a budget of about $8000 for this year. Luckly we ended up raising $11,600 so far. The $8000 would equate to about $500 a person. However all the money was raised by 3 students (one being myself) working hard to get corprate sponsors. We choose to go to a local regional that we can drive to each day so that we dont have travel expenses.

3

Team Amore doesn’t have a set amount each member has to raise. We ask each member to go out and try to find sponsors but usually it is a one or two members who end up getting monetary support :o . And this support mostly comes from corporate sponsors.

4

A. Our team members have no set amount they need to fundraise to be in robotics. As long as they want to learn and are actively involved, they get to work on the robot and attend the local Arizona Regional.

B. Travel to our local regional is free for club members since we only need a school bus to get there (which is like $100 combined for all 3 days). Out of state travel costs must be fundraised by the student; if we can get additional monetary support beyond our initial regional and robot, that will help to reduce the travel costs for students, but each student it expected to contribute some for travel. This is largely the reason we haven’t traveled out of state in 3 years.

C. Pretty much. If students fundraise nothing, we go no where.

D. In order of amount made…

  1. Corporate donations
  2. Arizona Tax Credit Program
  3. Personal donations
  4. Bagel sale
  5. Entertainment book sale
5

Our (hopeful)budget for this year is $30,000, but $15,000 is more realistic.(included in this figure is the second entree fee for the championship. How horrible would it be to not get to go because of money)
Being a member of the team is free and is not a commitment until a person takes on a responsibility. Traveling costs are usually covered by the team unless we come up short with money(hasn’t happened yet).
We have a team of 2-5 students who’s sole responsibility is to go out and get sponsorship contacts. Once contacts are made a different group of students prepares a presentation suited to the specific sponsor and delivers it. This is our primary method of fund raising. When we look for sponsors we do not always look for monetary donations as this is difficult for some sponsors. Often times a company will donate something that replaces part of your budget even if they cannot donate money. We have had sponsors for food, sponsors for machining, and even a sponsor who gave us contacts with other potential sponsors.

6

  1. None

  2. The local regional is free because we take a bus there. It’s like 15-20 minutes to drive there from our school. But for the one we travel to, the students can fundraise as much as they want. The more they fundraise, the less they have to pay out of their pockets.

  3. No. If no one fundraises anything, then they all just have to pay for their travel. But I’m sure if we don’t raise at least $4000 dollars then we aren’t going to a second competition. None of the money we get from sponsors goes to students, only a couple of mentors for travel.

  4. Sponsors, Lego Summer camps, Lego Meet, FRC Off-season event, Mall Gift-wrapping, Simon Mall Gift of Giving tickets. Last year we had an iPod raffle, but that didn’t go as well as planned. We made half as much as we hoped to make. Maybe other teams would like to try it out.

The Lego Summer Camp is definately one of our biggest fundraisers. We had 18 campers this year who came in for a week at $200 each. Every year 166 gives out a $4000 dollar scholarship to one senior for outstanding efforts on their 3 or 4 years of being on the team. After that one Lego Camp, we pretty much had the scholarship covered.

7

Here is the scoop for team 25

a.How much does each team member need to fundraise to be on the team (in net dollars, not candy bars sold)?
to be a member you must 1.) maintain academic grades 2.) do 10 hrs. of community service prior to Jan 1st 3.) be a part of a team committee 4.) attend team meetings and events 5.) fund raise for yourself and the team- goal $350 and 6.) get your parents involved in the team

b.How much does each team member need to fundraise to travel to each competition? we shoot for $350/season per member. Generally some “active” amount of fund raising is looked for. Many kids end up supplementing travel out of pocket.

c.Are the travel expenses separate from the team’s budget? the budget includes team and travel expenses- both are connected

d.How do you fundraise your money?
Hawaiian shirt sales, fund raisers, holding events, various sales- we work all year for the funds. Much of the travel funding comes from the families. Our shirt sales alone this year netted over 2K.

We are very fortunate to have Bristol-Myers Squibb for our corporate sponsor and they have always supported us quite well. But the team is also proud to claim that $40,000 of our operating expenses for last year came from the efforts of our network of parents and families. We work VERY HARD all year long to insure our viability in the competition season.

For the younger teams out there reading this- it sounds like a lot of $. But if you divide it up amongst 60 or so students it barely covers one long distance trip. It took years to build the team to this level. In 2000 we began the season with $68.

There is no single way to fund a team. But I can tell you from experience, if you set the teams mind on a goal they will find a way to achieve it.

WC :cool:

8

$0

Same as above.

IF we have the money, the team pays for travel. If not, it comes out of the families’ pockets.

  1. Beg.
  2. Write essays and thank-you notes (depending on the situation, may be the same thing).
  3. Put on a spaghetti dinner–local restaurant donates a batch of sauce, we make noodles and serve. Usually good for at least $3K, but needs the whole team.
  4. Ask relatives.
9

This is a great point. Always make sure to thank your sponsors, no matter how small the donation is. It shows them that you appreciate them supporting you, even if they can’t give you a large sum of money.

10

0$ (Although we have dues around $30 - $40)
0$
We’ve never gone out of state, so we only use the school bus.
We’re trying to get corporate sponsors.

11

Hey, FIRST already sorta answered this question for you in a paper they published, it covers the cost of everything for a typical team (and you can customize it for your own needs) You will find this useful information on pages 41-42 (Appendix A) of the FRC Handbook.

Bonus tip, if you haven’t yet, read the FRC Handbook, they put a lot of work into it and it can answer a lot of questions.

12

If your dues are only $30 where is the rest of the money comming from? Unless you have 200 team members.

13

We have a goal each year of raising $25,000. However, we have a specific set of requirements that can pay for it. These consist of fundraising, community service and demonstrations. For more info see our website or handbook (which is on our website)

http://www.penfieldrobotics.com

14

Our budget for years without trying to go to championchips, we shoot for about $20 000 (two regionals) and then this year, we’re trying to raise enough money to go, it’s about $30 000. We’re about halfway there now but in past years, we’ve started the year in debt about two years ago and so that was tough to recover from.

a. students pay a $135 registration fee ($100 goes to competition registration)
b. students pay about $100 for away competitions for travel and hotel (championships is a different story but none of us know yet because we haven’t gone because of money in 3 years) and for local stuff, no money needed
c. travel expenses are covered by students themselves and only expenses for advisors are covered by the team
d.to raise money, we sell food at school, scrip (which we started this year), write grant letters and ask for donations from parents.

15

Team 538 does the following:
a. Students do not have a set amount in dollars but must work a minimum of 25 fund raising hours.

b. In order to travel the student must also put in a minimum of 25 build hours

C. Travel costs= kids pay for their own room (about 100.00 per trip). They are given the choice to raise this money by selling Pizza Hut cards and/or candles. All the profit from these sales goes directly into the individual students travel account. All traveling members have a $75.00 travel fee that is used to pay for the bus drivers room,meals, and gas. We pay for all breakfasts and lunch from the team fund-raising.

D. We raise our money doing a number of projects. Some of those include Football field clean-up, basketball concessions, cotton candy sales, and any donations we can get from the community.

Hope these answers help.

16

Team 1902 has to raise enough money to cover an estimated Total Budget of $43,800.00. This includes just about everything, we are quite a bit short of our goal currently, about half and I’m sure there will be some other costs incured as there always is, but we’ll have to deal.

a.How much does each team member need to fundraise to be on the team?

Each member has a $50 dollar due just to be on the team. This goes into a general fund to get the ball rolling pays for general things like shirts, buttons, helps covers office supplies and such for team forms and promotional things. The $50 dollars can be achieved through fund raisers.

b.How much does each team member need to fundraise to travel to each competition?

The Florida Regional is free for travel and attendance fee for members. It is just a few miles from most of our houses, so no travel fee, nor hotel fee is incured.

The second Las Vegas Regional is required by students to pay or fund raise for. The hope is that enough hours participated in fund raising will defer the cost of travel. We have many fundraising options for the students and we hope they participate in as many as they can to cover there costs.

The same goes for the national championship.

c.Are the travel expenses seperate from the team’s budget?

Each member works to satisfy a personal travel budget but each fundraiser a certain percentage of the money goes to the team and a certain percentage goes to the student. ( varies with fundraiser ) The reason for this is often cost of the fundraiser needs to be covered, and general funds are needed which the students also benefit from.

d.How do you fundraise your money?

There are many methods 1902 uses to fund raise. First is through corporate sponsorship, In years past we have had Siemens Power Generation, and Lockheed Martin. This year we have received commitments from Siemens, Disney, and are still waiting on Lockheed, Kiwanis Club, and a few others.

Secondly we develop innovative fundraisers, including and not limited to, Car Washs, A no show ball, Advertisement Opportunity, and Pigging Lawns ( A fundraiser were we stick dozens of Pigs on Rockets in front lawns of friends and family and ask for a collection fee to come pick them up, or to send them to someone elses lawn. )

Lastly of course begging, pleading, praying. Raising the required money to cover all expenses for a FIRST competition can be challenging, asking and telling everyone you can about it is the most important thing you can do, you never know who will become interested and poney up some dough.

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