My team has been having some trouble getting big sponsors. We have a lot of local business companies that sponsor us, but we were hoping to get sponsored by bigger companies . Any tips?
Ask more local businesses.
Ask parents who might work for larger companies.
Contact those larger companies–if you can figure out a tie (where you have or know someone who works there by any sort of chain) it’ll be easier to do because you’ll go to the right person(s).
But seriously… If I was running my own team, I would prefer lots and lots of local businesses, and 1-2 high-value fundraisers, over having large corporations. At least 1-2 of those are nice too, though.
Going through standard channels with big corporations will usually take way longer than they should and there is no guarantee for the sponsorship at that either. Your best bet would be to find someone that your team can relate to, or even start by reaching out to them for mentors and begin at that connection.
Persistence is key when working with bigger companies as well. Remember, you are not a priority from their perspective, so keep up with your contact (someone in P.R. would be ideal if you don’t have an in somewhere else).
Local businesses and organizations such as Rotary, Kiwanis, Optimists, etc are really good to look into as well. (They’re often well connected too! Use them as a possible in somewhere else!)
Good Luck!
Yes! Large (talking very large) companies are usually good for writing a check maybe to pay for registration or something. And maybe if you find the right company and establish the right type of partnership, you’ll get some high quality mentors from them. However, small businesses are great because you’ll establish a mutually beneficial relationship and usually be able to talk to someone directly. Small businesses love the exposure you can give them at large competitions. Also, if they’re providing you with in-kind goods or services, being local reduces the time and cost to both you and the sponsor.
Depending on the geography of your area, consider writing a sponsorship letter and having each student knock on x number of doors to businesses and hand deliver the letters and talk to potential sponsors. Never turn something down - you’ll never know when you need some obscure sponsor or duplicates (multiple metal supply sponsors, for example).
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Batrex
Some companies have specific foundations that work to improve the communities they are in. Many of these same companies encourage or even compensate their employees when they work with organizations like FIRST. If you can find these companies - a bit of research is well worth the time - you can sometimes net a “twofer”. Although we are far from a high resource team we have enjoyed very helpful sponsorship from Cray Inc and JAMF software. And have picked up to date three mentors from those sources. Send me a message if you want more details on how this process works…or sometimes maybe does not. There are other local companies that we have been working on for a while. It can take time…
T. Wolter
This. Time and time again, we see a large national or regional sponsor drop their FIRST support for varying reasons, and what follows is multiple teams folding because they depended largely on that one source.
If you’re covering registration, travel, and purchases with just your fundraising and local businesses, you’re in a really good spot. Not to say you shouldn’t go after the big names, just that you don’t necessarily need to, and you don’t want to become dependent on it.
Are there Farmers’ Markets in your area (and I realize you’re in NJ; it’s not the season to go outside all that much)? 972 has gotten a spot at our local one, hung a basket on the 'bot (be sure to seed it with $1s, $5s, … $20s depending on local demographics), talked up FIRST, FRC, and asked for money. Maybe someone walking by works for, or knows someone who works for a large company who may sponsor you. Or a small company. Or a hardware store that’ll give you an allowance for tools and parts.
You may find it easier to get to the “decision maker” when approaching smaller businesses and end up with a higher success rate.
I was working for a large, foreign owned multi-national corporation. They sponsored all kinds of stuff but I eventually found out that much of their philanthropic budget was mandated by the mother company. I did see the company logo on a robot at St Louis Champs and spoke with the mentor who got the sponsorship. As you may expect, a mentor at the VP level in the company has much more pull than I did as a staff-level engineer.
Most larger companies will have a formal process set up to apply for support. Look under “about us” sections on their websites, for terms like “corporate citizenship,” “corporate responsibility,” “in our communities,” “giving back,” etc. Its usually pretty buried, but you’ll learn to find it quick.
Unlike with local companies, where you can often knock on their door, talk to the person in charge and come out of there with a decision in an afternoon, the process for larger companies, since they’ll be expecting you, is more involved and formal. There are several non-obvious quirks and common trends to requesting these kinds of grants:
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Except for occasionally with some of the absolute largest companies, in particular national brands with sometimes less-than-stellar images, you’ll find that support is primarily/only given in locations near their offices and facilities. This is because these companies want to make a good impression in the communities from which they hire, and who have the greatest ability to positively/negatively impact their operations. Use this to shape a list you build of companies to approach: Find out who is big and nearby, rather than just blindly going “It’d be cool to have Google sponsor us, lets check if they’re geography-agnostic or not.” Don’t limit yourself to tech companies either – the largest community donor local to my team was an insurance company for example.
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Most companies will have specific giving focuses. STEM education, or education in general, is a very
common one especially among tech companies, but is not always present. Sometimes there will be a particular emphasis on things like serving underrepresented demographics. Tailor your application to what the company wants to be supporting. -
Some companies prefer employee volunteering and matched donation structures. This doesn’t count that company out definitely reach out to the company to see if they’d be willing to direct employees your way as mentors. “They don’t know that you exist” is almost certainly chief among the reasons you don’t have any of their employees working with you yet.
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Many companies have a specific time window in which they accept unsolicited donation requests. Create a calendar of these.
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Some companies frown upon supporting certain types of activities. Travel is a common restriction. Of course, its all somewhat relative since if you have their money going to something they see as more worthwhile, money originally directed there can now go to travel. Still, be prepared to demonstrate that their specific dollars are going to elements of your program they support.
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Sometimes this goes a step further, and general operating expenses won’t be supported, with some companies preferring to support very specific “projects” undertaken by your organization. This can be things like, the purchase of an expensive piece of equipment, or starting a series of local FLL teams. Use the fact that these kinds of restrictions exist to drive brainstorming over cool new projects your team could take on!
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You will almost always need to be tax-exempt to be eligible for donations. If you are a school-affiliated team, you probably qualify for most of these, but the process of proving your eligibility can be tricky. Operating as a 501c3 directly, or setting one up as a booster organization, makes this process a lot
more straightforwards. -
Related, most companies want to see pretty detailed financial records. You’re a young team and may not have been in existance long enough to provide all the data they want to see. That’s okay, take note of what they want to see, and make a point to keep those kinds of records as you grow.
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That’s a more general point. These applications can seem intimidating, but use them as learning opportunities, even if that means choosing to hold off on actually applying for a year or more. Don’t just blindly apply if the application gives you a sense you’re unlikely to be seriously considered, use it as an opportunity for growth instead, then come back. Don’t have the formal governing structure they want to see? Start one! Can’t answer hyper-quantitative questions about your actual measured community impact? Come up with ways to start tracking this! Doesn’t seem like you’re having impact on the types of students the company wants to support? Start doing more outreach to address this! The kinds of things which look good to companies with formal giving programs are nearly universally good for either team sustainability or help improve your team’s impact and Chairman’s case
Lots of good info above. I have a couple more points. Actually bringing one of your competition machines to show off is very helpful. Engineers in particular have a hard time staying away. When I do a presentation to a local company (usually its the kids but I get a few) I point out that we are there not only to help train their star employees but to provide opportunities for the high school aged children of their present ones. As I mentioned upthread, the Holy Grail in these situations is not just money but also lining up future team members with mentor level parents! You can almost always make do with less money. But less talent? Nope.
TW