State Funding ?

Competition Fundraising
1

I remember people talking about funding provided by the states for robotics teams. Does anyone know which states those are?

Thanks,
Ann

2

Isnt your State completely funded by the same foundation?

3

I know that in NYS there are several budgetary mentions in the congresscritters discretionary (read pork-barrel) budget for 2008-2009 that mentioned robotics teams. The best bet would be to ask your local legislator what might be the best way to apply. Sometimes it may be related to an educational grant or promotion that is available only to certain regions, other times it might be related to general funds that the legislator has control over.

4

There also may be states providing targeted funding through the State Department of Education for STEM activities, which may also target FIRST (and Vex). Maryland has had this in the past.

5

I am looking for the examples of state funding to give to our representative. We are trying to get a proclamation or something along those lines. We are a private school, so we probably wouldn’t share in the funding anyway. We just want to have examples to show so they will see the level of importance the other states give it.

Thanks,
Ann

6

Well, kind of. The Kauffman Foundation pumped a lot of money to fund teams for 3 years. I think it was about 40 teams. Enough so that we didn’t have to do much fundraising for the first two years. It jump started the teams in the Kansas City area ( KS and MO) Most of the teams are now in their 4th or 5th year so we are out of that funding now. Most of the big Corporations like Garmin and Cerner fund the regional instead of local teams. I know in some areas of the country, they have companies that open their shops and wallets for a certain team. I don’t think we have any teams with major sponsorships like that from BIG companies. But we have about 30-40 teams in the KC area and we are all hitting the same companies for money.

Ann

7

Sounds similar to many Hawaii teams with our State funded, Act 111 funding.
When the funds run out, I hope they have a sustainability plan brewing.