Well, here we are, three days away from the registration payment deadline. Due to one of our mentors’ over-reliance on large grants and my own ignorance towards the fundraising process, we are at this point with exactly the same $2,500 we started this school year off with, left-over from a grant we received last year. Our school district has been adamant in its refusal to put any money into our team, and none of the grants we had applied for this year were accepted.
With the funding deadline looming so closely, FRC team 4301 stands on the edge of dissolution due to a lack of funding. It saddens me to think that our team may end up existing for only two years before disappearing forever.
I would like to ask the FIRST community what can be done to gain the necessary funding to complete registration before the deadline so that we may continue competing in FIRST. Any help is very gratefully appreciated!
Contact your regional director and/or senior mentor. They might be able to help you with funding. (Sometimes they’ll help your team ask FIRST for an extension)
Do you guys have a tax-credit program, like in AZ? If so, use those to fund you. With tax-credit, we can get $400 per person, and they lose no money. It is payed back to them in the taxes!
Yeah your local senior mentor would be your best bet to get things smoothed out. They probably have ideas of who to talk too.
This depends on how your school is and how many students you have but when i was on 766, we charged a fee on the team. I think it was $200 at first but could be waved if a student has finical hardships. i think 3309 does $100 I don’t remember. I will have to ask another mentor.
Now this may sound weird but its a fairly standard practice in high school sports especially ones with a lot of equipment. I think I was charged a couple hundred to play lacrosse in high school. i think it was like 20 bucks for track. That could get you some money in a hurry.
The next step would be to pretty much gather the team and start calling potential sponsors. Visit potential sponsors. Let them know your situation, bring lots of pictures and videos and show exactly why you need their support. contact everyone, restaurants, car dealerships, local banks, and etc. Find non-profit organizations like a local rotary club. Pretty much you need to do this as much as you can. If you can get ten dedicated people to each contact 10 companies a day for 10 days. Thats 1000 companies. Also talk to the parents, someone may know a potential sponsor. I think half of 3309’s sponsors came from that.
Thanks! I will attempt to contact my regional director and senior mentor tonight. Hopefully we can get something worked out there.
I’m not entirely sure whether or not Texas has a tax credit program. Where would I need to look to find out?
With only 15 people on our team right now for free, I’m not sure that we would be able to put a team fee in place without compromising our student base. I will have to ask my teacher about whether or not we would be able to do so.
Thank you all for these tips! Hopefully 4301 will be able to pull through this and compete this year!
Your local state legislator may also have discretionary money to give in emergency grants - they do in some states*. It may only be a few hundred, but every little bit helps.
according to my brother, a PA state representative.
I did a filter for engineering companies and got two. I’d recommend calling or emailing them, explaining what your team does, the mission of FIRST, and ask if they are willing to be a sponsor. Also emphasize how you help them! Remember, your robot is a rolling advertisement that will get their name exposure to tens of thousands of engineers, scientists, contractors, and business owners. You might be able to get machining time, fabrication help, or new mentors as well!
Don’t stop with those two companies, either! Speak with anyone who will answer the phone! We have been sponsored by a BBQ restaurant, realtors, and other local businesses. Often, it is better to rely on several small sponsors in the community as opposed to a few large sponsors.
First, I would go ahead and start the process of getting an extension. This will take a bit of the pressure off of you and make it easier to see past the deadline.
Secondly, I’d get the students to help approach smaller sponsoring groups. Heck - we had a Taco Bell offer to donate to us because the manager thought what we did was cool. The trick to this, though, is to have the students approach the smaller company directly. Have them go to insurance companies, lawyers, small tech firms. . . you never know when you will meet someone that robotics will just ‘click’ for.
Hope this helps. Also, if you need help developing a sponsor packet, I can send you what we use for ours and even help in the formatting if needed.
I checked this out and also saw there was a section for Oil/Gas and Manufacturing. In Texas (and Louisiana) Oil and Gas companies are always a place to start. Almost half of our sponsors are oil and chemical companies. I know for a fact that many large oil companies have offices in Odessa and Midland.
Alright, I have contacted both my regional director and head mentor about help with funding, but I am unsure about what the best way is to approach a potential sponsor.
If you could send me your sponsor packet, that would be great! I’m sure we can use it to bring in at least a few sponsors.
After you get a packet made. Try calling this number: (432) 571-8600
It’s Halliburton’s office in Odessa. Ask to speak with HR or a Office Manager. They sponsor some other FIRST teams and maybe they can help you guys out!
Well, I finally received a response from the FIRST financial department. We will not be receiving an extension to the deadline. We are still in the process of having a packet made, and are applying from a FIRST in Texas Sustaining grant. What else can we do before tomorrow?
Please keep in mind that if you do happen to not make the deadline, that doesn’t mean your team will cease to exist forever. It would be totally reasonable to participate in a cheaper competition, such as VRC or FTC, for a season while you gather funds for 2015. These cheaper competitions still offer valuable engineering experience and a FRC-like game.
Another option to consider alongside an FTC / VRC team would be building a robot to compete in only off-season competitions. This could be done in the late spring after the regular season for much cheaper than FRC regionals, albeit without the value of the “full experience” of a build deadline, secret game, etc.
If you aren’t in touch with your RD or FSM, definitely do that. Get out the phonebook and start soliciting sponsorship from local businesses. You need five $500 sponsors, or ten $250 sponsors, or 25 $100 sponsors… If you work really hard, you never know what’s possible.
What exactly did they say? You can also essentially take a loan from FIRST in Texas, I know this is possible in MAR in the event of an emergency. The main stipulation is that teams must pay back MAR otherwise it is unfair to other teams.
Other than what Chris said below, a risky way to go is to ask people to make temporary donations to pay registration, with a written agreement to be paid back by a certain date. These internal transactions must be very well documented and should be a last resort.
If you can’t participate in FRC this year, it’s really not the end of the world. plenty of other options as Chris stated.
For the previous two years, 225 has relied on mentor credit/donations to fund ~$2500/year of robot components (i.e. we did not have money, so the mentors floated the debt for six months to a year or outright forgave it). I floated $1000 worth of Championship entry fee for several months until we found a second sponsor to help cover it after-the-fact. If the individuals on the team are passionate enough about it and willing to take the risk, the program WILL continue.
It wasn’t until this year that we ‘cracked the code’ on fundraising, so we won’t have to float expenses again next year. The way that works (for us, anyway) seems to be to a) start in May, b) Sell FIRST with a ‘we want to get people involved’ pitch as opposed to a ‘we need money’ pitch and c) Try to get into as many company meetings/festivals/events/etc as you can (we averaged about 1 every week and a half or so during the off-season this year). If you can inspire individuals in this way, the money WILL come.
At this point we have no payment commitments for your team, and the full $5000 is due. We need a payment commitment by tomorrow 12/6. You can send in a Purchase order from school, check or credit card payment or commitment letter from sponsor. Unfortunately we do not offer extensions.
Thank you,
[sender name withheld]
I will see whether or not we can get a loan from FIRST in Texas. Who will I need to contact in order to make that happen?
plenty of other options as Chris stated.