I have some new folks wanting to sponsor teams in our city, but they don’t know how to deposit funds into team accounts. Does anyone know a step-by-step for those folks to get their funding into the proper channels at FIRST HQ? Thanks!
Mr. N
If they are doing other types of donations like donor advised funds DAF here is the guidance I’ve received.
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Joel, very cool.
I would bet that a call to Mark Giordono, VP of Development, would get the ball rolling in the right direction. See the sections “How can I make a donation on behalf of a specific FIRST team?” and “I have another question about supporting FIRST, who can I contact?” on this page: Donate to FIRST | FIRST
However, would the sponsor consider other funding mechanisms? Some thoughts:
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Donating directly to the teams, if possible, would maximize spending flexibility. If one believes that teams are the best judges of their own needs, then this would be the route that maximizes team health and sustainability.
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Argosy Foundation (the grantmaker founded by former FIRST chairman John Abele and his family) is now starting to disburse grants through Hack Club Bank, of which they’re also a major donor.
Example:
FIRST Chesapeake Travel Incentive Grant
- Through several policy shifts in recent seasons, FIRST has effectively communicated that their finance department is already overloaded with work, and is less able to handle the fast, easy, and equitable processing of donations to teams participating in their programs.
- Event registration payments, once made via the checkout process, cannot be regranted, even if new unrestricted funds come in later - 2022-2023 season
- Regrants restricted to FRC teams only - 2022-2023 season
- Regrants restricted to US-based programs only - 2021-2022 season
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