This is a huge topic, but I thought I would start a discussion. There are no simple answers. Often the best grants for local teams are from local organizations. Those teams with a business plan (and a plan for sustainability) and who keep track of their alumni are positioned better to respond quickly.
The local FIRST regional staff (Regional Director/Assistant Regional Director/Senior Mentor/VISTA-depending on the region) sometimes can steer a team towards a grant opportunity.
As part of the “Race to the Top” funding there has been tremendous focus on the STEM fields in education. (There is also a mad dash going on in health care, but that is a different topic!) Most of the states are scrambling.
Most organizations (especially universities and state dept. of education and non-profits) will be aware of the RFPs (Request for Proposals) and how to find them.
This one focuses on mentoring in STEM, specifically for underrepresented groups. I am posting this as an example of one which also allows submissions from individuals (but need to be connected to an organization eligible to be a NSF awardee).
PAESMEM also has awards for excellence in teaching.
Good resources in locating grant opportunities are local educational organizations, such as, school superintendent & staff, PTA, School Board, school principle & staff, any educational foundations.
Large corporate sponsors have or have access to community outreach program grant opportunities as well. Some require employee involvement, but many have blanket grants. You just need to find the corporate representatives to talk to. Try starting with the Human Resources department to get some guidance.
My biggest suggestion is that you have someone on a team dedicated on funding.
I’ve spent the better half of the last several years more focused on this rather than putting all my efforts on the build team. Still heavily involved but not like I used to be.
What good is a build team if you dont have a long term sustaining effort to make the opportunities happen year in and year out.
We literally plan on “funding for the future” and not the current build season.
Finding grants is not the problem…its setting up your organization (non-profit, 501c3, school tax-exempt program, club) to be able to apply for grants to begin with. However, lots of tax laws to follow and get a good accountant and a bank you can trust/work with easily.
I always say, if you’re not always thinking about how your team is being funded 24/7, you’re not spending enough time on it.
It’s not the greatest piece of advice I’ve ever given, but whenever one of my students asks for a grant, I tell them to name a corporation. Unless they name something really small/odd, I usually reply, “Okay, you just named a grant, find it”.
I have to agree with Glenn, finding grants to apply for isn’t that hard, but having an organization in place which can apply for the grants is more important. One of our long time corporate sponsors is BMS. It was becoming harder and harder to secure this annual grant because we did not have a non-profit corporation in place.
I spent quite a lot of time researching and organizing our team’s non-profit corporation. This is a bit of work, but it should help with sustainability efforts. Donations to the team are now tax deductible, and the organizational needs of the corporation now cause the team to focus more on the future than just this season.
I have an outline for forming a non-profit corporation for a Robotics Team on the FIRST Think Tank website. Even if your team is a school administered program, forming a non-profit corporation for a Booster Club is a wise move. Many school sports and band programs receive funding through Booster Clubs, so why not robots?
And along the lines of asking teams for grants, 1511 raises over $10,000 every year just by asking local businesses to contribute to the Patron Drive.
And a quick google search hit this site with a lot of good potentials.
Short answer is there are a TON of places out there willing to donate money, but you need to take the time to apply or at the very least ask for it. And it does help to have a dedicated group working on that.
