Fwd: FIRST fundraising

[Brad Knox]

Hi, everyone. An extended family member of mine is trying to raise the entry fee for FIRST. They're in Charlottesville, VA. 

I don't have any first-hand experience with this challenge, but I know some on this list have been involved in FIRST before. If so, do you have any advice I can pass along?

Thanks!

Regards,

Brad

---------- Forwarded message ----------

My cousin on my dad's side is entering a robotics competition with his high school and they have to raise a whopping $8k. My cousin wrote me and asked if I had any ideas on how to raise this money. My one robotics connection is YOU! 

They are competing in the First Tech Challenge (not sure if that is something you have heard of - I don't know if it's national). So far they've been getting business sponsorships.

Do you know if there are any funds out there for high school robotics? Or any other ideas you might have for raising money for this type of thing? It

s a 501-C3, so tax deductible.

[Andy Howell]

Brad,

I'm very involved with First. Not so much on the competitions and fund
raising, but helping the students in the shop.

I know that we do get some grants from the 'Texas Workforce commission'
and 'First in Texas', there may be something similar organizations in VA.

Part of First is the idea of 'coopertition'. Teams are expected to help
out their competitors. I heard one story of a team who's robot got
demolished in shipment to a meet. The other teams chipped in parts and
labour to get them up and running in time for them to compete!

I suggest they look for established teams in the area. I'd be surprised
if they didn't find help forthcoming.

Also note that CAD/CAM vendors such as Autodesk and Dassault Systems
(Solidworks) will supply free licenses for academic use. For First Tech
Challenge, these are nice-to-have. The FTC robots can be built from the
supplied kits.

The Junior/Senior level, First Robotics Challenge (FRC), the software is
extremely helpful. The students only have 6 weeks from the time they
learn of the year's challenge, to the time they have to stop working on
their robot. Our team designs the robot in Solidworks before any metal
is cut. The FRC robots are built mostly from student designed custom
parts, excluding things like motors, gear boxes, pneumatics etc.

There is sponsorship from hardware vendors as well.

You can check out our facebook pages here:

https://www.facebook.com/frc2468

https://www.facebook.com/Westlake-FTC-Robotics-413643248803158/timeline/

This is international as well. Some of our FRC team members and mentors
went to China this summer, competing and helping out teams there. We
continue to work with them over Skype.

Andy

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[Kelly Burghart]

Hi Brad,

I was heavily involved in FIRST Robitics Competition in high school, we started a team back in 2009. Our registration fee was $6000 for one regional competition and the kit of parts, plus travel expenses for 20 people, plus tools and spare parts. We have managed to raise enough money each year that there is no cost for students to participate, even for going to a competition 4 hours away for 3 days.

Most of our fundraising comes from sponsors every year. Many of them have been with us from the beginning. For example, a local bank has paid our registration fee ($6000) every year.

http://team3044.com/index.php/learn-about-us/sponsors

The best advice I have to any team is to reach out to every local business and local tech company they can think of, especially if they have a connection to the team through family members. Provide advertising on the team website and the robot in return, and be prepared to take the robot out to any school or community events where students are involved. Town parades, school activities fairs, technology expos - they're all great ways to get word out about the team. The more well known they are in the community the easier it will be to find sponsors and raise money!

Good luck!
Kelly

[Andy Howell]

Brad,

I talked with a mentor involved in fund raising for various groups. She
said they raised 44k selling fruitcakes of all things. Apparently these
were fruit cakes are from Dallas bakery that people actually like!

They make about $1,600 selling parking spots for high school football
games. They got permission from local businesses to use their lots after
business hours. One group did this and it failed because people were
showing up early (4:30), tailgating, and leaving a mess. The next group
fixed that by not allowing anyone to show up before 5:30, and reserving
a few places for the business employees in case someone needs to come
back to work.

Another way is selling 'go-local' discount cards, working with local
businesses to offer discounts to card holders. The cards go for $10 or
$15. They are good for 6 months or a year, I can't remember.

Andy


On 09/29/2015 05:55 PM, Brad Knox wrote: