Rookie FIRSTs

Building a robot and creating an amazing team is the overall goal! You need money and support for your team to succeed. How do you raise the thousands of dollars to cover the cost of being part of FIRST?
 

Watch FIRST Team #3504’s presentation above, which explains the some ways for rookie teams to raise the funds necessary to compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition. 

There are three main ways to raise the funds:

Grants
Sponsorship
Fundraisers

Grants

Looking for grants:

• Check with your Regional FIRST Robotics Competition Director. Organizations such as NASA and JCPenney give special grants to new FIRST teams. Often the Regional FRC Director will receive funding and will be able to give that funding to teams from their area who apply. 
   
• Do an internet search. Look online for grants in your area or nationwide. When looking for grants, be sure to see whether you meet their giving criteria. 

Tips:

• Read carefully. Be sure you fully understand what the grant is asking for before you start compiling information.
   
• Look at the requirements for the grants well ahead of the deadlines. Some grants require business plans or long proposals, so make sure you have the time and resources to complete the application.
   
• Meet deadlines! All grants have deadlines for submission. Make sure you allow yourself enough time to submit the application before the deadline.
   
• Follow all instructions. Whether the application requires a 3-page proposal or 250-word summary, make sure you follow the instructions. In some cases, if you do not follow them, your grant will be denied.
   
• Be reasonable. Don’t apply for a $50,000 grant for robot parts that cost much less. Make sure it is clear to you (and the funders) where you will use the money. They will not fund your initiative if your team doesn’t know what it’s for or if what you’re asking for doesn’t seem reasonable.

You can find grants on the USFIRST.org website. It’s updated periodically for big grants, but look on your regional website for information tailored to your area.
 

Do you have questions about grants that we didn’t answer here? Ask us!

Sponsorship

Sponsorship is often the best way to get the funds to support your robotics team. Companies from your local area actually set aside money to give to charities and to the community. FIRST is a program that is proven to develop quality students, and companies may sponsor teams to help develop and attract future employees.

Approaching companies can be one of the most confusing processes on the business side of newer FIRST teams because there is not only way to do it. Create your own system using some very simple rules.
 

1. Always use a personal contact. It is much harder to get in contact with the right person by cold calling, emailing, or mailing the general company number. Ask your team’s mentors and parents for possible contacts.
    
2. Write a letter of general inquiry. This letter informs potential sponsors about the benefits that your team provides to the local community as well as the benefits that the company would see if they support you. Basically, this letter encourages companies to fund your team by showing them the “return” they’ll have by investing in your team.
    
3. Keep your materials consistent. To be successful in your fundraising adventures, make sure you have a consistent message. What is your team’s purpose? Why do you need this money? Having a template letter that can be customized to the specific company makes the process easier and ensures that all materials companies get are well-made and consistent. 
    
4. Emphasize what sponsors will receive if donating to your team. For example, mention the fact that all your sponsors will be announced at competitions or that you’ll thank them by putting their logo in your pit and on your robot.
    
5. Make sure to continually tell them what impact they are having on your team. Keep them updated! Sponsors want to know how their money is being used and what the team is up to.
    
6. Look for in-kind donations as well as monetary donations. Often, these can be just as useful for your team. For example, ask a plastic manufacturer for plastic products or ask a clothing store for uniforms! FIRST Team #3504 asked American Eagle to sponsor our uniforms and they generously did so. Being as we have 60 girls on our team, this donation saves us thousands of dollars.

Have questions about sponsors that we didn’t answer here? Ask us! 

Fundraisers

Fundraiser are a great way to raise money for your team. But for fundraisers, the more money you aim to raise, the more intense they can get. However, your team can get creative with fun and effective fundraisers that involve your team’s school(s) and local community.

A great example of a creative fundraiser is one run by SWAT, FIRST Team #771 from St. Mildred’s-Lightbourn School, called Drive One 4 UR School.

Drive One 4 UR School is a fundraising opportunity already run by Ford to raise money for school activities. FIRST Team #771 contacted their local Ford dealer directly, but you can also go through Ford Corporate instead to be matched with a dealer. 

Once FIRST Team #771 settled on a date, they began advertising to their school, families, and local community. They chose this fundraiser because it is unique – it has zero setup cost and no cost for the people participating in the fundraiser.

For each household that sends a driver to test drive a new Ford vehicle, Ford donates $20 to your team up to a maximum of $6000.  It is difficult to reach the maximum in a day, so be satisfied if you team raises more than $1000 – which FIRST Team #771 has done both times they ran this fundraiser. For more information, check out Ford’s site.

To publicize the event, use your school newspaper and signage. If you come from multiple schools, all the better! FIRST Team #771 put a notice in their community newspaper, handed out flyers to neighbors in the area, and sent flyers home with their team members to invite family and friends.

On the day of the event, FIRST Team #771 also ran a car wash that was great fun for the team. They asked for donations and raised another $500. In addition, FIRST Team #771 sold refreshments at a bake sale that netted another $350. They also hosted fun, free activities such as “Drive the Robot”, increasing the number of people they catered to. 

All in all, this one day fundraiser brought in about $2000 for FIRST Team #771. This fundraiser is available through Ford anywhere in the country, so consider this fundraising idea for your own team.

Skunkwork Robotics, FIRST Team #1983, hosts an Annual Spaghetti Dinner and Dessert Auction as their primary fundraiser – and they’ve raised over $10,000 in a single day from this one event.

Hold a spaghetti dinner and dessert auction. Invite the whole school, other robotics teams, extended families and friends. Ask local restaurants to cater the dinner with parent help or have your parents prepare it. Ask parents, teachers, students to donate desserts. Ask local businesses to donate desserts.

Sell dinner tickets, serve dinner buffet-style for a little above cost, collect donations, and auction the desserts. Encourage kids to pool pocket change and buy a cake or plate of cookies for 25, 30, 50, or $100. Only sell about 30 to 40 desserts as it takes 2 to 4 minutes to auction each and you are limited to about two hours for the auction. Consider adding a silent auction similar to a PSA before the dessert auction. 

Again, get donations from the community and set them up on tables. Bidders write their bidder numbers down on bid sheets with pre-defined bid prices. When the table closes at a predetermined time, the bidder with the highest bid wins the items. Items can include toys, tools, services, trips, just about anything.

This fundraiser can be a great money-maker for new and old FRC teams alike, and it’s a one-time deal. This past year, FIRST Team #1983 gathered the participation and support of over 200 diners with this one event. These key documents will get you on your way to setting up this event for your own team:

• Auctioneer Meeting. Key meeting for an auction, need to coordinate bid spotters, receipt runners, and dessert handlers.
  
  
• Example Dessert List. Participants buy for their whole table. The number of desserts is limited so there is some urgency. They are at a fund raiser for their own family. Tables often pool their money and pay up to $200 for one dessert, often more. It can be very fun. Several of the desserts are from local businesses. They are surprisingly supportive and give us elaborate desserts.
  
  
• Dinner Flyer. This flyer was posted around school and sent to local businesses, newspapers, supporting businesses, and other FRC teams.
  
  
• Parent Planning. Outlines subteams and event timeline.

Consider this fundraising event when looking to quickly raise money for your team!

Last year, the FIRST organization released a FIRST-wide fundraising opportunity for both experienced and new teams. Their idea? Sell green lightbulbs – lightbulbs that would outlast the normal ones and could also raise money for the FIRST teams that sold the product. Not only that, butFIRST was also able to get sponsors on board to partially subsidize the original cost of the fundraiser.
 

This fundraiser not only helps your team raise the funds to build and compete with a robot, but also helps save the world! Click here for more specific information on how your team can participate in this fundraiser.

Keep a lookout for tips that contain more ideas for how to fundraise! If you have any questions about fundraising, ask here.

 

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