Grants/Fundraising

• Awards | FIRST (firstinspires.org) 

• MSDE Grant Programs (marylandpublicschools.org) 

• Awards – Maryland Space Business Roundtable – MSBR (mdspace.org) 

• Supporting our Communities and Industries (grace.com) 

Every year, especially if you're applying to the same sponsors as previously, try having some sort of sales pitch. In the 2023-2024 season, it was buying our CNC Machine - an incredibly strong material cutting machine which also, funnily enough, costs a lot of money! Citing both the strong effectiveness of it (and how the team oh so desperately needed it) but also the steep price point so the sponsors have a simple idea as to what their money was going to. A similar principle was applied the following year, when the team obtained 8 Kraken x60 motors, something else notable in first which could be discussed in all of the applications. 

This has to be carefully balanced with showing community support, you don't want your donators to feel like they're simply throwing money at a bunch of teenagers so they can mess around with more expensive toys. The team impact on a community is what separates FIRST Robotics from other organizations, and so this point should be thoroughly hit home in any requests for funding, even if you specify the money goes toward a different place (you know, the robot). Generally, connecting an effective robot performance to strong community support is a thorough line of reasoning for a convincing grant or donation request. 

Our team has decent records dating back to 2018 or so. This is a great well of information for you to use in order to find more sponsors and/or mentors. It is relatively easy to sort through if you go through the operations files under each year. There will typically be a spreadsheet or something similar with names and emails listed out for different connections under different grants.

I recommend drafting a basic email, changing up a few key words to match each individual. You don't need to rewrite it every time if one version works for the most part, you'll thank yourself later.

I have learned the wonders of bcc (blind carbon copy), which allows you to send the same email to everyone you've listed without informing every recipient that you've put them all on the same email chain. This works wonderfully for sending out sponsor requests as well.

• ​Fundraising and Sponsor Relations Training