Participating in the FIRST Robotics Competition has significant costs. Our team raises money to help fund low-income students, building a new robot each year, pay for competition entry fees, purchase team uniforms, replace tools, and pay for travel costs. Annual costs for our team are typically $15-$20K. Approximately 2/3 of the costs are funded through team fees charged to each student. The remainder of our funds are provided by generous sponsors and through other fundraising activities. Our current sponsors are listed below. If you would like to become a sponsor for our team, please contact us at genevarobovikes3067@gmail.com.
Geneva High School in Geneva, IL is our primary sponsor and where our team is based and works. The schools provides us with our workspace, trailer, and transportation to competitions.
Geneva Academic Foundation provided the team a $5600 grant to purchase all new power and hand tools to replace our aging tools.
Baxter International Foundation has generously provided the team with a $3000 financial grant which we used to help pay this year's competition fees.
Molex has generously provided the team with a $2000 financial grant which we will use to help pay this year's competition fees.
The Humkey Group has generously provided the team with a $2000 financial donation which we will use to help pay for materials needed to build the robot.
Honeywell has generously provided the team with a $1000 financial grant which we will use to help pay this year's competition fees.
Richard Electronics has generously provided the team with a $500 financial grant which we will use to help pay this year's competition fees.
Lenovo has provided us with a few new laptops, screens, and other computer accessories.
Each of our team members contribute a yearly $250 team fee. These fees help to pay for our 1st competition and a team uniform.
Each year our team has our primary fundraiser selling popcorn. Double Good is a 4 day fundraiser that allows our team keep 50% of all sales. Each year we raised from $1500-$3000, but hope to improve that number each year.
Our team had the opportunity to run the concession stand at this year's the Illinois State Championship for FIRST Lego League where we raised about $1200. It was also a great opportunity to do some outreach to show the younger robotics teams other teams they can advance to in the future.
For the past several years our team as sponsored a robotics summer camp for incoming 7-9th graders. In this weeklong camp team members teach younger students the basic skills used on a robotics team which includes teamwork, strategy, CAD, coding, building, and testing.