An important aspect of the FIRST robotics experience is the development of fundraising and business skills for team members. Students should be involved as much as possible in these efforts because:
- Business skills complement the engineering experience
- Students will appreciate the fruits of their labor more if they have a hand in the income generation
- Donors will want to invest in promising students rather than give money to tangentially involved adults and bureaucracy
Tips on how to manage fundraising can be found through the FIRST website: https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/fundraising-toolkit. This toolkit shows how to:
- Make a business plan, create a budget, and set fundraising goals
- Develop a resource map to manage relationships
- Quantify “the ask” and make a pitch
- Evaluate the success of the fundraising campaign
- Maintain donor relationships
- Use crowdsourcing and other modern fundraising tools (e.g., DonorsChoose)
- Obtain grants