This year, my team needs to raise about $1100. How hard is it to get a sponsor? Do you just write letters to companies asking for sponsorship, or do you instead do it personaly? Also, what companies would be more likely to sponsor vex teams?
Here are some things that have worked with us in the past/present.
We first go to people we know like, family, friends etc. We talk to them on what we do and our accomplishments. We then leave them with a Sponsorship Packet that includes a Summary of what he did the past season, and also a Sponsorship Form.
Next we go look for Local Businesses that are interested in sponsoring us. To do that, you usually have to go personally to them and talk about robotics and other stuff. We also leave them with a Business Letter, Sponsorship Form, and a Summary of our past season.
I have attached the Sponsor Forms, Business Letter, and Summary that we use.
I hope this helps you! Send me an email if you have questions!
As Bot-E-Builders said, local companies and such are a really good source. But in addition to those, companies like AT&T and Johnson&Johnson are known for sponsoring robotics teams. When dealing with big companies, do everything you can to contact them without becoming a nuisance. Call them, send an email, write a letter, and if you live near a regional office, go there and talk to them.
One thing that I found works pretty well if you have some time on your hands and aren’t too afraid of rejection is to just make cold calls. Last year I used Google to just search for local businesses in my area by using key terms like “Machine Shop” or “Engineering” and I called pretty much all of them. 95% of them said “no way kid” and the ones that did help me out typically donated $100, a few chipped in $250. It took a long time but in the end I made a decent amount of money that way (probably about $1500). I find that there are fewer and fewer businesses out there who are willing/able to individually fund a team anymore, money is money though.
Bot-E Builders: Great post, there was a lot of information there 
~DK
I will be making a page on our website on how we get sponsorships and such. Hope the information I have given you and these other people helps in the future!
Thank you for all your replies! Unfortunately, I could not open Bot-E-Builders’s files, because when I opened it, it encoded it , and so It was in some type of comoputer code. I tried saving it, opening it, and I even tried it in diffrent browsers. Why is it not working?
I am sorry for your problems. We also have them located on our website here: http://cornerstonerobotics.net/SponorshipForms.aspx
Hope this works!
Thanks!
Thank you, it was very helpful!
Your welcome!
God Bless