Can yal tell me some good ideas for our team to get money. we know try to hit some local companies with sponsorships. but we need more ideas. help if you can
Are you part of a school or an independent team? And how many team members do you have?
school. we have about 10-12 members not including teacher
The best way to get money is to be conservative with your money. Sponsorships are good, but aren’t always easy to find. So maybe the family of each member of the team can shell in some money.
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thx anything helps:+1: at schools most of the money goes to football so they expect us to do everything money wise by ourselves
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In that case try a fundraiser. It may not have a great turnout, but you should still be able to generate some money, especially if you either sell things that are in demand or go through a pretty “famous” restaurant. If you are in middle or high school, one idea I would definitely pursue, because I know people who have made large amounts of money doing it, is to bring like a duffel bag of chips and candy that you bought wholesale. Sell for a dollar or more and BAM!, you have profit. Now your school may not allow it but you would have two options here: 1. Explain to those banning you that you are fundraising for robotics and not for personal gain or 2. Do it secretly lol.
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I wish schools In America in general would focus more on STEM related activities. Not saying sports is bad, but I think schools focus on it up to the point of neglecting other more thinking oriented activities.
And I agree with carcar, the best way to get money is to save money. 10, 20 dollars here and there will really add up in the long run.
Try your best to prolong the life of your parts as well. That way you need to buy less often.
And finally, try to buy parts that aren’t from vex. Vex parts tend to be a bit expensive, so using outside suppliers is a good way to save. Just be aware that some things like structural pieces and electronics have to be bought from vex.
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Set up a phishing scam /s
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heres my problem with all the money going to sports. only 2% of those athletes will go pro. yet with the stem programs people can make careers out of it. so the school is investing in stuff that not many people will mostly not follow as a career in life.
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@Railgunawesome actually reminded me of something. My teacher actually gets grants from different biotech and engineering companies because of the fact he is a teacher at our school for both biology and engineering. You could try asking your teacher to look for any grants designed for teachers that he could spend towards your team.
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That’s true but you gotta remember, especially with high school, team sports have been around for ages. Robotics is fairly new. Unless your principal is understanding, you have to remember that something so new isn’t going to get much funding for awhile.
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Indeed, stem related things are a lot more helpful than something like sports(although you should stay fit).
I mainly think it’s the social stigma against stem, where we’re nerds bc we like to stay inside and build bots.
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that is true but the school system should know half the kids r just doing sports because they got nothing else to do. yet the probability of kids in robotics actually doing robotics as career is like 10 times more likely to happen than at least one of their students going pro
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We do week-long smoothie king fundraisers before school and get ~$400 each week. Also we got a lot of money from local sponsors over the summer.
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the problem with where we live is there really no local businesses. it all company owned. because we live in small town and closest big town is like 3 hours away after that is 4 and half hours away which is why we having problems
I say your best bet imo is to just have members of your team sell candy and chips on campus.
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You don’t necessarily have to be a certain distance away from them to ask. There’s always money out there you just have to know where to find it. Many businesses are always willing to help, big or small because they understand the “STEM problem “ is real. I recommend sending out as many letters you can regardless of the distance and see what comes your way.
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You can also simply go canning. My frisbee team is technically not associated with the school so we get nothing from them but we made about 3k just sitting in town asked for change.
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Have team members go into local businesses - banks, insurance companies, retail stores, lawyers offices, etc. Tell people about your team and ask for a donation. Bring a robot if you can. Create a simple flyer - RECF and VEX have images you can use on their sites - and be sure to include contact info and
an address where they can mail a check. Let people know what you need the money for. Keep track of who donates and send a follow up thank you note.
Also many small towns have a Rotary Club or Kiwanis or Optimist Club. They will often support youth programs.
Be sure to ask anyone you talk to if they have any advice for you about who else to reach out to.
Direct sales of candy bars or other items outside a Walmart can be lucrative as well.
Good luck!
Ann
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thanks for all the advice guys. we r going to try all these ideas. if u have anymore feel free to post them
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