Has anyone had any luck with Go Fund Me to find sponsorship?
My team is getting a slow start, but is hoping to compete this season. Is there any advice you could give?
Check local businesses. I’m sure if you are willing the companies name on your robot, they will be willing to sponsor you. In this situation, they are not only supporting a local team, they are also getting a type of advertisement in the world of robotics. Think of it like NASCAR. 
Let the companies know what YOU CAN DO FOR THEM in return for a donation or sponsorship.
We used GoFundMe to raise money to defray costs of sending 11 students to Worlds. Part of it was to keep everyone aware of where we were in our campaign. We encouraged people to send us checks directly so we would avoid credit card charges. From that campaign around $1,000 was processed through the site, and $7,000 sent directly to us.
Pros:
- it encourages people to link the fundraising campaign to their social media accounts, Facebook, google+, etc
- it has a good dashboard for tracking all the donations
- easy to use!
Cons:
- if you are funnel the money through your personal accounts, there can be negative tax consequences
- fees… fees… fees…
Check with your school district policies about fundraising this way.
Also take a look at
You Caring
Have not used them, but from the link above, Robotics teams have used them.
My team is not school involved. We are independent.
Last year, to raise money for vex nbn worlds. We started a Go Fund Me page and had 3 members share the link to friends and family on Facebook. Our link was shared around and we were able to scrap up $2,700 without having to get sponsors . Not to shabby if I say so myself
That is a great idea, although the team consist of me and one other person. We are looking for team members as well as sponsors. I personally do not have any social media, therefor it makes it harder to share our page.