Which types of companies are best to get sponsorship from?
What is the best information to present them with for a good pitch?
This is what we send after contacting people if they want further information: http://1drv.ms/224Aa0h
Any suggestions for improving?
STEM related companies have been our best bets. Sikorsky, DSM Pharmaceutical, Carpenter Technologies are some of the STEM based companies that have given us money. We have gotten a grant from Best Buy and matching funds from parents companies too.
Think of what the companies want from this money - publicity, knowing their money is put to good use, and creating future employees with the skills they need.
What type of reach do you have? How can you show max coverage for their dollar spent? (Australian dollar here I guess)
In the US, it really helped when we got official non-profit status (501c3 is the IRS code here). I am not sure if you are tied directly into the school and it works the same way there. Companies want to be sure their donation is tax deductible here. Being tied directly with a school gets you that automatically in the US, but as you separate it is a harder proof point.
You seem to be in suburban Melbourne, are there companies locally that fit that STEM related focus? What other companies are near you?
We are directly tied to the school. Which helps with the non-profit issue. From memory the school is non-profit which makes no sense because you have to pay to go there and they need to profit someday…
We are in Eastern Suburban Melbourne and have targeted small business so far. We are working our way through to corporate companies that sponsor things like the army and air force here. They seem to be interested.
So far our biggest selling point is that we are the first Australian team to attend the worlds and the exposure we say we will have there often brings them in.
Companies who support STEM and are passionate about student education seem to be the ones we have targeted.
We were also thinking of contacting companies that are in the US that we can meet up with during the worlds. Or let them in to the worlds so they can watch our robot or something like that.
This is our latest brochure we used for some fundraising and interest. It has some work to be done to get more IQ in there.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_RGySXGqn8zRVdpRXVva2Y2T3M/view?usp=sharing
We then put an insert in describing the season and fees and competitions at school open houses.
Thanks for this. I took the leap and started my own independent club for next year and was looking for something like this to help spread the word in North Texas that we are starting up. This will really help me out.
If you would like contacts in Australia, take a look at Rode, they will probably more likely to help local teams!
I assume you’re talking about Rode, the Manufacturer of audio equipment.
Having worked in a theater environment with the tech side quote extensively I have never really though of audio manufactures.
Also lighting companies like Martin who specialize in moving-head fixtures which is pretty much robotics at it’s roots so that’s an idea also