NSBR: Best fundraisers?

Our BEST (league) robotics team won at Regionals in October. We have nationals the first week in December. We've got the money to pay for this.

Wish us luck...in order to compete in the high school (FIRST League) robotics in January...our little home school team has to raise $6,000 in less than a month!! yes...it is that expensive to buy the "robot kit"...plus you need about $4,000 more in parts and such!!

These kids work really hard on this team... they are learning robotics, physics, advanced math of all kinds, computer programming, mechanical work, problem solving....and that is just on the robot! They are also learning researching, technical writing, oral presentations, Powerpoint, CAD, Photoshop, spirit, sportsmanship, woodworking, building...and tons more! I'd hate to see $$ be the only thing standing in their way of competing...but unfortunately none of the homeschooling families on our team are rich enough to sponsor a $6,000 bill!

I could really use your suggestions on fund raising. We are trying to improve our robot and our BEST (oral presentation, tech notebook, booth display, etc.) presentation ... and are spending 4 days a week at this...so we don't have a lot of time to get fund raising done for the high school competition.

Please share your fund raising suggestions...or if you know of a business that might be willing to sponsor a Robotics team...we'd love to send a letter in hopes of getting a sponsor.

Thanks for any suggestions! :thumbup:

Anyone not familiar with Robotics...might find these links interesting!

BEST Robotics:
http://www.uafortsmith.edu/FTBEST

US FIRST Robotics:
http://www.usfirst.org/what/fll/default.aspx?id=390

Here is my gallery that shows most of my Robotics layouts...to give you even more ideas of how much it involves:

https://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/inspiration/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=3798

i would just start calling businesses in your community, anyone, everyone. what about those subway fundraisers? i think those do well.

lizzyfizzy said:

i would just start calling businesses in your community, anyone, everyone. what about those subway fundraisers? i think those do well.

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I'm not familiar with subway fundraisers...that is one I hadn't heard of before. This is what I am hoping for...suggestions on ones we haven't heard of!

We've sent out about 40-50 letters so far...and we've gotten promises of almost $2,000 I THINK. So we're a 1/3 the way there...to the kit cost.

I know the dance school where my neighbor's go for dance use Yankee Candles to sponsor their yearly trip to Disney World. Must be a good one if they keep doing it?

I think Target does donations to things like this. I remember it being on the newsboard in my local target about how you can request a donation. Not sure what the requirements are.

If you are friends with a designer maybe you could do a kit fundraiser. Also car washes work out great although might not work out well in your area if it is already cold there. Getting a corporate sponser might work out for you. Going to local messageboards/craigslist to request some funding with an explanation. A month just seems like such a short time. My daughter did robtics in 6th grade and she loved it!!

We do frozen cookie dough in tubs. It's a great fundraiser for our skating club, as in thousands of $$. Not sure if you have anything like that there though.

We do a Yankee Candle fundraiser for the sorority I'm in to raise money for scholarships and we do great at it. :thumbup: I think you make 40% of what you sell minus shipping and we make about $2000 each time. And we could make a lot more if we had more people that actually participated in it. It's great because they really do all the work - they come back to you packaged according to the person that sold them so there's no huge boxes and sorting. And they pretty much sell themselves. I think if you go to the yankee candle website there is a fundraising link on there. :thumbup:

Thanks ladies! I will take all these suggestions (and any more that come in) to our meetings and let everyone know about them!

Can you put an ad in the local paper? I know it'll probably cost $$ but you might tug a few heartstrings in the process