Funding
We are a student group, and do not sell anything or gain revenue. The school doesn't cover the entire cost of functioning and working as an FRC team, and the enrollment fee only scratches the surface of the total cost of building the robot, transportation, competition fees, etc. Sponsorship money and donations are a great help to covering this cost. We have different levels of sponsorship available, with varying amounts of payment.
Sponsorship Incentives
With a large enough donation, your logo will be placed on our robot and website to show your support of FRC and STEM, and to advance STEM in our community. Depending on our success in competition, your logo will get local or even national exposure as a sponsor of our team.
Your company will receive exposure through:
Your company will receive exposure through:
- Two regional competitions and potentially a worldwide competition
- Audience at competitions
- Social Media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube)
- Monthly newsletters
Finding Sponsors
Team 2637 believes that it is important to use existing connections, as 73% of the sponsors on our team have been obtained by reaching out to companies that are somehow affiliated with a team member. Though having an initial connection makes companies more receptive to our team’s requests for sponsorships, our team also makes sure to follow up with our contacts and ask about less used ways to earn monetary sponsorships, like grants. Our team also understands that it is more effective to have certain companies sponsor us with physical materials instead; the monetary worth of the materials supplied are counted towards their total amount of sponsorship. To ensure that our subsequent relationship with those companies is reliable, we keep in contact with each company that sponsors us. Every year, we renew relationships and ask for students to ask their parents and relatives if any person works for a company who is willing to sponsor our team or is willing to corporate match our students participation donations.
Our Mentors
We students can't do all this just by ourselves. We need adult mentors to guide us to operate as a team, provide transportation to and from events, organize food and lodging when we travel, amongst other things. We are always looking for people willing to mentor our team. Mentors typically work with one specific subteam, and accompany the team to competitions. Sometimes, the mentors are parents of current or past team members, and as their students graduate, the mentor parents tend to 'graduate' from the team as well, so we need a continuous stream of new mentors.
Volunteers work under mentors, and help out when adult supervision is required on a task. Like mentors, they are usually parents of students on the team. It is a good starting point to determine if you are interested in being part of the team, and many volunteers end up becoming mentors of the team as their children go through high school. Although the mentors and volunteers are more experienced, they are only there to help. It is important that the mentors and volunteers let the students do their work and learn.
Volunteers work under mentors, and help out when adult supervision is required on a task. Like mentors, they are usually parents of students on the team. It is a good starting point to determine if you are interested in being part of the team, and many volunteers end up becoming mentors of the team as their children go through high school. Although the mentors and volunteers are more experienced, they are only there to help. It is important that the mentors and volunteers let the students do their work and learn.
