Fundraising Tips

Hi, my name is Rebecca and I am a member of FTC team 5996 “Hyper Nike.”  My main roles on the team are marketing and CAD. This will be my second year with “Hyper Nike” and the team’s fourth year with FTC.  Each year our struggle has been finances, we get almost no support from our school.  Even though our team has little expenditure we have been able to make it to the state level competitions for the past two years.  Even though our team has been struggling to buy the most expensive parts (3D printers, new motor controllers etc.) we’ve learned to succeed the most focus on one aspect of the challenge.  For example, in last year’s FTC challenge “Cascade Effect” the only thing our robot was designed to do was to push the clear cylinders up the ramp.  Our robot was able to do this consistently which allowed us to make it to the state level competition.  Many other teams wanted to be able to do each thing (score in cylinders, score in center goal) however, any fell short of that goal.  All in all, if you want to be the ost successful this season building something that is simple and consistent will help you achieve the most in the long run.

Having limited funds forces us to be resourceful with the materials we have.  Once you add up the cost of the field, building materials and competition entrance fees the price is easily 
in the thousands.  The only way to compensate this is to fundraise, a few weeks ago we stood outside our local grocery store and told people about our team’s mission and asked for donations.  In about six hours we raised $500.  We broke up the six hours into three shifts with two to three members of “Hyper Nike” at a time for two hours each.  I consider this one of the most successful and simple ways to earn money for your team.  Another ongoing fundraiser we have is hot chocolate sales, every Friday a few members from the team sell it for a dollar a piece.  This past Friday was the first time we’ve done it and kids have already been asking us when they can get more.  The most effective ways of raising funds are simple but successful, hundreds of dollars can be raised in only a few hours. Thank you for taking the time to read this.  If you have any more questions feel free to email me at [email protected].

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