This is my third year as a volunteer mentor for a local FRC team since the team's founding. Also, it is our third year headed to St. Louis (FIRST Championships). Our team is run out of an elite private school. We participate in multiple regionals and money has never been a problem. I'm sure the easy access to money is a contributing factor for our continued success.
I'm aware of another local team which is setup as a 501c3 and physically runs out of a public school. This particular team is heavily supported by a local mechanical engineering firm with both money and a team of mechanical engineering mentors.
Our team is from a public school. We have a manufacturer that sponsor's us with space and tools but not money. We have a variety of sponsors that provide funds and we raise our own money as well. All funds go into a 501c3 that is a "boosters club".
Our public school is somewhat affluent but not like a private school might be. We took first place in two district events this year and entered the quarterfinals in the district championship but only won one match. Our robot was good one other year since 2010.
Our teams primary focus is outreach, helping disadvantaged / underserved students with STEM. We just had a big success with writing a state senate bill to help fund STEM competition teams at schools that have 40% of the students that qualify for the free lunch. The bill went into law this weekend. We had three students actually write the bill and a state senator promoted the bill under his name. The senator lives about 100 miles form our team. So really a state effort.
We won Chairman's at the District Championship for our outreach. That gets us to Worlds in St. Louis. Without the Chairman's win and without the robot I love that we do outreach. My daughter is going to do a gap year this year before college and do a Americorps VISTA job for FIRST robotics helping the underserved start and fund teams. This is the best part of what FIRST creates for young adults.
I was reading my reply and this does not sound right:
>We have a manufacturer that sponsor's us with space and tools but not money.
We love our primary sponsor. Without space and tools we could not do our work. While we need to raise funds also the space is big and the tools amazing (CNC, welding, grinding, bandsaw, lathe and a lot more).
I'm aware of another local team which is setup as a 501c3 and physically runs out of a public school. This particular team is heavily supported by a local mechanical engineering firm with both money and a team of mechanical engineering mentors.