FRC sponsorship: first robotics sponsorship packages, robotics team sponsorship levels and grants
An FRC team has a harder sales job than almost any other youth program, and most teams never say the number out loud. Season registration alone is $6,500 before a single part is bought or a single hotel room is booked, and the working budget most teams quote lands between $10,000 and $15,000. That is not a bake sale. It is a small advertising and grant operation that has to be rebuilt every autumn by students who graduate. The teams that fund it reliably do two things: they sell engineering exposure rather than asking for charity, and they run the named grant calendar in parallel instead of treating grants as a backup plan.
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In short
FRC sponsorship is the sale of recognition and access by a FIRST Robotics Competition team to companies, normally in exchange for a logo on the robot itself, placement on team apparel and the pit display, recognition on the team website and social channels, and robot demonstrations at the sponsor site. There is no FIRST-wide sponsorship rate card for individual teams, so every team sets its own levels, and published team tiers vary widely: FRC Team 5275 publishes Bronze at $500, Silver at $1,000, Gold at $1,500, Platinum at $2,000 and Diamond at $2,500, while FRC Team 449 publishes Silver at $1,500 and up for the team name on the robot, Gold at $2,500 for a logo on the robot and website, Diamond at $5,000 adding robot demonstrations, and Flagship at $6,000 for title sponsorship. The number a team has to reach is set by FIRST: season registration for 2026-2027 is $6,500 and covers one Regional or two District events, with each additional Regional at $3,200, a District Championship at $4,000 and the FIRST Championship at $6,000. Season registration payment is due November 17, 2026 and additional event fees are due January 21, 2027, which is why sponsorship work has to happen in the autumn rather than in build season. Named grants close part of that gap: the Gene Haas Foundation awards $3,000 to FRC teams and $2,000 to FTC teams, NASA covers registration and a first Regional for rookie, new veteran and year-two US teams, and Arconic Foundation publishes $1,500 for FRC. On Sponsorships a team lists its levels, its assets and its prices in one place companies can browse and book from, on a flat membership with 0% commission, and the sponsor pays the team or its school directly. Figures on this page come from FIRST and from levels teams publish themselves and are illustrative. Nothing here is legal or tax advice.
Last updated August 2026
$6,500
FRC season registration for 2026-2027, before parts, tools or travel
$10,000 to $15,000
the working season budget FRC teams commonly quote
Nov 17, 2026
when season registration payment is due, so sponsorship work is autumn work
Why direct
FRC sponsorship, without the middleman
Sell engineering exposure, not a donation for the kids
The companies that renew year after year are not sponsoring out of sentiment. They are manufacturers, machine shops, engineering firms, contractors and regional employers with an open requisition for a machinist or a controls engineer they cannot fill, and an FRC team is a room full of high school students who already know CAD, wiring and CNC work. Lead with that. A team that opens with hiring pipeline, plant tours, a robot demonstration in the company lobby and logo placement in front of thousands of families at a Regional gets a marketing or recruiting budget. A team that opens with a request to support the students gets whatever is left in petty cash. The robot itself is the most valuable ad space in youth programs, because it is the only sponsor logo that appears on live streams, in local news coverage and in every photograph of the team all season.
Run the grant calendar and the sponsorship calendar at the same time
Most teams treat grants as a fallback after sponsors say no, which gets the order backwards, because grants have fixed deadlines and sponsors do not. Several named programs are open or closing in the next few months of the 2026-2027 season: BAE Systems closes its FRC grant on September 13, 2026, Boston Scientific on September 30, 2026, Boeing on October 16, 2026 and John Deere on December 18, 2026, and the Gene Haas Foundation has been accepting 2026-2027 applications since May 1, 2026. Miss those dates and no amount of sponsor outreach recovers the money that season. Put every deadline on one calendar in August, assign each to a named student, and treat grant applications as the fixed obligations they are.
Know whether your team is its own nonprofit before you promise anything
This is the question that trips up more sponsor conversations than any other, and the answer is usually simpler than teams fear. A team sponsored by a school, a church or another IRS-recognized nonprofit generally does not need separate 501(c)(3) recognition, because the sponsoring organization already holds it and the team operates under it. Teams that are independent of any such organization should pursue their own recognition, because it makes a donation deductible as a charitable contribution and it signals to a corporate giving officer that the team keeps real books. Either way, find out which situation you are in before a sponsor asks, and know where the money physically lands: a school activity account, a booster club account or the team nonprofit.
Keep the entire amount
Membership here is flat and commission is 0%, so a $2,500 Gold sponsorship pays the team $2,500. The company pays the team or its school directly, with nothing held back and no payout schedule to wait through, which matters when the registration invoice is due in November and the additional event fees are due in January.
How it works
From listed to paid in four steps
Build the budget backwards from the FIRST invoice
Start with the numbers you cannot negotiate. Season registration for 2026-2027 is $6,500 and includes one Regional or two District events, the Kickoff Kit, the Virtual Kit and FIRST Choice credits. Then add what your team actually plans to do: an additional Regional at $3,200, a District Championship at $4,000, the FIRST Championship at $6,000 if you qualify, plus parts, tools, safety equipment, shirts, food and travel. Write the total on one page with the payment dates next to it, November 17, 2026 for registration and January 21, 2027 for additional events. That single page is the most persuasive document your team owns, because it turns an open-ended ask into a specific number with a deadline, and corporate givers respond to specificity.
Set levels that price the robot, the pit and the people
List every asset the team genuinely controls and put a number next to it: logo on the robot by size, logo on team shirts and the pit banner, listing on the website and in match announcements, a robot demonstration at the sponsor site or at their community event, students presenting at a company meeting, and title sponsorship of the team itself. Three to five tiers works better than a long menu. The published examples give you the shape: Team 5275 runs $500, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 and $2,500 with logo size on the robot, shirts and website increasing at each step, while Team 449 puts the team name on the robot at $1,500, a logo on the robot at $2,500, robot demonstrations at $5,000 and title sponsorship at $6,000. Pick the ceiling that matches the largest employer you can realistically reach.
Approach engineering employers and machine shops, not general marketing inboxes
The realistic sponsor list for an FRC team is different from every other youth program, and it is a real advantage. Target manufacturers, machine shops and fabricators, engineering and architecture firms, electrical and mechanical contractors, automation and controls integrators, aerospace and defense suppliers, utilities, hospitals and health systems with biomedical engineering groups, regional banks and credit unions, and any employer within driving distance that hires technical staff. Ask your own mentors and parents where they work first, because a warm introduction from someone inside the building reaches the plant manager or the engineering director who can actually approve $2,500, while a form on a corporate website reaches nobody. Go in September and October, before their next fiscal year budget is locked.
Deliver proof in April, then renew in September
Photograph the robot with every sponsor logo visible, the pit with the banner up, and the students at the event. Send each sponsor a one page season recap: which events you attended, how you placed, awards won, how many students were on the team and where their logo appeared, plus the photographs. Almost no team does this well, and it is the single thing that turns a one-season sponsor into a five-season sponsor. If a company sponsored you for recruiting reasons, tell them what happened to your graduating seniors and where they are studying engineering. That is the outcome they paid for, and no other youth program can report it.
The numbers
FRC sponsorship levels and what they typically cost in the US
// Swipe to see all columns
| Level | Typical published price | What the sponsor gets |
|---|---|---|
| Friend of the team or program listing | Under $250 | A name listing on the team website and in the pit, and sometimes a small logo on the back of the team shirt. Team 302 publishes a Friend level under $50 and a Bronze level at $50 to $249. This tier exists so a small local business, an alumnus or a family can say yes, and it is worth keeping even though it will not move the budget on its own. |
| Bronze | $250 to $999 | Logo on the team website and in the pit display, a small logo on team apparel, and recognition in match announcements and on social channels. Team 5275 publishes Bronze at $500 and Team 302 publishes Silver at $250 to $499. This is the level most small local businesses and individual professionals land on. |
| Silver | $1,000 to $1,500 | Everything below plus the sponsor name or a small logo on the robot itself, and a larger logo on team apparel. Team 5275 publishes Silver at $1,000 and Gold at $1,500. Team 449 places the team name on the robot at Silver, which it sets at $1,500 and up. Getting on the robot is the step that changes the conversation, because it is the placement that appears in event live streams and press photographs. |
| Gold | $1,500 to $2,500 | A full logo on the robot at meaningful size, prominent placement on apparel, the pit banner and the website, and named recognition throughout the season. Team 449 publishes Gold at $2,500 for a logo on the robot and the website. Team 5275 publishes Platinum at $2,000 and Diamond at $2,500. For most teams this tier is the target for a mid-sized regional employer. |
| Diamond or Platinum | $2,500 to $5,000 | Everything above plus the experiences that justify a recruiting budget: a robot demonstration at the sponsor site or their community event, students presenting to company staff, and extra-large logo placement on the robot. Team 449 publishes Diamond at $5,000 including robot demonstrations. This is where an engineering firm, a manufacturer or a hospital system sits, and it usually needs a meeting rather than a form. |
| Title or flagship sponsor | $5,000 and up | Title sponsorship of the team, the largest logo on the robot and all apparel, naming in how the team introduces itself, and first acknowledgment everywhere. Team 449 publishes Flagship at $6,000 for title sponsorship. One title sponsor at this level covers the entire $6,500 FIRST registration, which is why the largest employer in your area deserves a dedicated approach rather than the same packet everyone else gets. |
| In kind support instead of cash | Varies | Machining and fabrication time, raw stock, tooling, electronics, CAD or CAM software licenses, printing, shipping, meeting space or bus transport, given as goods and services rather than money. Recognition is normally handled at the equivalent cash value. For FRC this is often worth more than the check it replaces, because a machine shop that will cut your parts saves the team both money and the weeks it would spend learning to make them. |
These figures come from sponsorship levels that individual US FRC teams publish on their own websites, including FRC Team 449 the Blair Robot Project, FRC Team 5275 the New Prague T.I.M.E. Bots and FRC Team 302 of Lake Orion. They vary widely by region, team age and the size of the local employer base. FIRST does not publish a sponsorship rate card for individual teams, so these are illustrative rather than a standard. Registration and event fees are from the FIRST published 2026-2027 pricing and should be confirmed on the FIRST website before you build a budget on them. Confirm your own tax treatment and your school district rules with the appropriate professional.
Who it is for
Who books FRC sponsorship here
Team leads and business captains
You are running a fundraising operation that loses its most experienced people to graduation every single year, so the real enemy is institutional memory, not a shortage of companies. Write the sponsor list, the level sheet, the grant deadline calendar and the contact history down somewhere that survives the seniors leaving, and hand it over in April rather than September. Put your levels and prices in one place a company can read without emailing you, because the engineering director you want to reach will not chase a PDF attachment through three replies.
Mentors, teachers and boosters
Your leverage is the introduction. A student cold email to a corporate address rarely reaches anyone with signing authority, while a mentor who worked at the plant, or a parent who reports to the engineering director, reaches the right desk in one message. Map which company every mentor and parent can personally open a door at before the season starts. Settle the money questions early too: whether the team runs through a school activity account, a booster 501(c)(3) or its own recognition, and what your district allows a sponsor logo to say on school property.
Companies deciding whether to sponsor a team
An FRC sponsorship is closer to a technical recruiting spend than a charitable gift, and it is fair to judge it that way. Ask how many students are on the team, where the graduating seniors went, what your logo placement on the robot actually is, how many events the team attends and roughly how many people see them, and whether you get a demonstration at your own site. Ask for a season recap in April before you renew. Because you are receiving advertising and recognition in return, the payment is often an ordinary business expense rather than a charitable contribution, which is usually the friendlier line on your return, though the answer depends on what you receive and on the team tax status.
Questions
FRC sponsorship questions people ask
How much does it cost to sponsor a robotics team?
Published FRC team levels commonly run from under $250 for a website and pit listing to $6,000 for title sponsorship. The most common meaningful tiers are $500 to $1,000 for logo placement on apparel and the website, $1,500 to $2,500 to get a logo on the robot itself, and $5,000 and up for robot demonstrations at your site and top billing. Teams set their own prices, because FIRST does not publish a rate card for individual teams.
How much does an FRC team cost per season?
Season registration for 2026-2027 is $6,500, which covers one Regional or two District events plus the Kickoff Kit, Virtual Kit and FIRST Choice credits. Additional Regional events are $3,200 each, a District Championship is $4,000 and the FIRST Championship is $6,000. Adding parts, tools, apparel, food and travel, teams commonly quote a working season budget of $10,000 to $15,000, and travel-heavy teams considerably more.
What do FRC sponsors get?
Most commonly a logo on the robot itself at a size set by tier, a logo on team apparel and the pit display, a listing on the team website and social channels, recognition in match announcements, and a copy of the season recap. Higher tiers add robot demonstrations at the sponsor site, students presenting to company staff, and title sponsorship of the team. The robot placement is the asset sponsors value most, because it appears in event live streams and press coverage.
How do FIRST robotics teams get sponsors?
The teams that fund a full season target employers who hire technical staff rather than general community businesses: manufacturers, machine shops, engineering firms, contractors, automation integrators, aerospace suppliers, utilities and health systems. They approach through a mentor or parent who already works there, in September and October before budgets lock, with a one page budget showing the actual FIRST invoice and payment dates, and a level sheet with real prices on it.
What grants are available for FRC teams?
FIRST lists several named programs. The Gene Haas Foundation awards $3,000 to FRC teams and $2,000 to FTC teams and has accepted 2026-2027 applications since May 1, 2026. NASA covers registration and a first Regional event for rookie, new veteran and year-two US teams. Arconic Foundation publishes $1,500 for FRC. BAE Systems, Boeing, John Deere, Dow and Boston Scientific run programs tied to employee mentors or proximity to their sites, and the Digital Citizen Fund has offered up to five grants of $5,000 to US rookie teams with majority-female membership.
Do FRC teams need 501(c)(3) status to take sponsorships?
No. A team sponsored by a school, a church or another IRS-recognized nonprofit generally operates under that organization recognition and does not need its own. Teams independent of any such organization should pursue their own 501(c)(3) recognition, because it makes donations deductible as charitable contributions and reassures corporate giving officers. Either way a team can accept sponsorship money, though where the funds land and what receipt you can issue depends on the answer.
Is sponsoring a robotics team tax deductible?
Usually yes, but for most companies it is deductible as an ordinary advertising expense rather than as a charitable contribution, because the company receives logo placement, recognition and often a demonstration in return. That treatment generally works whether or not the team holds 501(c)(3) status. A payment with no benefit received back can be a charitable contribution if the team or its parent organization is a qualified organization. This is general information, not tax advice.
What companies sponsor robotics teams?
At the national level FIRST works with large sponsors that fund the program itself rather than individual teams, and several of them run separate team grant programs, including Boeing, John Deere, BAE Systems, Dow, Arconic and Boston Scientific, most of which require an employee mentor or proximity to a company site. At the team level the money overwhelmingly comes from regional employers: manufacturers, machine shops, engineering and contracting firms, utilities, hospitals and banks. Build your budget around local employers and treat the national programs as a separate grant track.
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