[AR] Re: Funding for projects
- From: Ben Brockert <wikkit@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2013 14:33:24 -0600
You will never have an easier time raising money for projects than you
will as a college student. When I was the vice president of the Iowa
State Space Society, we were averaging about $2000 a year without any
keystone projects or major fundraising operations. We bought rocket
motors and telescopes and paid for members to go to launches and
conferences.
Make your group a SEDS chapter or create the project within the one
that exists, if there is one. Align with AIAA, though a lot of AIAA
student chapters are mostly social groups.
UCSD SEDS started a $6800 project earlier this year to build a 3D
printed rocket engine and run it on their own stand, and succeeded in
funding it and testing it. http://seds.ucsd.edu/projects.html You
might contact them to find out how.
If you are part of an established group, one thing way too many of
them ignore is getting funding from alumni. $500 is a small fortune to
a college student, but it's a reasonable contribution from someone who
is in their second year of an engineering job, to help fund a specific
project that sounds cool. It means keeping of people after they
graduate, and being willing to ask for money.
A more successful friend of mine went to a meeting with some students
and literally said "I have a $10,000 check in my pocket, all you have
to do is ask for it." It still took quite a while into the meeting for
one of them to ask. Most lunches aren't that free, but you need to get
past the idea of never asking because you don't understand "what
exactly does the donator get".
Ben
On Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 8:38 PM, Aidan Sojourner <aidan@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> How do you guys get funding for your projects? My team has a wonderful
> design that will probably never see the light of day due to lack of funds.
> We are expecting upwards of $7.5k for the project, something that none of us
> can manage.
>
> We have thought about kickstarter, but I personally don't see the appeal.
> Why would someone donate $100 for ANOTHER PERSON to go do something? It's a
> donation, sure, but what does the donator get out of it? For Video
> Games/Movies/other content, the donate gets the content. This is why
> Kickstarter is successful in this category. What exactly does the donator
> get in our case, save for a magnificent view of earth from onboard our
> project? I would never pay $10, let alone $100 for that, and I don't know
> anyone else who would.
>
> Another option is a capital investment from a single source. How would you
> convince someone to give you $7.5k to send a sounding rocket to 200,000
> feet? The same with kickstarter, what exactly would they get out of it? CSXT
> got a lot of funding from the GoFast energy drink company. How did Ky manage
> to swing this? Was it simply because it was a large, historic event? The
> recent "Aeropac 100k" project in 2012 got funding from Google, I believe
> since Google wanted to do a commerical based on the project. In both of
> these examples, the donator got their name heard. (google has not yet,
> although I hear they are going to release the commerical sometime this fall)
> Everyone in the rocketry community heard of the "GoFast Rocket", and the
> google commercial will likely bring more revenue in sales than they spent.
>
> </wall of text>
> Maybe I seem negative. What have you guys tried/thought about? I am open to
> any suggestions, and I would love to get this project started.
>
Other related posts:
