MONEY

[TG]

I have been talking to the business manager of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department here at ASU about getting the school to donate more than the few hundred dollars they are used to doing to SAE. She said that to get more funding, the school would have to probably do fundraising for such funds but she was curious as to how other schools came up with the money for their SAE programs. I am too and was wondering if anyone could chime in on what their school does if they know. Do they fundraise? Get the money directly from the schools chauffeurs (aka general funds)? or by some other means? Thanks.

[TG]

I have been talking to the business manager of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department here at ASU about getting the school to donate more than the few hundred dollars they are used to doing to SAE. She said that to get more funding, the school would have to probably do fundraising for such funds but she was curious as to how other schools came up with the money for their SAE programs. I am too and was wondering if anyone could chime in on what their school does if they know. Do they fundraise? Get the money directly from the schools chauffeurs (aka general funds)? or by some other means? Thanks.

[Denny Trimble]

We get about 15% of our money from the ME department, we solicit sponsorship for the next 35%, and we work fundraising events to raise the rest.

If you have a bunch of engineering students who don't want to work fundraising and sponsorship, you won't have much of a car at the end of the year.

[penelope]

About 15% of our budget also comes from the ME department, and we find sponsorship for the rest. In my time with the team, it seems like we always have one or two big sponsors that cover something like 70% of the budget, while the rest comes in small amounts, often from local companies.

[CMURacing - Prometheus]

100% outside sponsorships. Its tough, but it prevents us from having to report to the university.

[fsae_alum]

In past years, we got 100% of our sponsorship from outside sources, BUT the university still wanted us to report it to them.

[IsheeM]

What type fundraising do you guys do? I know Denny's school does the autocross, but that isnt really an option for us (no parking lots big enough to host an event).

We get about 50%, if not more, of our funding from the ME Department and College of Engr. I would say the MSU Foundation helped us get another 35%. We, as a team, have been more suscessful in getting material donations than acutal money. I seriously doubt that the school will give us this much money next year. But I will say, without the school donating money and helping us solicit money, we would not have a program right now. I should also note that the money the ME Department and College of Engr gave us really came from Alumni donations, and not from the schools budget. I think the school really has to help you out in the beginning. That way it gives you some time to get your name out there and let everyone know what your doing. I think we will have a lot more luck getting monetary donations next year. Plus I will have a little bit more time to solicit donations since we arent designing from a scratch sheet of paper.

[TomF]

Well we have a whole departement installed just to get sponsoring sorted out. In that way we also sign sponsoring agreements with the University. So it is actually 100% sponsoring, where we include the university as one of the (main) sponsors.

[TG]

Thanks for the replies.

Let me be more clear on the question I am asking. Of those teams that get sponsoring from the university, where in the university does that money come from? I know Miss State said they were getting theirs through alumini donations to the school. But where else do schools get the money the give to the teams? Thanks again.

[james17]

As far as FSAE-Alums comment, I can second that one. Not only that, but they've decided that the tools bought with our sponser money are not our tools and will be locked up in surplus. Just as an aside, are there any teams around that build their car off campus because the univ. wont co-operate with them? Also, how many teams have faculty advisors who arent ME or atleast Engineering faculty?

[TG]

One more thing, when you guys say you get the money through donations to the school, are the donations specified as being for SAE? Or are they any donations to the school in general?

[IsheeM]

The donations we get from the ME Department and College of Engr are not given to the school for our use, specifically. The departments decide to give us money out of their pot. I do believe those who donate specify that they want it to be for the ME Department or College of Engr. The money the MSU Foundation helps us solicit is specified for use by SAE. Hope that helps.

[fsae_alum]

James17...check your email account in your profile!

[Kyle Jeffries]

we get a large portion of our funding from the school. Every student pays an Activites & Services fee per credit hour (i think it's up to nearly $8 now) which goes mainly to student government who then splits the money up to all of the student organizations.

We also get money from the engineering alumni association which are from donations, and have had people specifically donate money there in our name.

[LSU Dave]

We've had to fund raise every dollar. You just have to go out and find every business you can think of and talk to them. About 80% of the time you get a no, but the yeses are usually pretty substantial (in hte hundreds). One business at a time and we're already 3/4 of the way to our goal after only 4 months of fund raising.