2023 Market Research Report

Financial sustainability of an FRC robotics team is one of the more challenging aspects of running a robotics team. It’s hard work and doesn’t seem to be relevant to building a competitive robot, however fundraising is vital to the sustainability and longevity of the team. It’s important to realize that FRC teams are, for practical purposes, a small business. Also, the financial needs of high school FRC teams are far greater than junior high FTC and VEX robotics programs and elementary FLL teams. This is due to the complexity of the robot and the technology required for construction along with event registration fees and travel expenses.

This research report is the result of conversations with robotics team members at the FIRST Indiana state championship on April 7-8,  2023. I hope this information will be encouraging to other FIRST teams and give some ideas on sustainability and growth of your own team.

Feel free to share this report with other teams. Your comments are welcome.