Sustain Award

Financial Sustainability

The WCCA Robotics program operates under an "umbrella" model that ensures sustainability across all three teams (2 FLL and 1 FTC). By diversifying income streams and careful spending, we ensure that all teams have the tools to succeed.

Diverse Income Streams

Our financial wellbeing relies on a mix of corporate matching, community support, and student initiative.

Corporate Matching: A cornerstone of our funding is the Microsoft Volunteer Program. Microsoft contributes $25.00 per hour for every hour our coach volunteers.

Community Outreach: We maintain strong relationships with our "sister churches," whose donations provide additional funds when needed.

Student-Led Initiatives: Our teams take active ownership of their needs, organizing community fundraising events to bridge gaps for special opportunities. The Florida Sunshine Invitational was a good example of this. When the FLL team was invited to this tournament, they faced a significant financial hurdle.

The initial budget estimate was $15,000. Later, a more accurate estimate was $9,000.

Through church donations and local fundraising events, the students successfully met their target goal. A total of $14,000 in donations was given, but with careful spending they only spent $8,400.

Impact: This didn’t just fund a trip; it served as a lesson in teamwork, public relations, and financial responsibility. The surplus funds remain within the school to support future seasons.

Start up costs

Us being a first year team, a large sum of money was spent in getting supplies. This includes our playing field, two robot starter kits, and additional hardware for our robot. We spent around $5,000 on these startup costs, and around $1,000 for annual costs like registration, tournament costs, shirts, etc.

Going Forward: Our Plan For Success

Now that we are out of the startup phase, we can work on making our team better and refining our skills. Next years estimate is roughly $1000 in recurring annual costs and $1000 in new "fixed cost" investments.

Sustainability & Future Growth

How we are sure our team will last after the current members are gone?

Our FTC team started with students from FLL. Although some members dropped out becuase of school stress, we recruited our new team member Josephine, and our Jr. member Caleb. Caleb is in 8th grade and still participates in FLL, but is excited to be a full member of our FTC team next year.

We are committed to the long-term continuity of our team well beyond the graduation of current members. To ensure this, we maintain a direct recruitment program with our FLL teams.

By actively mentoring these students that are already a part of our robotics program, we guarantee a consistent influx of experienced members ready to start FTC roles each year.