Outreach Basics¶
What is Outreach in FIRST?¶
Outreach is a team’s way of establishing its values for FIRST and STEM throughout the community. This can involve activities like networking with professionals, visiting robotics labs nearby, coaching and mentoring other FIRST teams, volunteering, and STEM|hyphen|related activities, and so much more.
Why is Outreach Important?¶
Outreach is important because it allows your team to demonstrate how it made an impact on the STEM community and spread FIRST values. A few awards, such as Connect, Motivate, and Inspire (the highest|hyphen|ranked award), are all based on a team’s outreach. Outreach usually takes up 2|hyphen|3 pages of the Engineering Portfolio, which is typically 16 pages. Judges are looking for a diverse set of outreach events that have been done throughout the year and demonstrate a clear impact and Gracious Professionalism. If your FTC team isn’t sure how to establish good outreach, here are some tips and tricks for where to find opportunities.
What Do You Care About?¶
A concerning amount of teams see outreach as a means to obtain awards. While it is true that the Motivate and Connect Awards rely on outreach performance as award criteria, outreach is so much more than that, and as FTC® teams, we are poised to make a unique impact. In order to make the most of your potential, you should target outreach that you care about.
Tip
From a judging perspective, it is also easier to talk about topics you care deeply about and are invested in.
Many teams often hope to create large-scale programs that impact tens of thousands. However, many smaller outreach programs can often be more impactful than one big, unwieldy program that may never get off the ground. Consider what your local area needs - maybe your library needs volunteers to teach STEM, or your local FLL team requires mentorship. Maybe there are no other FLL or FTC teams in your area. Regardless, your goal should be to advocate for STEM and FIRST® in your area.
Important
Create a plan! Any set of outreaches should be outlined in a business plan, documenting how they serve as a way to expand your program’s reach. This plan should also contain your team’s vision, budget goals, and growth objectives.
How to establish outreach:¶
Cold email professionals and ask to be mentored
This may seem intimidating, but there are many templates online that can help you reach out to professionals.
Simply search ‘How to ask for a mentor over email’ and Google should provide many options.
Research science fairs/events nearby
Start by compiling a list of science events nearby in a document or spreadsheet.
Local events could be found on Eventbrite, on blog pages, and in magazines.
Note the date of the event and whether they allow exhibitors to sign up, and if not, then contact them directly!
Sign up to demo at STEM showcases
Many elementary and middle schools have science fairs or STEM nights that allow people to demonstrate things like robots, coding, and engineering practices.
Check out the local schools in your area and see if there are any opportunities like that nearby.
Ask nearby FIRST teams if they need any help or want a mentor
Mentoring or helping other teams is an amazing way to give back to the FIRST community.
You can connect with a team on the FIRST Mentor Network if an 18+ team member makes an account as a mentor, or by asking local FTC teams either online, through social media, or using connections.
Mentoring can involve providing advice to a team, helping a rookie team learn about FIRST, providing feedback on engineering portfolios, and more.
Ask more experienced teams for their mentorship
Take note of any very skilled teams in the area and consider reaching out to them and asking for their mentorship.
That way, you can get invaluable advice on engineering, teamwork, programming, and more.
Chances are, a team would say yes since that means they get some outreach out of it.
Volunteer in STEM|hyphen|related activities
Spreading The Word¶
Once you’ve zeroed in on the programs you’d like to create or contribute to, figure out who you need to contact and what you need to pitch. See Pitching Your Team for more tips on how to write your pitch out.
Let’s say you’ve decided to go with hosting weekly STEM nights at your local library.
The Pitch: STEM night hosted by x members of local robotics team on x weeknight, for x weeks.
Write an email to your library’s administration and CC (carbon copy) a librarian you know, introducing your team and describing your idea. Stress that you will dedicate team resources and members to this idea and see it through for the timeframe you specify.
Assign specific members to this program and loop them into the conversation as well.
Work with the library to determine a time each week to host your STEM night.
Finally, assigned members work together to write lesson plans in advance and create promotional materials to share on social media and with friends/family.
Your team has a fundraising idea to bag at a local supermarket.
The Pitch: Support local STEM students by allowing local robotics team to bag at your store!
Visit your local supermarket and talk to a manager or customer service rep to politely introduce your team.
Respectfully ask if they would be willing to let you bag for customers and set up tip jars.
Obtain contact information of the person you spoke to, and write a follow-up email to them thanking them and confirming a date and time.
Assign members to create promotional materials to share on social media and with friends/family.
Outreach to create connections and obtain sponsorships are relatively similar. Send lots of emails to local companies asking for either help or sponsorship. You should try to tie the engineering problems you are encountering in the season to the specific company you are requesting aid from; this can make it easier for the company to justify donating their money or time.
A great way to find businesses to reach out to is through your local Chamber of Commerce (use Google to find their website), who generally will provide a large list of member businesses in the area. Try to send one email to every business on that list. In addition, target companies in the nearest metro area.
Tip
Promotional materials should be striking and feature your team’s branding, with an emphasis on succinct design. Your goal is to maximize information delivery using as few words as possible.
Outreach in the Portfolio¶
Outreach should be described in a specific way in the portfolio to be deemed impactful. A few strategies some teams have used:
Categorizing whether the impact: local, state, national vs. international
Use numbers! Share how many people your volunteering reached, and what communities benefited
Keep it brief! Describe each activity in 1|hyphen|2 sentences
Track your hours: using a spreadsheet helps, and that way your portfolio can have quantitative impact
Include photos, images, and logos that add visual appeal and illustrate your impact
Be specific; if the sentence can describe any outreach activity, it can’t describe any!
General Outreach Tips¶
Reach out for donations early. Companies are most willing to donate money from September-November, when they are closing out the fiscal year. Reach out for sponsorships and donations around this time, as you will encounter more success.
Raise more money than you need. You never know when you’ll need to buy parts in an emergency, or qualify for the World Championship unexpectedly. Having extra money is never a bad thing.
Be consistent. It is easy to let outreach fall by the wayside when building a robot. However, programs that survive long periods of time are defined by their consistent outreach, as it creates inroads into their community for recruitment and funding.
Be persistent. If your idea doesn’t work the first time or doesn’t find the success you hoped, don’t give up! Evaluate what went wrong and try again.
Diversify. Try to do as many unique outreach events as possible, as it’ll be fun and enriching!
Maintain your relationships. Send thank you notes to organizations who host you and work with you, and keep them updated about your team’s progress. It is easier to ask for a favor from an organization that likes your team.
(Respectful) email spam always works. Send lots of emails. Your fundraising, Connect, and sponsorship email target should be 100+ a season - per category. The more emails you send, the higher the chance you will get a response.
Visit in person. It is much harder to ignore an in-person visit you pay to a company than it is to ignore an email. Prepare a one-page flyer and elevator pitch, and remember you have a limited amount of time to make an impression on the person you’re talking to.
Housekeeping¶
Keep a list of the programs your team has created or contributed to. Ensure you take photos at every event with team members. Keep track of your Reach (tangible interaction or observation of your team), Engagement (how many people interacted with your team/you interacted with, e.g. by attending events), Impact (how many people are directly impacted by your outreach events), and Conversion (how many people get involved with your program.)
If looking to include these statistics in your judged presentation or portfolio, ensure you adhere to the definitions located in the Award Terms and Definitions document. These terms are: Started, Mentored, Assisted, Provided Published Resources, Ran an Event, Hosted an Event, Supported an Event, Reached, and Advocated.