I came across this company called Piggybackr which is an online way of fundraising for your team. I have not used it personally but have spent some time looking through the material and it looks like it could be a great way for the children on the team to take an active role in raising funds to help pay for team expenses (robots, registration fees, travel expenses, etc.).
Here's a blurb from them:
Piggybackr is an online fundraising platform that empowers youth to raise support for their teams, causes, and schools. After the "fundraising team leader" sets up the team fundraising page, team members are invited to join the effort, and create fundraising pages of their own. The average donation on Piggybackr is $76, which they believe is so high because the ask comes from the youth participants themselves. Here's an example of what a robotics fundraiser looks like: https://www.piggybackr.
To start fundraising: teams can visit Piggybackr, click the orange "Sign up" button, and then enter the invite code FLL2013 at the top right hand corner where it says "Enter code here!" Or if you'd like, you can set up a 10-minute call with Piggybackr Community Director, Brittany Murlas: brittany@piggybackr.
Here are two sheets you may find useful - an "About Us" page, and a page fundraisers can customize to give out to parents/kids.
Happy FUNdraising! :)
