Business, Operations & FundraisingModule 11 of 14

Worked Examples & Mini-Projects: Build Your Team's Business Toolkit

Stop reading about budgets and sponsorships and actually build the artifacts your team runs on. This module is a series of hands-on mini-projects: a real season budget model with working spreadsheet formulas, a sponsor CRM, a grant-pipeline tracker, an automated sponsor impact report that pulls live results from The Blue Alliance API, and a competition travel planner. Every example uses real 2025-2026 FRC numbers from the official FIRST median budget data so the artifacts you build are usable on day one, not toy examples.

Worked Examples & Mini-Projects: Build Your Team's Business Toolkit is module 11 of 14 in the Business, Operations & Fundraising guide. It picks up where Stewardship & Long-Term Sponsor Relationships left off and hands over to Common Mistakes & Troubleshooting in FRC Operations. At ~165 minutes across 5 lessons it is the longest module in the guide, which runs about 20 hours end to end.

5 lessons~165 min49 lessons in this guide

Start with lesson 1 All of Business, Operations & Fundraising

In this module

5 lessons

01Mini-Project 1: A Working Season Budget ModelBuild a real, formula-driven season budget in a spreadsheet using FIRST's official median budget figures, with a base/stretch scenario toggle and a fundraising-gap calculation.35 min read

02Mini-Project 2: A Sponsor CRM in a SpreadsheetBuild a lightweight sponsor relationship tracker with stages, owners, follow-up dates, and a pipeline-value rollup so no prospect or renewal ever falls through the cracks.30 min read

03Mini-Project 3: A Grant Pipeline & Deadline TrackerBuild a grant tracker covering real FRC grant programs with deadlines, eligibility, status, and amounts so you apply on time and never repeat a rejected application blind.25 min read

04Mini-Project 4: Auto-Generate a Sponsor Impact Report from The Blue Alliance APIWrite a small Python script that pulls your team's real competition results and awards from The Blue Alliance API and renders a sponsor-facing impact summary automatically.45 min read

05Mini-Project 5: A Competition Travel & Logistics PlannerBuild a travel budget and logistics planner for an away event, including per-student cost, lodging, food, transport, and a packing/load-out checklist that survives real competition chaos.30 min read

Previous moduleStewardship & Long-Term Sponsor Relationships

Next moduleCommon Mistakes & Troubleshooting in FRC Operations

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The 2027 FRC Season Calendar: Every Deadline & FeeEvery verified 2027 FRC deadline and fee: event registration rounds from Sept 24, payment due Nov 17, Kickoff on Jan 9, and what the $6,500 fee covers.14 min read

How Much Does an FRC Team Cost? A Rookie Season Budget WorksheetWhat a rookie FRC season really costs in 2026 — the $6,300 registration, travel, tools, and spares — plus a copyable budget worksheet and the grants that offset it.7 min read

All 14 modules in Business, Operations & Fundraising

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