CERF is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. Donations to CERF are tax deductible. We are happy to provide you with a tax-compliant receipt for your donation.
Building robots is expensive.
Building kids to be future STEM professionals, industry leaders and global problem solvers is priceless.
Will you help us?
If you would like to sponsor a particular team or event, we can facilitate that, even if the team isn’t an established non-profit. We act as a booster organization to support all robotics teams in the Columbia area.
Just get in touch with us and we will work with you to make sure your donation has the most impact possible.
Example sponsorships
FIRST LEGO League Columbia tournament on January 7, 2024
It costs approximately $1800 to run the tournament.
$250 or more sponsorship – your name announced regularly throughout the tournament by the emcees and displayed on the scoreboard between competition rounds.
Sponsor one FIRST LEGO League team for the 2023-24 season, $250 or more
Season registration fees for FLL are $472. A SPIKE Prime LEGO Education robotics kit costs $535.
FLL teams have 2 – 10 members ages 9 – 14.
When you sponsor a team for $250 or more, they will proudly display your name and logo (if provided) on their team t-shirts for the season.
Sponsor one FIRST Tech Challenge team for the 2023-24 season, $250 or more
Season registration fees for one FTC team $550. A drive train kit for an FTC robot costs $250-400. One battery for an FTC robot costs $49.99. Teams use off-the-shelf parts from vendors such as gobilda.com and revrobotics.com and they fabricate custom parts using 3D printers and shop tools. A 3D printer for a team costs about $400.
When you sponsor an FTC team for $250 or more, they will proudly display your name and logo (if provided) on their team t-shirts for the season. They can also put your name on their robot during non-competition outreach events and list sponsors in their team engineering portfolio and marketing materials.
Sponsor the Army Ants FRC team #3792 for the 2023-24 season, $500 or more
FRC is the elite level of FIRST robotics programs. The Army Ants, Columbia’s only FRC team is a community-wide team. It has a competitive application process open to students 14 – 18 from any Columbia-area high school or homeschool. The Army Ants advanced to the FIRST World Festival in 2018, 2019 and 2022. In 2021, when the world was in lockdown, FIRST held an Engineering Design Challenge for teams rather than in-person competitions. Army Ants won the Global Innovation Design Award from a competitive pool of more than 200 teams.
The Army Ants have about 40 student members each year and annual budget of $25,000. In addition to building robots and competing, the team does more than 20 outreach activities in the community each year to inspire a love of STEM in younger students. These include robot demonstrations for school and community groups, robotics workshops for scout troops, underwater robot-building camps, advanced robot-building camps, STEM Day at the Missouri capitol, volunteering at the Columbia FLL tournament and more. We give back by inspiring more youth to get involved with STEM activities!
When you sponsor FRC team 3792 Army Ants for $500 or more, they will proudly display your name or logo on their team shirts and competition pit banners.
Army Ants sponsors include 3M, Boeing and MU College of Engineering.