Impact & Transparency

We ask families, sponsors, and grantmakers to fund this work. Here is exactly what it costs and where the money goes.

12th

Season in robotics

21

Students, 2026 season

2

Competition teams

100%

Volunteer-run

The 2026 season in numbers

Our first FIRST Robotics Competition season, covering two regional events.

Raised

$51,448

Spent

$54,744

Shortfall

$3,295

We spent $3,295 more than we raised in our rookie FRC season. Family dues cover only part of the cost — $15,950 came from sponsorships, and the rest from grants, fundraising, and contributions from mentors and community supporters. Closing that gap is why we ask.

Why these figures will not match our tax filings

A robotics season runs across two calendar years — roughly summer through the following April — so season totals never line up with a single tax year. Our IRS filings are by fiscal year and are prepared on a different basis.

Public databases also lag IRS processing by months. If the most recent return you find is fiscal year 2024, note that it predates the FRC program — that year we were an FTC team with a much smaller budget. The season described above falls largely in a later fiscal year. If the numbers here look larger than what you find on file, that is why.

Where the money went

Every dollar of 2026 season spending, by supplier — $54,743.79 in total.

  • West Coast Products $16,192.91
    29.6%

    Drivetrain and structural components

  • FIRST Inspires $9,300.00
    17.0%

    Team registration and regional event fees

  • Amazon $8,070.60
    14.7%

    General parts, materials, and supplies

  • AndyMark $5,380.94
    9.8%

    Robot components and hardware

  • Rev Robotics $4,893.00
    8.9%

    Motors, controls, and electronics

  • CTR Electronics $3,951.72
    7.2%

    Motor controllers and sensors

  • McMaster Carr $3,830.23
    7.0%

    Raw stock, fasteners, and tooling

  • Lenovo $1,645.21
    3.0%

    Design and programming workstations

  • Other suppliers $1,479.18
    2.7%

    Four smaller vendors

Horizontal bar chart of 2026 season program spending by supplier, largest first. The same figures appear in the table below.
View as a table
Supplier Amount Share
West Coast Products $16,192.91 29.6%
FIRST Inspires $9,300.00 17.0%
Amazon $8,070.60 14.7%
AndyMark $5,380.94 9.8%
Rev Robotics $4,893.00 8.9%
CTR Electronics $3,951.72 7.2%
McMaster Carr $3,830.23 7.0%
Lenovo $1,645.21 3.0%
Other suppliers $1,479.18 2.7%
Total $54,743.79 100%

Registration and regional event fees paid to FIRST are fixed costs of competing — they buy no parts. Nearly everything else becomes tools, materials, and robot components that students design, build, and program themselves.

What the money leaves behind

Not every dollar is consumed. Registration fees and travel are spent and gone. But workstations, saws, tooling, and shop equipment stay — they are used by this season's students, and by every season's students after them.

That is the difference between funding a season and building a program. A gift toward equipment keeps working long after the robot it helped build has been taken apart for parts — which, in FRC, happens every year.

It is also why our balance sheet understates us. Like most small nonprofits we expense equipment in the year we buy it rather than carrying it as an asset, so a shop full of working tools shows up in our filings as very little. The capability is real even where the accounting does not show it.

Reports & filings

2026 End-of-Season Report

Tie Dye Samurai's full rookie FRC season — results, awards, and outreach. PDF.

Governing documents

Our team agreement and participant consent forms are published in full.

Organization details

Legal status
501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation (Arizona)
EIN
83-3523903
AZ Corporation Commission entity ID
1949945
Contributions
Tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law

Check our filings yourself

ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search

Our IRS filings are public record. ProPublica publishes them in a readable form; the IRS search is the authoritative source — look us up by EIN 83-3523903. We would rather point you at the primary source than ask you to take our word for it.

For anything not published here, email info@stemplusc.org — we would rather answer than have you guess.

Help close the gap

Every dollar goes into tools, parts, registration fees, and getting students to competition — not overhead. We are entirely volunteer-run.

Donate Become a Sponsor