2026-2027 Panasonic Foundation Grant
Panasonic is again awarding $300 grants to 40 SoCal FTC teams for the purpose of registering for league meets. Applications are open Monday, August 3rd, through Wednesday, September 30. Notifications to recipients will be no later than Oct 5th. Questions should be directed to socalftcinfo@gmail.com. The link to apply is here.
2026-2027 FIRST® Tech Challenge Hardship Grant (North America)
Do you need some help getting started? SoCal has an opportunity to nominate new and veteran teams that are experiencing financial barriers to participation in the FIRST Tech Challenge season.
If you meet the grant eligibility requirements, you could receive $350. The funds can only be used for FIRST Tech Challenge season registration and products in the FIRST Tech Challenge Storefront. Teams are nominated by the SoCal PDP (Theresa Klemme and Bob Meinhard). You don’t need to complete payment to apply. If you are interested, apply here.
HAAS Grant
Haas Automation, founded by Gene Haas in 1983, is a major American manufacturer of CNC machine tools. Haas believes in giving back to the community and has created the Gene Haas Foundation to introduce to and educate individuals for the field of manufacturing technologies specifically CNC machining. https://www.ghaasfoundation.org/
They have been providing FIRST grants to FRC public and private 501c3 high school teams for several years, and this year have extended to FTC teams. If you are interested in applying, go to: https://www.ghaasfoundation.org/apply-now, select “Secondary Scholarship Programs”, create an account, fill out the grant request. There are specific requirements, please read details on the site.
DonorsChoose
DonorsChoose and 3M is awarding Educators to cover the cost to of important materials to support their FIRST teams. Teachers create a classroom project funding request. Find out more information HERE.