HOPE inc Yearly Funding Drive
Tax deductible
Hands On Prosthetic Engineering - HOPE is a student organization that prints and advances 3D printed prostheses for children through R&D while providing students the opportunity to learn and serve their community.
HOPE was started in early 2017. We have grown much over the past years. Many of its original students are now alumni and either work in the engineering industry or are pursuing post-graduate degrees. The work that we are doing is powered by undergraduate and below students. That's actually the second "best thing" about HOPE. It's about students getting relevant experience prior to graduation. We look for any opportunity to engage what students are learning in real and meaningful ways.
The first "best thing" about HOPE is who we get to serve, our fellow citizens of the world and especially children. We have had the opportunity to help many children and even a few adults. We have designed our own task-specific device and are currently working on another. While we are designing with specific people in mind, we will release our designs for everyone to use open source and that means one design could impact so many more children, even in developing countries. We also participate in many STEM / STEAM events. That gives us a chance to showcase what we are doing and inspire future generations. We teach 3D printing classes open and free to everyone!
All of that is made possible by generous donations and the fundraising efforts of our students. We are all-volunteer, with no paid positions. Everything we do for others is on a strictly free basis. All of our donations go towards our costs such as equipment, materials or "keeping the lights on". Over the last few years, we have operated on just a few thousand dollars a year, and our students actually pay to be part of the organization which helps to raise some of the funds necessary.
We have also learned much over the past few years. First, with all of the growth, our equipment needs have blossomed. We need to increase both our capability and our capacity. We need a wide variety of new equipment. On one side the increased capability will help us keep up with our increasingly complex design and prototyping production. No worries our designs remain fixed on low-tech ease of print for open source users. However, our ability to evaluating efficiency and safety will be greatly enhanced by the increased capability for the R&D process. We also need increased capacity so that our design teams, production teams, and project teams are not competing for the same resources and to build some redundancy to overcome maintenance issues.
Finally, we are endeavoring into new areas to solve some of the problems we have faced in the past years. HOPE Inc. (our nonprofit) and our students share one common problem… the need for money to survive. We all have lots of passion and commitment to our cause. However, reality forces us to at best split our attention between our passion and our competing needs.
Our solution is to empower students by providing grants and paid internships as part of a revenue-generating function using our 3D Print capacity. Part of who we are and what we do is to teach 3D Printing. This will allow us to capitalize on that learning with revenue for HOPE and providing the student monetary relief while doing it. Additionally, having a robust business environment, dealing with 3D printed fundraising items, will allow us to reach students in more study disciplines. Without an active revenue-generating environment HOPE has remained underrepresented in some majors such as business. This essentially expands our model of gaining experience from something meaningful using what you are learning into the business environment.
While our funding goals are much higher than in the past, we have reached the right point to hurdle over our past barriers using what we now know… and that will propel us forward to our future!
HOPE was started in early 2017. We have grown much over the past years. Many of its original students are now alumni and either work in the engineering industry or are pursuing post-graduate degrees. The work that we are doing is powered by undergraduate and below students. That's actually the second "best thing" about HOPE. It's about students getting relevant experience prior to graduation. We look for any opportunity to engage what students are learning in real and meaningful ways.
The first "best thing" about HOPE is who we get to serve, our fellow citizens of the world and especially children. We have had the opportunity to help many children and even a few adults. We have designed our own task-specific device and are currently working on another. While we are designing with specific people in mind, we will release our designs for everyone to use open source and that means one design could impact so many more children, even in developing countries. We also participate in many STEM / STEAM events. That gives us a chance to showcase what we are doing and inspire future generations. We teach 3D printing classes open and free to everyone!
All of that is made possible by generous donations and the fundraising efforts of our students. We are all-volunteer, with no paid positions. Everything we do for others is on a strictly free basis. All of our donations go towards our costs such as equipment, materials or "keeping the lights on". Over the last few years, we have operated on just a few thousand dollars a year, and our students actually pay to be part of the organization which helps to raise some of the funds necessary.
We have also learned much over the past few years. First, with all of the growth, our equipment needs have blossomed. We need to increase both our capability and our capacity. We need a wide variety of new equipment. On one side the increased capability will help us keep up with our increasingly complex design and prototyping production. No worries our designs remain fixed on low-tech ease of print for open source users. However, our ability to evaluating efficiency and safety will be greatly enhanced by the increased capability for the R&D process. We also need increased capacity so that our design teams, production teams, and project teams are not competing for the same resources and to build some redundancy to overcome maintenance issues.
Finally, we are endeavoring into new areas to solve some of the problems we have faced in the past years. HOPE Inc. (our nonprofit) and our students share one common problem… the need for money to survive. We all have lots of passion and commitment to our cause. However, reality forces us to at best split our attention between our passion and our competing needs.
Our solution is to empower students by providing grants and paid internships as part of a revenue-generating function using our 3D Print capacity. Part of who we are and what we do is to teach 3D Printing. This will allow us to capitalize on that learning with revenue for HOPE and providing the student monetary relief while doing it. Additionally, having a robust business environment, dealing with 3D printed fundraising items, will allow us to reach students in more study disciplines. Without an active revenue-generating environment HOPE has remained underrepresented in some majors such as business. This essentially expands our model of gaining experience from something meaningful using what you are learning into the business environment.
While our funding goals are much higher than in the past, we have reached the right point to hurdle over our past barriers using what we now know… and that will propel us forward to our future!
Fundraising team: HOPE (2)
Ashley Turner
Organizer
Raised $5 from 1 donation
Lexington, SC
Hands On Prosthetic Engineering H.O.P.E.
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.
Andrew Super
Team member
