BiR Tiered Sponsors
Overview
The BiR corporate partnership program is a great vehicle for corporate allies to support diversity in Robotics and STEM while getting access to an incredibly talented pool of diverse candidates. The goals of the program are to increase the visibility of talented Black robotics professionals and enable the best matches for new talent entering the robotics industry.
Being in the right environment and working at a job that is aligned to your skills and goals is one of the largest factors governing the impact and success of a career. Thus, a crucial ingredient for increasing the impact and visibility of Black robotics professionals is to promote excellent job placement into environments that support a diverse workforce.
Those interested in becoming BiR Corporate Partners should reach out to blackinrobotics@gmail.com with a subject line that just has: [BiR Corporate Partner]
Then please tell us about yourself and we will be in touch!
How Corporate Partners Can Collaborate with BiR
Invest.
BiR Corporate Partners invest in BiR initiatives either through BiR sponsorship or directly funding BiR activities.
Commit.
BiR Corporate partners serve as change agents in the robotics community.
Engage.
BiR Corporate partners work with BiR to grow the community of Black roboticists.
Becoming a Corporate Partner
Benefits to Corporate Partners
As a corporate partner, based on the tier of sponsorship your company will get the following benefits listed in the table below:
Access to the BiR Email List Service (to send out job opportunities)
Access to the BiR Resume Book for direct networking with BiR members (BiR member profiles will list their name, profile picture, and ‘tags‘ with specific robotics focus areas, and for those open to network - batch downloadable CVs)
Corporate Partners will be listed based on tiered support as sponsors for select or all chapters (please see table below)
For Tier 3, the sponsor will be listed as a key sponsor at all international conferences with BiR activity.
Benefits to BiR and its Members
Internally, BiR will pursue a number of programs to better prepare our people entering Industry.
Examples are:
Academic to industry preparedness training.
Resume prep and interview training to help diverse candidates “translate” their unique value into the language of industry.
Mentoring programs for students entering Industry to better understand the norms, expectations, and methodologies they will encounter.
Scholarships and Fellowships for students pursuing higher education in robotics at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
For existing industry professionals we also provide:
Speaking events at or with corporate partnership companies.
A “master class” leadership and mentoring program for already successful industry professionals to continue to progress in their scope and impact. (in progress)
Pricing and Operations
The program allows 3 levels of financial membership with increasing financial commitments commensurate with increasing benefits. Levels of tiered sponsorship are listed below. The exact pricing will be determined/calibrated through engaging with potential sponsors. Sponsors may also provide support through student fellowships in coordination with Black in Robotics.
To run BiR activities we will need some dedicated resources internally to both handle the financial and operations side of the program as well as to handle the HR side of the program. These can be done on a volunteer basis, through hiring part-time experts as needed, or most likely through a combination of the two. At a minimum the functions needed are:
Corporate partnership payment and financial management
Digital “resume book” creation and maintenance (in progress)
Setup and operation of internal mentoring and preparedness programs
Executive sponsorship and ongoing direction from the leadership of BiR
BiR Sponsorship Levels
Sponsors of BiR are requested to provide BiR with a (publically available) diversity plan. Once a strong draft is in place, we encourage our sponsors to select the tier most appropriate for them. The associated partner resources are listed below:
