SendCutSend Reaches Milestone in $1 Million STEM Sponsorship Commitment
October 31, 2026SencCutSend, a U.S.-based on-demand manufacturing company specializing in custom sheet metal and CNC machining, is celebrating a year of progress toward its $1 million commitment to support STEM education nationwide. Since announcing this venture in January 2025, the company has issued nearly $250,000 in parts, engineering assistance and funding to student engineering, robotics and STEM programs.
The program prioritizes parts and engineering direction, ensuring students can push boundaries in manufacturing, prototyping and competition. SendCutSend continues its effort to counter declining funding in industrial and STEM education and rebuild for the next generation of creators.
Recent shifts in national funding have reduced support for research on STEM instruction, including a significant cut to available grant resources. At the same time, many schools and universities face ongoing constraints such as limited staffing, aging equipment, and fewer hands-on learning opportunities—making it harder to offer students the STEM education they need.
“Supporting students who are building cool things just feels right to us,” said SendCutSend CEO Jim Belosic. “We want to make it easier for young builders to get their ideas out of their heads and into the real world.
SendCutSend’s STEM education contribution is brought to fruition with two major initiatives: its STEM Sponsorship Program and its partnership with FIRST Robotics. Together, these projects expand access to high-quality manufacturing tools and push students nationwide to pursue ambitious engineering and robotics projects.
Through its FIRST Robotics partnership, the company supplies more than $200,000 in donated materials and custom laser-cut components for the 2026 KitBot, enabling more than 2,500 K–12 robotics teams to design and build competition-ready robots.
“Beyond the KitBot, SendCutSend’s support enhances the hands-on learning experience by increasing access to machining resources that every team may not have,” said Collin Fultz, senior director of FIRST Robotics Competition & FIRST Tech Challenge. “SendCutSend makes it easier for FIRST participants to go from idea to physical part. This early and attainable success is key to inspiring students to take the next step, design and manufacture something of their own, iterate on the design, and learn as they go.”
The STEM Sponsorship Program supplies collegiate engineering teams and educational initiatives with discounted manufacturing services, technical aid and access to advanced fabrication resources, helping students connect classroom concepts to real-world production. In 2025 alone, SendCutSend provided resources to enterprises, including Formula SAE, Baja, rocketry, senior capstone projects and other applied engineering organizations. For many teams, these contributions replaced costly custom machining work, eliminated fabrication delays and enabled students to pursue more complex designs.
“Thanks to SendCutSend’s consistent and efficient service, Lunabotics has been able to incorporate precisely cut parts that fit together seamlessly, reducing both design and projected assembly time,” said Hans Milaniak, Purdue University Lunabotics president. “SendCutSend’s partnership has enabled the organization to pursue concepts that might previously have been dismissed due to complexity or cost.”
The decline in students participating in manufacturing is not for lack of interest, but a lack of opportunity. SendCutSend aims to close that gap by seeking out students who demonstrate an interest in STEM and opening their eyes to career possibilities in its various industries.
“We feel relieved to know that such an incredible company not only cares about our project, but supports projects across the country and enables young and passionate engineers,” said Stefan Salaices, Texas A&M University sounding rocketry team member. “It is clear that America is in need of more companies like SendCutSend, who are reshoring manufacturing and making things again.”
SendCutSend will open applications for its 2026 sponsorship program in January 2026, inviting student teams nationwide to apply and gain access to cutting-edge manufacturing resources. The STEM Sponsorships Program has three application opportunites per year: January 1 to March 10; June 1 to July 10; and August 1 to October 10. Applications are reviewed and awards announced by the end of the deadline month.
For more information about SendCutSend and its STEM education involvement, visit https://sendcutsend.com/stem-sponsorships/.
For more information contact:
SendCutSend
https://sendcutsend.com/
FIRST Robotics
https://www.firstinspires.org/
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