Thank you to all our donors who supported our fall 2025 ZotFunder campaign! Together, we raised $3,955! Your gifts have impacted us enormously, providing us with the support we need to secure quality materials, strengthen manufacturing, ease transportation costs and foster a strong sense of unity and pride. 

We are proud to announce that we have completed our first prototype, which wouldn’t have been possible without you. With the funds we have raised together, we were able to use around $1,000 to purchase all of the components needed to build our first prototype and our second prototype which is currently in progress. These new resources gave us the motivation and inspiration to ambitiously propel forward with the assembly of our project as we got to work with exceptional material and technology.

Additionally, we are now able to allocate $2,955 of donated funds to aid members with travel costs associated with our upcoming competition. Originally, we could only bring a few members to the competition, but because of your support, that number has now expanded to over half the team! We are in the best position for competition, and it is all thanks to your support. Because of you, we not only had access to quality parts and tools but also opportunities for our members to develop invaluable technical and interpersonal skills that they will carry with them for years.

Thank you for being part of our journey and helping us take flight. Your generosity lives on in every moment of unity shared within this team. Please feel free to follow our progress on Instagram, where we’ll be sharing footage of our test flights and the competition in April!

With much appreciation and love,

The Design/Build/Fly Team at UC Irvine

Fewer than 30 days left before the close of our campaign!

Thanks to all our donors, Design/Build/Fly at UC Irvine has now raised over 30% of our $5,000 goal. Your support has already strengthened our manufacturing efforts, boosted team morale, and given us the confidence to accelerate our work pace toward this year's aircraft.

With your help, we've been able to confidently secure materials much faster, ease budget pressures, and even provide the team with polos, something small, but incredibly meaningful.  At the start of the academic year, our team faced a harsh reality that without external funding, many students would not be able to travel to the AIAA Design/Build/Fly competition in Kansas. For a project this ambitious, the lack of resources was overwhelming. Our leads felt the pressure to ensure our members had the tools, materials, and opportunities they needed to bring their ideas to life. Your support changed our trajectory!

Because of you, our team is now in a much stronger position to build our first prototype and maintain a steady fabrication pace. We are also in the best position we've ever been to bring as many students as possible with us to Kansas. Every dollar contributed helps us purchase more materials, expand our manufacturing capabilities, and offer our team a thrilling engineering experience that will stay with them for years.

In honor of Giving Tuesday, we ask you to please consider sharing our ZotFunder campaign with your network to help us reach even more supporters!

Thank you for standing with us and lifting this team higher. Your impact is felt in every moment of unity shared within this team. 

With much appreciation and love,

The Design/Build/Fly Team at UC Irvine