Offer a class, have parties, put together a nice "donation jar" atht everyone can see. Work out some sort of scheme whereby you have a small core of dedicated rent-payers who are reliable and can consistently make rent even if membership doesn't increase right away or someone flakes.<br>
<br><br>Also, try to start saving for 1-2 months of "rainy day" fund money.<br><br>Arclight<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 12:55 AM, Tilman Frosch <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:til@das-labor.org">til@das-labor.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Hi,<br>
<br>
Am Donnerstag, den 01.10.2009, 14:49 +0800 schrieb David Cake:<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> We'd love ideas from other hackerspaces, particularly for<br>
> fundraising, membership drives, and good ideas for rules to run the<br>
> actual physical space.<br>
<br>
</div>1) Offer talks frequently. Invite people, who do interesting stuff, to<br>
give a talk. Surprise your visitors with quality. Workshops are great,<br>
too, but you will have additional costs in advance, depending on what<br>
you do.<br>
Let everybody use every tool, if the person knows how to and handles<br>
your stuff with care. If somebody does not know to do $thing, show<br>
him/her how to do it.<br>
Just make sure people know that your hackerspace needs their (financial)<br>
support if they want to keep what they started to enjoy (think tools,<br>
people with similar interests etc.)<br>
2) host meetings of local groups with similar interests (linux user<br>
groups etc.)<br>
3) have a 'drink for donation' scheme (and make sure people know what<br>
they are expected to donate) or sell drinks (softdrinks; the highly<br>
caffeinated stuff your target audience enjoys). Make sure your visitors<br>
know that this keeps your space running.<br>
As everybody needs to drink this is kind of a usage-based fee. People<br>
who use the space more often will drink more and thus pay a higher fee.<br>
<br>
This is roughly how it worked for us in the beginning. We had one talk<br>
per week, every Tuesday, for about 1.5 years. Quality varied, of course,<br>
but the average seemed high enough that people were surprised they could<br>
get this for free.<br>
<br>
<br>
HTH<br>
<br>
Til<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
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