[hackerspaces] Cash flow?

[Colin Galbraith]

On the front of actually making more money, a lot of hackerspaces run a 
mixed for profit/non-profit business model, even if they are a 
registered non-profit.
basically there are two options, ask for it or get it in exchange for 
goods and services
when asking for it: problem with this it is hard to find outside 
donations or grants that cover day to day operations and overhead, this 
is a problem even large established non-profits have. You can get money 
to buy new fancy tools, but not money to pay someone to run those tools.
look for grants that may be available to you and go after them
for non-member donors, put together a targeted bid, develop the story of 
your place and what mission it serves, get some hard numbers about your 
community (are you helping to create jobs? people love to hear about job 
creation), and get some written/recorded testimonials from people that 
have gotten something positive from your community. Then do your 
research and look for groups and private foundations that may be 
interested in donating. Also, make sure your accounting structure is set 
up to accept the donations!
Ideally, if you can build some sort of endowment, you can use the 
interest to help cover cash flow gaps and never touch the principle 
(this is a long way off I know, but something to aim for). Don't make 
the mistake of thinking good buzz and money are the same thing, when you 
make good impressions on people, ask ask ask for donations.

For goods and services, the standard 3 for hackerspaces are memberships, 
space, and classes, you can always try to sell more or charge more for 
them.
You can look into creating and selling merchandise on a regular basis or 
as occasional one offs as a fundraiser. You can create donation tiers 
where x number of dollars earns a t-shirt and a sticker, while y dollars 
gets a name on a plaque somewhere.
You can set up an etsy store, or etsy style store, for your community 
and sell things.
Can your community work with other local businesses to do fundraisers? 
Can the community offer a service? Can you run a kickstarter or one of 
the 10000 other crowdsourcing options?
Can your hackerspace offer free lectures to your community members to 
help them become more financially stable in their personal lives 
allowing them to donate more to your space?

Lot of different little methods to generate revenue and while many of 
them will be small, every bit helps.

Colin

On 2/12/13 12:45 AM, Tamara wrote:
> Hello there!
>
> I'm seeking ideas for how to consistently cover our rent each month and
> still have some funds left over for consumables, necessities and perhaps a
> small emergency fund. We currently have a scaled membership and teach a
> number of classes each month, but there's often a gap between what we make
> each month and what we need to cover it all without panic, begging, and
> general freaking out. We've begun a series of fundraising meetings to
> discuss additional ideas for what might work, but I'm wondering - what works
> best for your hackerspace?
>
> Tamara
>
>
>
> -----
> Tamara Clammer
> Doer: Maker Advocate
> Brown Paper Tickets
> www.BrownPaperTickets.com
> Tamara at BrownPaperTickets.com
> http://community.brownpapertickets.com/Doers/maker.html
> --
> View this message in context: http://hackerspaces-general-discussion-list.899408.n3.nabble.com/Cash-flow-tp4026512.html
> Sent from the Hackerspaces General Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss