[hackerspaces] what fundraising methods have worked best for you?

[William Saturno]

>From what I learned from talking with others at Artist's Asylum's
"Make a Makerspace" Weekend, my own survey shows that many successful
spaces have an average revenue split 20% membership dues / 80%
Workshops. At CT Hackerspace in Connecticut, we are now working on
increasing our workshops to see if there is revenue opportunity.

Bill Saturno
CTHackerspace.com


On Mon, Mar 17, 2014 at 5:55 PM, Randall G. Arnold
<randall.arnold at texrat.net> wrote:
> Greetings all,
>
> Tarrant Makers just got its 501(c)3 approved and we are in the process of
> investigating grants.  Meanwhile, we've been limping along on donation jar,
> garage sale and director funding to keep the bank account open, etc.
>
> We're looking into a variety of other fundraising modes, to wit:
>
> - community swag (Tee shirts, mugs, etc) starting with Zazzle to get stuff
> done quickly, but ultimately wanting community production if we see the
> interest
> - raffles
> - angel donors (one approached so far; no response yet, considering others)
>
> I'm also curious about member consulting, with a percentage plowed into the
> org, but people seem lukewarm on the idea so far.
>
> Anyway, I'd love to hear from you all on what is working for you and even
> what hasn't worked.  One mode that has not worked well for us at all is a
> paypal link on our site: despite several appeals, it goes unclicked for the
> most part.  Anyone else had success with Paypal (or similar)?  What about
> crowdfunding tools?
>
> We're partnering with educational and civic organizations for makerspaces,
> so no expense on our part there, but we would like an office and a
> promotions budget, for starters.  I estimate needing $30,000 or so per year,
> minimum, based on lease rates and wishlists.
>
> Assuming we land one or more grants, initial funding could be largely just a
> bootstrap...
>
> Thanks,
>
> Randy Arnold, Tarrant Makers
> http://tarrantmakers.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>