Fundraising UPDATE – Wow, thanks!

A big thank you to everyone who was able donate and participate in this fund raising effort!  Not only did we make the $1k challenge goal, which will be matched by a donor, we also completed videoman’s secondary challenge of $500 for completing the $1k goal before Friday May 13th, 2011. As well, another very generous individual has stepped forward and given anonymous donation of $5,000.  This gift will be used towards ensuring that we are able to commit to our lease and stay afloat over the summer. This generosity doesn’t mean that we can rest on our laurels though.  We still need to make our membership goal of a total of 80 members by September 30th, 2011 so we can pay our bills and stay cash positive.

Through your generosity, we are able to bridge the gap between where we are at now in income and where we need to be, and we don’t have to close up shop in the interim.   Our goal of 80 members will bring in enough capital to pay the lease and basic bills.  The sooner we make this goal, the more comfortably we can fulfill some other critical needs.

Many of you are aware of some safety needs, such as more fire extinguishers (of several types), a better first aid kit, a long term dust collection solution, and some other health and safety bits and pieces.  We also need to re-evaluate our insurance as we have many more items in our shop, and that may add a bit to our costs.  Member storage has also been an issue recently, we’re pondering dedicated shelving and storage bins for each member.  The sooner we have a solid income base the sooner we can solve these core issues.

Once we have a signed lease, we will start a big marketing push.  We’ll need help from all of you with that.  Not only in patience with other members and the Board as we try to coordinate moving things about, but also in being good hosts to new guests, and being excellent to other members by helping keep the shop clean and functional.

These gifts, and your continued capital support do not mean that we can be complacent, they mean we have 2 months of breathing room.  The Board of Directors is still committed to meeting our membership goals set forth prior to these anchor donations, and with your help we can make certain that our community is not only welcoming to new members, but that we have a facility that our greater community is excited to use.  While some of you may know the identities of our anchor donors, they have requested that they remain anonymous.

That said, many many thanks for the support.
We can’t say it enough.