[sudo-discuss] Lease

Fri Apr 18 17:36:16 PDT 2014

It's almost certainly a no-interest loan (David K can confirm). Loans like these will likely be our best friend for the near term. 

Donations are great, too, and ideal except that we can't promise donors any tax-deductible benefits until we have either a confirmation letter from the IRS acknowledging receipt of our 501(c)3 application for Omni (6-8 weeks reply since they just layed off 30k employees...) or a fiscal sponsorship (doable with a 1-page form and effective within a day).

A quick note about initial funding/financing: I want to also suggest that the immediate goal of $30-45k floated as necessary to get us in the door might need a nudge upwards to $60-90k to make the move safely and securely. I met with someone yesterday who is interested in pro-bono bookkeeping for Omni (hurray!!) and she recommended having 3 months worth of expenses (rent, etc) in cash reserves from Day 1; she also recommended souricng the majority of that from the collectives for reasons of commitment... but depending on options from capable supporters, loans might suffice.

Finally, a note about fundraising prospects. Once we are in the door and the dust has settled someway, literally filling the calendar with all collectives events and programming will make a credible demonstration to more donors/lenders/contributors of all kinds. As well, this kind of exposure is perfectly amendable in media assets for a crowdfunding campaign. I've done research on a dozen development projects similar to Omni and found that they raised a maximum of 10% via Kickstarter-style crowdfunding; at least 90% of their funding came directly from investors. What's more, they launched campaigns two-thirds of the way into 2- and 3-year fundraising raising timelines,  no sooner than 1 year into their effort and after having their financial model built from the ground up and vetted by accountants.

I'm looking forward to catching up on other discussions from this week! Have a great Friday evening, all!

On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 3:21 PM, Hol Gaskill <hol at gaskill.com> wrote:

> so it's a donation and not a loan we're talking about for that amount?
> on Apr 18, 2014, Andrew <andrew at roshambomedia.com> wrote:
>>Some clarity on The Omni. We are still in negotiations, but the deposit is about $30,000>(twice rent) the extra $20,000 are to cover first month rent and have some standing>funds. Also, more importantly, last I heard we do have donors who are willing to>cover this cost. We are currently dotting our I's and crossing our T's Including>gaining fiscal sponsorship so donations will be tax deductible.> >
> tl;dr: The Omni is happening.>
>>>On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 7:29 AM, Hol Gaskill <hol at gaskill.com> wrote:>>food and furniture?  but isn't the common area where we are supposed to keep our receptionists???> this is seriously getting more off the wall every week to week and a half. the place>was seriously empty before sudo came in and he claims we are hurting his ability>to rent the space?  if he were more reasonable then we would've already filled the>space with other likeminded groups!  don't you see what's happening, george?> > we should be hedging our bets with a backup plan in case enough support for omni>plan doesn't materialize -  i am generally optimistic about collective of collectives>but the $50,000 dollar deposit and the location are huge barriers to moving into>the omni.  couldn't make it to the meeting this week, but are there any other leads>beside 8th and alice?  recently came upon the term 'hackbase' http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Cyberhippietotalism which could offer up some more viable venues.  what if
>   we had a cluster of hackbases>each with its own flavor?  i've always seen this as something that would grow beyond>a single building.  could have the shop along with a bike co-op operating out of>the basement of one house, a 2D and 3D print shop w/cafe in another, all networked>and uniformly autonomous.> > i don't know if this was discussed at the meeting, but i've in the past advocated>going on a 'space diet' - no not astronaut ice cream, just dispersing our infrastructure>to various ad hoc facilities for a month to accumulate reserves between spaces if>necessary in our metamorphosis.  it has its own problems but is worth considering>if we see a space we love that has a prohibitive deposit.> > cheers>_______________________________________________> sudo-discuss mailing list> sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org> https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss>
>>>>-- >-------Andrew Lowe
> Cell: 831-332-2507
> http://roshambomedia.com
>>
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