Kwartzlab Expansion Plan
Contents |
2012 Kwartzlab Expansion Plan
Doug Moen and Mark Pitcher
This is a proposal to remake Kwartzlab as a larger, more successful organization, offering better services to its members, and making a larger contribution to the community. It will be presented to the members at the 2012 Annual General Meeting.
Goals
This plan will endow Kwartzlab with the following characteristics:
- A better space: as big or bigger than what we currently have, ideally at a better location where all members feel safe, in a building with good neighbours who share our values and interests
- Better tools: A full set of high quality maker tools, including a full digital fabrication/CNC lab. MIT FabLab and TechShop are models.
- A full calendar of high quality courses and workshops. Many of these will cost money to attend.
- More members: 100+ members
- Cheaper membership: the monthly dues should be no more than $20/month, ideally less.
- A diversified revenue stream. Operating costs are not paid solely by membership dues. Self sufficiency remains an important goal.
- A part time, paid Executive Director who offloads administrative tasks from the volunteer Board of Directors
- We will continue to be a co-operative, member-run makerspace, providing an open access community workshop, a social space, and a meeting place
The first 3 goals are to improve the services we offer to members.
The Kwartzlab mission statement already includes:
- organizing technical, educational, and social events for the members and the community at large;
- promoting do-it-yourself, technical and artistic endeavours in the community in general;
and the third goal is just a refinement of this. I want Kwartzlab to consistently and reliably run a calendar of courses, workshops and other events, for the benefit of members, for the benefit of the community at large, and to promote maker culture. I want Kwartzlab to be known by the general public as the place to go to attend an Arduino or laser cutter workshop. Many of these events will cost money, to pay for materials, instructors, and to provide club revenue.
In order to marshall the economic forces and people power necessary to make this happen, we need more members. More members will increase our talent pool, raise our profile and give us more clout for fundraising, and lead to a more vibrant maker community.
In order to attract more members, and to serve a larger fraction of the local maker community, we need to lower membership fees. Our current fee of $50 is affordable for some members, a sacrifice and significant commitment for others, and is a barrier that prevents many people from joining.
A corollary of low membership fees is that we have multiple sources of revenue. Operating costs are not paid by membership dues alone. Courses and events will become one source of income; there will be others.
This will be a larger organization that, with the multiple revenue streams and other activities, will be more complex to run. We will need a paid Executive Director to assume many of the administrative burdens.
The transition I'm describing is an utterly common one: it's a path that has been followed by many non-profit organizations before us. Mark has a book that describes this transition, characterizing us as "phase 1". I've surveyed 3 local non-profit maker organizations that have made this transition (see Appendix), and while details vary widely, they all share the following characteristics:
- 100-200 members
- low membership dues, no more than 1/3 of Kwartzlab's
- a diversified revenue stream
- a paid executive director
The Plan
To achieve these goals requires a multi-year, multi-step plan.
Right now, our situation is a catch-22. In order to attract more members, we need to offer better services, or lower our fees. In order to afford better services or lower fees, we need more members.
In order to break this cycle, we will need institutional support to provide us with bridge financing (or free rent) for a few years, so that we can improve our tools and facilities while lowering our membership fees. This will enable us to grow our membership, hire an executive director, and give us time to build relationships and diversify our revenue stream, so that we can ultimately be self sustaining. Currently, we are like a startup without the venture capital that's needed to get to the next stage.
The plan:
- get institutional support, so we can afford the next step
- lower fees, acquire more tools, hire an exec director, maybe move to a better space
- grow our membership, diversify our revenue stream
- become self sufficient
Step 1: Fundraising
The first step is to get institutional support. This will be easier if we have clear goals, a plan, if we know exactly what to ask for and why.
Since the results are uncertain, we should approach multiple different institutions in parallel, and see what works.
- Apply for a Trillium grant
- Apply for grants from other funding agencies, as Trillium isn't the only one
- Leverage our contacts at CEEO and CTT, show them our plan, and see how they can help
- Approach the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, and see what kind of assistance they can offer. In particular, ask for some sort of deal for subsidized real estate, which is something that other local non-profits have received.
- Solicit corporate sponsorships.
- Can the universities help us?
Mark Pitcher is working on a Trillium grant proposal for the July 1 deadline. We'll ask for:
- a capital grant, to buy a full complement of makerspace tools
- a multi-year operating grant, as a bridge, until we become self sustaining. At minimum, we want enough to lower membership dues to $25/year for 2 years.
- funds for hiring an Executive Director, part time
Here are some ideas about corporate sponsorships:
- corporate sponsors get their logo on our web home page
- solicit tool donations or donations for tool purchases
- a donated tool has a plaque indicating the corporate donor
- sell corporate memberships
- different yearly price levels: silver, gold, platinum
- different benefits: eg, member benefits for a certain number of company employees
- approach hardware stores: donations of tools or materials, gift certificates for purchase of same
- approach tech companies
- RIM has some empty buildings. Can we have one?
At some point, not soon, we may decide to acquire charitable status, in order to make it easier to get donations.
A Better Space
We will eventually be gentrified out of our current space; not immediately, but in a few years. Darcy has compiled a wish list for the new space we will eventually move to.
When we talk to the cities about real estate options, I'd like to promote a vision of a KW Artz Centre, a multi-tenant building that hosts both a makerspace, and offices, workshops and studios for entrepreneurs and artists who may make use of the community workshop in the makerspace. Members who need dedicated space for working on long term projects need some place to go, and this addresses that problem.
- We have talked to Gabrielle Clermont about partnering with TreeHaus, colocating in a new building with some shared facilities. That's consistent with this vision.
- We have talked to Sean Puckett for his vision for an Elevator Arts & Culture building -- elevatorarts.org. If this existed, we could be tenants.
- WCAC leases an entire building, The Button Factory, and they rent out bits to other groups. That's a model.
- London Potter's Guild owns their own building. That's another model.
Other Maker Organizations who have Made This Transition
K-W Woodworking & Craft Centre
- ~100 members
- dues are $110/year (~$10 per month)
- ~6000 sq ft, a huge number of tools
- rent paid by cities of Kitchener and Waterloo
London Potter's Guild
- ~100 members
- dues are $200/year (~$17/month)
- own their building (saved up for 10 years, $50,000 building + extensive sweat equity)
- revenue from courses, a gift shop
- paid, part time Executive Director
Waterloo Community Arts Centre at The Button Factory
- ~200 members
- dues are $30/year ($2.50 per month)
- a large space (The Button Factory), rent paid to City of Waterloo
- an extensive calendar of courses, workshops and special events (which provide revenue)
- predictable revenue stream by renting out part of the button factory
- full time paid Executive Director + 2 part time employees
WCAC leases the Button Factory from the city of waterloo, and has income from a variety of sources, including courses, workshops & special events, renting out the Button Factory, donations (they became a charity a few years ago to boost this income). A few years ago, they received a $100,000 multi-year operational grant from Trillium in order to get through a rough patch. Since then, they've worked hard to increase their revenue, and have recently become self supporting.
