A case for funding community bike shops, a work in progress:

The three major household expenses in the US according to the census are: food, housing, and transportation.  Additionally, food, housing, and transportation are our top consumers of energy and producers of pollution.

When someone is without food, they are hungry or starving.  When someone is with out a home, they are homeless.  When someone is without transportation they are invisibly suffering.  The lack of vocabulary to describe this state of being, from a queer theory perspective*, illuminates a lack of social consciousness about a critical social condition.

Organizations that address the economic gap in access to food and housing fall into the category of community development, for which there are government block grants, and hopefully we'll be seeing more of this during the Obama(!!!) administration (see change.gov for more about that).  I argue that community bike shops should be eligible on the same grounds as organizations that address the first two problems.

Additionally:
Organizations that address the first two problems typically only focus on immediate economic need, and rarely emphasize environmental responsibility or social capital building.  Referring back to premise 2, it is critical that we at least address the environmental component.  Community bike shops, as a movement, is unique because we employ social capital building methods as we bridge an economic gap in transportation.  We do this by developing an alternate, environmentally responsible system of transportation that lends to further social capital building as people are exposed to each other as they bike through the streets.

From a cultural materialism perspective, our materials are: people, our budgets, and our tools.  We manipulate all of these things to ostensibly construct bicycles.  Because we use social capital building means of sharing bike repair, we're transforming our social culture to emphasize new kinds of equitable relationships and community building.  We're building social infrastructure.  Eventually, we'll transform ideological culture to a point where we collectively internalize these values: sharing, environmental responsibility, community, economic fairness, etc, creating a giant system of feedback that will reinforce itself as we approach a cleaner, happier, and more just world.

I would call that sustainability.

*Here I'm thinking about how standard pronouns don't include everyone.

-rachael

On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 4:48 PM, reno bikes <renobikeproject@gmail.com> wrote:
Reno Bike Project.

We generate most of our income in the shop with bike/part/repair sales.

we do receive some grants from various organizations, but i still havent perfected
the argument that fixing bikes is like taking a huge straw and sucking the fat and CO2
from our universe. but i am working on it.

We also receive private donations which is always awesome. This is probably the
hardest thing to do, ask someone for their money. But it happens, so look out for this.

as for our expenses, there are a lot.

rent 1300/month
insurance 2600/year
full time mech. 1200/month
Ex. Dir. 1000/month

plus other expenses.

for this reason we try to make the shop as
profitable as possible while still helping people.

but we have generated over $70,000 in income so far this year.
so its possible to make it work.

hope that helps

noah


On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 7:26 AM, rachael spiewak <rachael@sopobikes.org> wrote:
1. 2008 budget:
1/2 = donations for shop parts and services, and other creative donations (example: we got an NPR-style car donation)
1/4 = events/assorted benefits
1/4 = grants

We self-generate most of our budget through the content of our work and by having/participating in events that are relevant to our community.

2. Our rent/utilities is less than $400/mo, which is pretty easy to cover with the above structure.  Having staff necessitates some grant funding, but we don't rely on it heavily and we are strategic about from where we seek it.  Grant seeking is a responsibility of the staff person, but we're careful about not turning the staff person's job into a game of perpetually finding money so she can keep finding money.  Having staff lends to the ability to have more shop hours, and that generates cash, too.  Our best and favorite fundraising activity is having open shop hours.

3. For now we have a director (which seems to be a label useful externally..."staff person" or something like "program admin" work, too).  The point is to have someone managing day-to-day admin activities and keeping track of things.  There are a lot of ins, a lot of outs.

4.  Yes, self sustaining, with some grant money.

-rachael // sopobikes

On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 10:39 PM, Liza Mattana <pedals2people@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,

I wanted to redirect Beth's questions that got lost in the bike curriculum thread...thanks in advance.

Our nonprofit, Pedals2People, just got its 501c3.
As we are trying to develop projects and determine our focus under our new status we thought it would be great to get some insight from all of you that have more experience (been around for a while).
Anyone that would like to, please feel free to answer any of the following questions:
 
1.)  What is your main source of funding?
 
2.)  If you have a space, how are you covering your costs?
 
3.)  Do you have paid staff?
 
4.)  Are you financially self-sustaining or grant funded? 
 
Thanks for your help!  If you have any other suggestions or ideas or questions i forgot that you would like to answer, please do!
 

--
Liza Mattana
president
www.pedals2people.org
Spokane, WA

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Sopo Bicycle Cooperative
404-425-9989
www.sopobikes.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hours of operation:
Tues, Wed, & Thurs 7 pm - 10 pm
Sat & Sun 2 pm - 6 pm

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www.renobikeproject.com
Wed-Sat 12-6pm
541 E. 4th Street.
Reno, NV 89512
775.323.4488

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--
Sopo Bicycle Cooperative
404-425-9989
www.sopobikes.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hours of operation:
Tues, Wed, & Thurs 7 pm - 10 pm
Sat & Sun 2 pm - 6 pm