And if anyone needs pointers on the nuances of approaching people for money, I can help with that. As far as search terms go, you are looking at phrases such as "funding is being made available for" or "accepting proposals" or "is distributing funds" - in other words, don't just search for the word "grant".
For a lot of the entities on this listserv this may be remedial - I don't mean to presume anything about what anyone knows. Only that there are some who don't, and may find it useful. Please, anyone else, feel free to chime in.
~cylista Nicholas
On 2020-05-25 22:53, Cyclista Nicholas wrote:
Ok! If it was only one person, I'd reply to them. But I'm busy enough right now that I'll just make this a thread for the list.
A lot of what I have to contribute is about physical and fiscal workflows - those are my specialities wrt community bike shops. I'm not as experienced with tax classifications or government requirements, but I can share what I know.
Here in Ithaca, we have something called the HSCTCL - the Human Services Listserv of Tompkins County. It's sort of one-stop shopping for all things human services related. It functions in a similar way to this listserv, in that job openings at local nonprofits and public services are posted there, as well as other notifications such as community events or changes in statuses. As you might imagine, it's a central place where our city is coordinating efforts and information surrounding COVID-19 response.
So my first suggestion is to find out if your local area has such a listserv, and get on it, but also to check to see if that listserv has its archives online anywhere, so that you can see if there were grants posted recently but previous to your joining.
My second suggestion, if that can't work for you, is to contact your local municipality directly - city hall, town hall, even chamber of commerce or office of the city council. It may take awhile to get through because everyone everywhere is swamped, but you shoul dbe able to catch a thread somewhere.
Josh, your situation is somewhat different because of physically where you're situated. I imagine the resources (and red tape) in the NYC area are vast. You'll have a bit more of a maze to get through, but also possibly more diversity of resources to draw from. I imagine every entity from religious groups to neighborhood groups, to high-profile entities like the Salvation Army or the United Way, to places such as Elks Lodges or the like, has funds they are distributing. In NYC, maybe they are all tapped out? The people I know in NYC arent in the nonprofit sector so I don't have better info than speculation. If there was a central public services listserv in the NYC area, I'd be shocked. There's simply too much information. But I imagine you can also make calls to public human-services related offices and wind your way down the maze. You might also try joining forces with Time's Up! I've never worked with them, but I've heard they have a significant amount of workspace.
Things to consider as well, while strategizing:
- many people are making more money now on unemployment than they were
previously. I don't know yet how much work is allowed before losing unemployment benefits, if any; this may make some mechanics reluctant to take the work, or may mean your project is confined to volunteer work only (can still be a huge finacial boost to your org)
- unlike a lot of what we do, which requires a mixture of educational
experience and social outreach, what is required for this particular purpose is simply mechanical skill, so there may be more workers qualified for this task than woul dotherwise be considered (a lot of mechanics aren't really people-persons)
The main thing is to get people in to help you repair bikes you have on hand for sale. Whether it's as volunteers, or with the incentive of income, the one missing element here is personnel.
I've also found that when we're open, I spend literally the entire time of open hours interacting with customers. Any bike work has to be done before or after (or just aside from) open hours. The old status of working on bikes at the same time we're open is completely out the window.
~cyclista Nicholas
On 2020-05-25 22:17, Kai Addae wrote:
I'd also love to be part of any conversation that happens around funding/public policy! We are swamped with people buying bikes right now, and can't fix up bikes fast enough, which means we'll have a shortage of bikes that we can donate out to our non-profit partners when the time comes.
Warmly, Kai Addae Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op https://bsbc.co/
On Mon, May 25, 2020 at 4:31 PM Josh Bisker jbisker@gmail.com wrote:
I want this advice and pointers about funding and public policy. Please let's talk
Josh Bisker 914-500-9890 New York Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op http://bikecoop.nyc/ 596 Acres http://596acres.org/ Bindlestiff Family Cirkus http://bindlestiff.org/
On Mon, May 25, 2020 at 4:24 PM Cyclista Nicholas cyclista@inventati.org wrote:
Hi everyone,
I've heard everywhere that bikes are in extremely short supply, especially because of an extremely high demand currently, and that this dynamic is even more pronounced due to tariffs imposed on China.
Now obviously, this might spur domestic production of bicycles, which maybe could be awesome. But in the meantime, it isn't awesome - people can't get bikes.
Those of us out there - maybe most of us - who deal primarily in used bikes, in the meantime *are* (or can be) that domestic production.
I'm bringing this up in case anyone hasn't though of it all or really processed it yet, because I imagine everyone's local or even state governments are currently accepting proposals for various grants.
At this time, collectively, we literally, physically are positioned to be major gatekeepers to possibly tens of thousands of people becoming cyclists or resuming cycling who otherwise wouldn't, when major retailers and various LBS have no ability to meet demand.
This is also a huge opportunity to turn the general public on to the goodness and soundness of reused bikes. A lot of people think if it's old or used, it's diminished in some way. All of us know that isn't true, and now we have a greater ability than ever to prove the truth of this message.
Here at Recycle Ithaca's Bicycles we've been running nonstop, though with a skeleton crew, since the virus hit, and reusing old bikes for ecological reasons has been one of our primary purposes for several decades. I'm sure most of you don't need it, but if anyone needs or wants pointers or advice, I'd be happy to help. Getting funding to pay mechanics or hire additional mechanics is probably the starting point.
Survive, cyclistas!!! <3
~cyclista Nicholas ____________________________________
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