Thank you all for the advice!

To keep costs down, I think we're going to provide locks (we found decent ones for $7.50 apiece) but leave it up to individual recipients to provide lights for themselves.

We're definitely interested in hosting fundraisers in the future, and yard sales and excess bike sales are definitely on the list. We also plan on applying for a few small grants once we achieve 501(c)(3) status.

If anyone has further fundraising ideas, feel free to share them!

Regards,

-- 
Ryan Feller
Director

5800 Bay Shore Road, Box 275
Sarasota, FL 34243
(954) 232-3790
ryan@suncoastcommunitybikes.org
www.suncoastcommunitybikes.org 

On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 4:30 PM, greenbean246 Green <greenbean246@hotmail.com> wrote:
Have you tried any type of fundraising activity?  We are on the board of our local bike co-op, Lincoln Bike Kitchen, and we held a rummage sale at our house.  We had lots of donations to sell from other Kitchen supporters.  We made about $100 dollars (on a rainy weekend!), which we will use to purchase light sets to distribute with earned bikes.  Try Amazon.  We found light sets for as low as $3.50.  One of our board members has free shipping with Amazon.  Try your local hardware store (like a mom-and-pop franchise type place.)  They may sell you large chain quantities on the cheap, and you might make better deals on locks with a local place, too.  Anyway, that's what's going on here.  Don't know if that will work for you in Florida, but it's an idea to kick around.
 
Keep up the good work,  lots of folks need what you (and all of us) are doing!
 
Burklee Green
Treasurer, Lincoln Bike Kitchen
 
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2012 12:15:30 -0400
From: ryan@suncoastcommunitybikes.org
To: Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org

Subject: [TheThinkTank] Any luck with bike recipient organizations covering u-lock and light expenses?

Hi all,

I and some other folks are starting a bike collective-esque organization here in Southwest Florida. We're working with existing nonprofits to distribute the bikes we collect and refurbish, and it seems that demand for our bikes will far outpace supply.

We consider it necessary to include a basic u-lock and lights on every bike we distribute, but we also wish to keep our expenses down, so we can focus more on collecting/distributing bikes and less on selling them as a fundraiser.

Even at wholesale cost through J&B (with quantity discounts), it'll cost us around $16 to equip each bike. We would like to test the waters a bit and see if any recipient organizations would be able to cover some or all of these costs. Perhaps it's a stretch, as these organizations are just as cash-strapped as we are, but have any other bike collectives had success with this?

Also, is there any cheaper place to find u-locks and lights (perhaps some supplier sells them cheaper or offers super-high-quantity discounts)?

Many thanks!

--
Ryan Feller
Director

5800 Bay Shore Road, Box 275
Sarasota, FL 34243
 (954) 232-3790
ryan@suncoastcommunitybikes.org
www.suncoastcommunitybikes.org


_______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit: http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org

_______________________________________________
Thethinktank mailing list
Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org
To manage your subscription, plase visit:
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org