instead of selling bikes outright, what about having them available for trade? the trade being time spent by a "customer" running a program, or working in the shop? some kind of system that still allows the public to come in and get a bike, but also one which nets your organization something other than cash.

if it makes you feel any better, pretty much every non-profit organization--bike related or otherwise--struggles with the balance between two things:

1. doing their mission perfectly. if money was no object, this may or may not involve giving away goods or services. most non-profits who focus on solely this and ignore number 2 often find themselves with burned out staff, no money to pay bills or rent, and often must close their doors.

2. raising money to accomplish number 1. some NP's work so hard at raising money to cover the expense of doing their mission that they lose sight of the mission itself.

finding the balance between the two can often be harder than just doing either one by itself, but will pay off in the end.

good luck.




On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 10:13 PM, Matt <mattface@gmail.com> wrote:
well that IS an interesting problem. if you really WERE a regular bike shop I'd say raise your prices. Since you're not I say you need to prioritize. Maybe the first priority might be programs to train more people to fix bikes. maybe you'll get more volunteers, maybe if you have to turn people away for lack of bikes ready for sale you can point them towards a build a bike program where they build one for sale, and one for themselves.


On Jan 19, 2009, at 12:08 AM, Patrick VDT wrote:


So we have an interesting problem. 
We have become so engrossed with raising money that 95% of our time is spent selling off what was donated to us. 
We are seriously putting in 100 hours a week building and selling but only 2-4 hours on programs. 

Im so fed up with it im going to start giving away all the bikes that would have been sold to other charities in town. 

Money is not an issue for a at least two years. . . . 

Ideas 

Please help, we are turning into a real shop that sells only to college students with $100 shoes. 





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