The bicycle kitchen started in the tiny kitchen of a disused studio apartment at the los angeles ecovillage.  The first set of tools were the personal property of the founders.  the initial shop hours were tuesday  evenings only.  beer and pizza was currency.  after two years 2003-2004 the kitchen had blown up to three days ( tue, thur, and sat) the volunteer staff had grown to ~thirty and we received a  $10,000 grant from a local philanthropist.  we use that money to buy tools and moved to a store front where we needed to take in ~$ 75.00/day  we opened six days a week and earned all our moneys by providing goods and services.  the kitchen is still 100% volunteer  our revenue is around 75k yearly.  over the last 10 years we did get a grant from the  
Annenberg  foundation.  that gave us the down payment on our own space.  

as Sam said, it all depend on the particulars.   one of the main things that sets a bike coop aside from most non-profits is we provide real and tangible resources to all levels of society.  empowering access to personal transportation is very valuable. offering it as volunteers and giving clients the opportunity to donate at the level they wish to often results in ample rewards.


we go a long way  just not very fast


jim   




 


On Nov 23, 2014, at 6:52 PM, Samuel <samuelchristianjensen@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't know that there really is an average amount of income for a bike co-op since different bike co-ops do completely different things. Most bike co-ops don't really make much in the way of income, though, as far as I know. I worked for a while at a co-op in Iowa that made some money off checking out and selling fixed up bikes, as well as from selling parts and tubes, etc. We primarily were able to get by because the city gave us free space for a shop and storefront, though. I know other co-ops that are funded by grants or have some other sort of benefactor. I would say the most important thing is to have a good group of people to start the organization with that have the resources to go out and find support, whether that's from the local gov't, universities, foundations, environmental orgs, bicyclists and bike shops, etc.

Sam


Den 23-11-2014 kl. 18:06 skrev tenaya goldsmith:
I'm trying to start up a bike co-op where I live and I would like to know what the average amount of income is for a bike co-op and what the financials typically look like.
I want to make sure that when I start this that I am financially ok so that it all doesn't crumble beneath me.


~ Tenaya Goldsmith


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