Event:2014/08/11 Fundraising Conversation

7pm we will discuss a plan to do some nominal fundraising!

Experience we bring to this? Danny (CoFed, several fundraising campaigns), Margaretha (lots of grant writing/fundraising, urban commons projects: Hayes Valley Farm [20K kickstarter], Bloom Justice, web and graphic design), Cere (passing hats at events), Athena (worked in nonprofits, but not fundraising), David (Alt Exposure grant, community investors / donors / loaners etc; excited about block grants from our district, human relations, specific project fundraising), Elaine (nonprof$ for artists w/ disabilities - grant writing and program coordinating; other event space in Mass, fundraising for a small press), Jenny (sudo room and sudo mesh; Gittip, crowdfunding, positioning ourselves to be given big grants at the end of the year).

David: Getting the 1023 important for getting 501c3 and major tax deductible donations; writing off rent as a 501c3 renting to for-profits

• 3 mayoral candidates coming here to debate in a next month
• Use Oakland Nights Live to help with our fundraising and donations
• Article in the Bay Guardian
• Policy on admitting new collectives, space and rent

Questions

• Danny: What's the latent potential for people to want to support Omni?
• Margaretha: General fund or specific funds?
• How can I help? x2
• Athena: How to bring all the collectives together to represent the Omni, at say, a fundraising event?
• Cere: Isn't the 1023 pretty trivial? Show and tell? Why can't we start having 75 person events?
• Cere: What about soundproofing? Would be rad to have loud events here that wouldn't bother other things happening?
• Elaine: Timeline? How can I most effectively contribute?
• Jenny: Newbie Night - can we make this Omni-wide? What does each collective contribute to the Commons - cultivating this message. How do we

engage people who might contribute funds to also see it as *their* space and participate?

• Jenny: How do we get the masses to contribute the cost of a cup of coffee every week?

Revenue Streams

• One-page financial overview

1. Weekly / Monthly membership donations

• What is Omni membership?

2. Online donations

• Campaigns / Kickstarters
• Donate button

3. Events

• Fundraising Gala
• Weekly Newbie Night

4. Omni-produced events that make money

• Shows (taking a cut)
  • Thurston Moore, The Melvins, MGMT

5. Booked events

• Weddings, etc;
• Space Rental

6. End-of-the-year campaign

• Very conventional, but end of tax year is very
• Corporate matching
• Rich families

7. Capital Campaign

• Find the rich believers

Grants!

• Grant-writing hackathon
• Boilerplate

Message

What are the best few things we can prioritize?

Community

• Inner circle: direct and intimate connections
• Wider audiences: eg; global hackerspace community, arts community, people writing about or giving ted talks about these topics
• Hosting events / "stunts":
• Launch night, leverage press, target various large communities

Pitch

• What is the transformation we're promising?

Call to Action

• How can people help us to the work?

Ideas

• Newbie Night
• Tiny art sale
• Coordinate Newbie Night for First Friday
• Study upcoming Temescal community events and coordinate with them

Action Items

• David talking to Dan Kalb about block grants
• Talk to Helen about FNB fiscal sponsorship [Jenny]
• FOCUS ALL ACTIVITY ON AUG21st POTLUCK and then replicate successes at a larger scale

AUG 21 POTLUCK PARTICIPATION NOTES

Synthesized from many post-its late; s we discussed on Monday night, this potluck is a great way for all Omni member groups and working groups to take one step together towards collective unity.

There are two areas of tasks:

Omni presence (pun!):

• suggest each Omni member group have 2+ representatives present
• organize set-up and cleanup volunteers
• suggest everyone "bring a friend or two"
• create half-sheet "About Omni" handouts (building on existing copy on website, wiki, etc)
• welcome participation far more than donation! let's build a beloved community

Omni publicity:

• send email through Omni announce list
• suggest each Omni member group email their list and post on social media
• create event using Omni Facebook page (necessary to engage regular FB users)
• create simple image for posting on social media – example attached! Improvements welcome!
• create "potluck page" or "soon-to-open" page on the Omni website
• consider posting to local event calendars, inviting press, etc – needs discussion
• invite specific groups?
  • prospective member groups (RLL, Rise Above printing, and others??)
  • movement allies (EBASE, Causa Justa Just Cause, Phat Beets Produce, Ella Baker Center, Oakland Rising..... etc?)
  • city & neighborhood reps?