Event:2016/04/04 Fundraising

Omni Fundraising WG Meeting - Monday 4 April 2016

Attendess

• Laura, Jenny

Oakland Indie Award

Sponsored by Beneficial State Bank: (100 words or less per question)

1. Please describe your business and/or artistic endeavors. (What does your business do? What is its specialty?)

Omni Commons is a collective of collectives working on food and social justice, access to knowledge and technology, community media, local cultural production, and mutual liberation. We serve as a 'social justice incubator' for aligned projects in need of space, potential collaborators, and other resources shared in common.

We are an experiment in the modern urban commons. A commons is different from a public space. Public spaces are maintained by Someone Else who cleans the bathrooms, fixes things, and makes decisions. In a commons, we all take responsibility for the labor and decision-making that is largely invisible in public spaces.

2. Describe the ways in which you've positively impacted the community and/or environment - We provide low cost work and event space for non-profit organizations that are being forced out of Oakland because of high rents. - We are a community gathering place open to all kinds of people who may not be welcome in other spaces. - Diverse people come together here and develop relationships that enable meaningful communication that is rare in other spaces - We provide resources (equipment, space, skills, learning) to which people and groups would not otherwise have access, enabling them to translate ideas into action. - We host free classes and workshops on many topics including science, technology, language and philosophy.

3. Please tell us how your business is revolutionary.

Omni Commons is a political project, not a social services provider or traditional community center. It exists for anyone struggling to survive systems of oppression. We challenge assumptions embedded in the oppressive dominant culture and ourselves by encouraging self determination rather than establishing hierarchies. We rely upon and help one another. This means taking the time to develop trusting relationships - a process that can be difficult and time consuming, but real alternatives will only be born through experimentation and reflection.

Loan w/ BSB

• BSB would want to come visit
• Fine-tune the pro formas and the rent roll
• Update subleases

Ideas for 501c3 33% charitable income

• Backdate BAPS rent as donations to us as fiscal sponsor
• Ask Jesse if all funds to fiscally sponsored projects *must* go through omni's bank account, or if a contractual obligation will suffice
  • eg; Liberated Lens
• Ask Jesse how we could possibly be fiscally sponsoring other projects if Omni itself was being fiscally sponsored by FNB
• We have 5 years to meet that 33%
• Action Item: Calculate 2015 event rentals within our mission