The Making Place is working to raise $35,000 for our first location!
Why this specific number? As a part of our strategic plan, the board set a requirement for The Making Place to stay six months ahead of the budget. $35,000 is six months of expenses based on our current location opportunities.
On the evening of February 11th our board members met to discuss and vote on a plan. The plan, "Road to $35k," outlines how The Making Place could raise $35,000 over the next few months to open a physical location.
Over the course of two and a half hours Justin, our board President, walked through the plan while other members made their remarks, gave input and shared ideas. "It is not going to be easy and will take a lot of work from each of us," was a common sentiment echoed among the group.
The Road to 35k plan has a framework which is divided into three main working groups: sponsorships & donations, programs & services and grants.
Our Vice President, Ellen, presented a list of grant opportunities for The Making Place which led to the scheduling of a grant writing work session. Five board members- Justin, Lena, Amy, Marijke and Sienna- will get their hands a' clickity-clacking with Ellen. According to the plan, our goal is to raise $11,000 of the $35k from grants.
Ellen also presented a sponsorship program with the goal of raising $11,000 of the $35k necessary to fulfill our plan. This corporate sponsorship program includes four tiers that The Making Place can market to a diverse range of local businesses throughout the valley. The goal with this program is for each board member to sell three sponsorships. Justin, our fearless leader, made it his personal goal to sell ten!
Amy, our Operations Lead, laid out our current programming plan for the next few months and detailed which events could help raise us the money we need. Everyone got excited about the fun and engaging events we have in store! In addition to programming, The Making Place has a few new services to offer in the coming months. Sienna, our Tech Lead, introduced the craft library and membership launch. Between programming & services The Making Place hopes to make the remaining $13,000 for our Road to $35k plan.
If everyone's hard work pays off, and in the months to come The Making Place is able to raise $35,000 then we will move forward with opening our first location. We have our milestones established, our goals set and our task lists written. Although this may be an ambitious plan, we are not afraid to try.
During the board vote there was unanimous consensus one thing in particular-there are no drawbacks in making a big fundraising push. Regardless of whether or not our plan raises $35,000, The Making Place will end up closer to affording a physical location.
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