There are two popular funding approaches in the nonprofit sector: (1) top-down funding from foundations, sponsors, etc which is almost always organized by the leadership and (2) grassroots fundraising that comes from the organization's constituents. I think we should focus on grassroots funding for a number of reasons - the most important being that it connect the organization directly to its constituency through a marketplace mechanism. If the people like what the organization is doing, it grows, if they don't, it doesn't.
There are two types of giving within the grassroots vertical - onetime and recurring. One time giving is ideal for funding specific projects because it gives donors the choice of whether or not they want to participate while recurring giving (memberships-style) is best for funding organization infrastructure because it enables the core team to engage in long term planning. I think the ideal arrangement would be if the emerging organization creates a launch plan that defines it's core functions, explains how much income it needs per month to perform those functions, and outlines a few projects that the core could be responsible for if certain amounts of funding were make available. Once the community knows how much cash flow the core needs, we can create a membership structure that meets those needs. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
