$30K for the Business of your Ecosystem

NOMCON 2019, Chattanooga

Growing nonprofit revenues

This past weekend Grace and I went back to our makerspace roots, presenting at NOMCON, the Nation of Makers Conference on “The business of supporting professional makers and makerspaces”. This was a particularly timely discussion as the entire community has been reeling from the recent closure of MakerMedia and the ramifications for that within a community that relied on Make Magazine as a broader voice for it. From our standpoint, Makerspace Organizers and Startup Ecosystem Builders are very much cut from the same cloth. Makerspaces exist to empower people to make and create things. They are places of collaboration, sharing of knowledge and resources, and are a critical layer in building inclusive communities that provide opportunities for everyone. In a traditional sense they are home to wood shops, metalworking, 3D printers, looms, and any manner of tools that their community of members need to succeed in making the things they are passionate about.

In a pure form, startup incubators and coworking spaces are really specialized forms of makerspaces that focus on the needs of people who make businesses. Locally, we share the things we Make each week for #MakeMonday where I am always posting pitch decks, company logos, business plans, etc…, while others in our community post things including fighting robots, artwork, circuit board designs, and candle making. The key is that we support each other and are proud of the things we each make in our community. Which brings us to something we want to share with the larger community of makerspace organizers and ecosystem builders. We want to grow the bottom line revenue for your organization by $30K or more in the next year and help you grow activity in your community. If you are interested in learning more, please take a few minutes to fill out this survey. We also included our slideshow from NOMCON below that might help you think through your funding model some more (we added a few speaker notes to help guide you through it).

We believe in the work you do. Our goal is to help make your work financially sustainable so you can focus on growing the community.