Part Six of a Series

This series of informational blog posts come from a document Mike,Caesandra and Kevin created to help orient new Buffalo ReUse board members to our mission,vision,values and the actual history of our organization. Earlier parts: One Two Three Four Five

We’ve learned a lot about finances in our founding two years.  Most importantly, we’ve learned that if you don’t have funds you don’t exist.  We’ve learned that if you don’t make a margin, you don’t have a mission.  We’ve learned that to make a start-up work, you need to hustle.  You need to sell your brand, sell your services, sell your mission, and in our case sell some building materials.  We’ve learned that at the end of the day, you need to balance the books.  We’ve learned that even with a strong business model and complementary social program, you need to ask people for money.  And we’ve learned that we can’t do all of this alone.  It’s critical that our board participate in fundraising in order for ReUse to advance its mission and achieve its goals. 

I’ll admit, that Buffalo ReUse was my first opportunity to initiate a social venture and it has proved to be the challenge of my life.  However, in the short span of two years, we have sold our mission and we have sold our material.  Buffalo ReUse is unique in the not-for-profit world in that we have tremendous earned income potential and we will likely generate nearly 75% of our operating revenue in 2009 from our fee-for-service ventures.  The remainder of the funding will come from private foundation grants, some government grants, and individual donations. 

In the not-for-profit world, individual donations account for nearly 85% of revenues contributed to organizations.  Far exceeding the contributions made by private foundations.  In 2008, we generated less than $3,000 in revenue from private contributions.  We believe this is an area of tremendous opportunity and we will look to the incoming board to take leadership in expanding this revenue base.  A vehicle that has been proven to not only raise funds from individuals, but also help spread the word about our mission and purpose, is the “house party” format.  The greatest benefit of house parties is that they are largely planned and implemented by a volunteer host and require very little commitment and staff resources.  Bill and Melanie Wolski held a house party for Buffalo ReUse and raised nearly $1,600 in one afternoon.  This model can be easily replicated and more revenues to support community programs can be raised.  We also have a Buffalo ReUse 2010 wall calendar (in development, also by the Wolski’s) that will be offered for sale to the community this Fall.  The calendar tells the story of Buffalo ReUse from the perspective of our many stakeholders and helps to cast the net about what we hope to accomplish in Buffalo.  Finally, we intend to send an appeal letter later in the Summer to ask our many constituents, supporters, and friends to support the many programs and services that Buffalo ReUse champions in our communities.  All of these efforts will expand our individual donor base and increase revenues to support our social mission. 

In addition to this effort, we continue to write grants to private foundations, corporate foundations, and government agencies to launch the ReBEL Corps Program and expand our existing programs.  To date, we have had tremendous success leveraging grant funds and have obtained grants from Empire State Development; the Oishei Foundation; the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo; the Western New York Majority Delegation; the Simple Gifts Fund; the Cameron Baird Foundation; the Hahn Foundation; and the Baird Foundation to name a few (list not inclusive of all funders).  We continue to write grants and expect that grant funding will continue to be a tremendous resource opportunity in the coming year.  Cynnie Gaasch has served as our grant writing consultant; her committed service to ReUse will come to an end in August, as she prepares for a new position as Executive Director of Young Audiences.  We will be looking for a grant-writing consultant to support our efforts moving forward.  We believe that our success at raising grant funds, demonstrates our “fundability”.  While earning our own income is certainly a critical goal for sustainability, we have a holistic program that is attractive to funders and private individuals, thus underscoring the need to expand our fund-raising effort.

Ultimately, long term sustainability can be achieved for Buffalo ReUse’s core programs (field services, BAR, and ReSource) by stabilizing our social venture, earned income model.  The ReBEL Corps will almost certainly need complementary sources of revenue.  With almost two years of experience under our belts, we’re gaining a stronger sense of our true costs of doing business and the revenues necessary to sustain those business ventures.  At the present moment, our expenses exceed the revenues that we generate through the demolition business and through the store.  Therefore, we need to continue our diligence in cutting costs, but also work to achieve revenue growth.  We are still very much a start-up, having just passed our 1 year mark for full-time sales at the ReSource and this September, we will be at the two year mark for full time operations.  Therefore, we must continue to innovate our strategies, expand our markets, increase our public exposure, and grow our brand.   

Publicity for Services

At the ReSource, this growth can occur in multiple ways.  You can increase sales by increasing customers.  We are constantly spreading the word about the store, recent examples include:  articles in the Buffalo Challenger, a radio appearance on WUFO with Ted Kirkland, conference appearance at the Metro Cities Conference recently held here in Buffalo, and grassroots literature drops throughout the City.  You can increase sales by increasing material acquisition, which we are doing every day by reaching out to more demolition contractors, more homeowners, and more home improvement contractors.  Right now, we are focusing on the acquisition of Kitchen Appliances and Cabinets.  Primarily, because these are things that are big sellers at the store, items that are in constant demand, and items that we get the least of through our salvage efforts.  We’re designing a brochure that we will take to kitchen supply stores, appliance stores, and renovation contractors to advance this effort.  We’ve also initiated a cold calling effort to connect with contractors by phone and we have two volunteers that go directly to contractors to deliver information and answer questions.  Finally, we increase sales by improving our level of organization and presentation at the store.  This is literally occurring every day.  We are building new racks, improving displays, and even building an addition to house our sinks and tubs…an addition built with 99% salvaged materials.  The theory is, if the customer can’t see it OR find it, they can’t buy it.