My local co-op is in Berkeley, California where I grew up. It is an amazing place with excellent staff that helps the community and has a youth training/internship program. Their funding was cut drastically in the last couple of months and they are now running off of 3/8ths staff.

Not only do they serve a very deserving community with care and respect. But they are the last bike shop in the area that is part of the CnV community. Some of the employees are very knowledgeable and talented CnV mechanics. There are employees on the open shop side can fix most anything, and how to do it RIGHT. The folks on the retail side constantly fix up and sell wonderful examples and keep a lot of great bikes not only on the road but looking/riding great. Another meaningful thing is that they teach and foster love and respect for CnV bicycles. They teach the youth how to work on it and why they’re cool. They show/sell CnV bikes with pride. My salient point is that not only is it a really important and highly used part of the community, but they also foster great amounts of love for CnV. And it’s the only place left.

They are clearly facing going out of business very soon. As much as it hurts to say, I can see the writing on the wall. The only thing that would save them would be a large scale, consistent supporting benefactor.

Their staff in charge of writing grants are apparently not very good...so I want to ask for advice:

Do you guys know of any grants that saved your community Bike shop? Do you guys know anyone or any organization that practices philanthropy on this scale? Do you guys know of any other options or suggestions?



Anything helps. I don’t want to see the last CnV friendly bike shop die.

Hey, long time non-profit fundraiser here. I can tell you that it's unwise to rely on grants as the sole, or even primary source of revenue. It does help to have competent grant writers, but granters are fickle. Funding priorities change or granters may just want to fund something new. Currently, some granters are changing focus to combat certain things happening at the Federal level. Anyway, grant revenue should account for less than half of an org's overall revenue. More like one third is ideal. Multiple funding sources are needed for an organization to thrive.

A co-op needs financial support from its community and surrounding communities to be successful. There are lots of ways to get this support, of course. The right strategy will depend a lot on what the staff and various communities' capacity is. If you would like to talk more about this, please feel free to send me a PM. Happy to help, if I can.

Find a deep pocketed donor.
not joking.
best of luck.

This, and a few hundred shallow pocketed donors.

If there are ways for the co-op to lower its overhead, look there first -- space that is free or super low rent can make a big difference.

And yes, a deep pocket donor plus small kine donations from patrons and alumni can help a lot.

I am a volunteer at the Sacramento Bike Kitchen in Sacramento, CA right up the road. Our Co-op relies primarily on volunteers and there are very few paid positions. I’m not sure if this is the best way of doing things but it keeps our Co-op going with fairly low overhead

VERY unlikely in the Bay Area.

Selling some of the C&V parts inventory on eBay?

I wish I had something more to contribute but the weak bike market and fickle economy are tough times to live in.

Do you guys sell on EBay? You can’t just rely on retail walk-ins.

Try getting in touch with Community Bikes in Santa Rosa. They're co-op ish. They have paid employees, not sure what the business model is though. They seem to making it work, they're open 5 days a week! Other co-ops ive been around are all volunteer though, like Biketopia in Emeryville/South Berkeley.

I've been involved with the Rusty Spoke co-op in Phoenix for a few years. It was founded long before my involvement, having been around for well over a decade prior. Given the track history of co-ops of this type, I think that's better than average. It is something I thought I'd never witness in person: a reasonably well-functioning collective. No bosses of chiefs (or conversely, every staffer is a boss, just not of other staffers). Zero paid positions. Some long-time volunteers have agreed to do the books and 990s, others do outreach, while others have contacts with a number of other nonprofits for obtaining/sharing/trading inventory. I volunteer once a week, help out with my knowledge, and specialize in foraging for inexpensive or free inventory during my occasional travels (my trip across Nevada and California last week resulted in a car full of cheap U locks from discount stores and wrenches from swap meets).

There seem to be several unwritten/unspoken principles: first, every staffer is a volunteer and has the same basic authority to act on behalf of the organization - no one is a boss / queen bee / savior / indispensable. Second, leave the politics at the door, and focus on bikes and customers - the volunteers span the whole gamut of political viewpoints, but are united by bikes and mutual respect. Third, burnout is to be actively avoided - we're only open a few hours per week to stay within what we can deliver and be happy with. Fourth, anything involving a significant fiscal or operational outlay will get a quick consensus on the e-communication list first.

We've seen grant-dependent orgs fold up after donors pulled out, so all expenses (mostly rent and consumables like tires, tubes, locks, etc.) must be less than revenue. All revenue is from bike and parts sales - we don't charge for labor or stand time. All bikes are donated - no trades / buys (with one notable exception that took a full group consensus that seems to be working out well). But even in this "worst ever" market for used bicycles, the bottom line is still solid and cash flow is positive. As a 501(c)(3) COO for a different nonprofit in a different field, it's a good thing to see.

Will it continue forever? Who knows. We could end up inadvertently bringing on a volunteer who disrupts the good working relationship. The rent could go way up, or we could lose our site downtown (already had to move several times in the past). People move away or fall out. But the business model at the moment seems solid and resilient, and there's a big enough pool of willing bodies to prevent burnout and we're gradually growing that pool through word of mouth and providing a good place to work and hang out.

Oof!, that's a gut punch.

However much you love your local community, they are not supporting your business financially. That much is clear.

Do you have a business manager? What is their plan to turn this around?

I no longer see very many people riding bicycles anymore - almost none. All the kids and adults are on e-bikes - almost all of them. They may be riding irresponsibly. They may be overweight with no path to weight reduction. No matter, they are riding multi-$k e-bikes and e-motorcycles! That could be a clue.

Does your co-op work on e-bikes? Can your guys rebuild/replace batteries? Can they replace the electronic control modules? Can they piece one together from otherwise dead e-bikes?

Do your guys work on beach/strand cruisers? I see more of those than I see "ten speeds" with their turned down bars. I see more cup holders with tiki cups and drinking straws mounted on the bars than I see water bottles in their holders.

Set up a stand at a popular cycling venue offering free services (oil & adjustments). This might be a bike-a-thon, Sunday afternoon around the lake,... whatever.

I could go on but will stop here.

It's just a few thoughts based on what I saw on my ride today,... and every day.

I was involved with the Columbus bike coop in Columbus Indiana for a number of years. The local United Way rented us space for cheap - undesirable space for their agencies. The local hospital had a healthy communities initiative and out of that they funded an accountant to keep us legal, and a part time volunteer coordinator. Other than that, the operation self funded with sales. Volunteers run the place.

Grants are unreliable. Good for a one time mission or improvement, not sustainable operation.

Lower expenses, increase volunteer usage, seek out well funded long term partners whose mission aligns with yours.

Thanks guys. This is great input. I will certainly pass the wisdom and ideas on to the people there.

I do believe they sell on eBay and I do believe they work on e-bikes.

They offer more than a traditional co-op. With their retail store that sells bikes (that are all donated. But gone through/fixed up =paid man hours) to the public, and most notably, their youth training/internship program. Which is a in-depth and long term youth outreach program that gets teens off the streets/phones, puts a wrench in their hands and gives them the knowledge to work AND continue cycling culture. Which takes paid man hours. All that with two 8 hour open shop days.

The hard truth is that it seems like they will need to offer less services if they want to survive. While honing in on the ones that will make them money (more money).

I’m cooking up some creative ideas too. I hope that they work and they can survive this. I’ll post my proposal(ish). If any of the ideas could be implemented and help other co-ops too, I’d be really happy.

My heroes in the co-op world are the Salt Lake City Co-op. They owned their own block and built a co-op specific building on that property. Their business plan is rock solid. And they bring in 25% of their income based on eBay sales.

Another one to look at is the bike shop dog site on eBay, which is a co-op in Madison Wisconsin. Again, they are killing it.

What, no mention of the Bike Farm in Portland, OR or the Northwest Hub in Salem. Co-ops or bike collectives abound in the Portland, Salem, Vancouver metro area. The better managed and supported ones thrive. The NW Hub has an exceptional manager who is a master at getting grants and building community relationships. They have a healthy retail and repair business which includes both new and refurbished bikes.
Cheers,
Van

It maybe that they move to a more bike charity focus than pure Co-op
there are organizaions in the south bay that have this model to different degrees, both focus on donating bikes, use a lot of volunteers, but are not the traditional go work on your bike co-op

I would suggest a senior person at the Co-op pick their brains

one is Good Karma bikes in San jose https://goodkarmabikes.org/?gad_sour...saAmoiEALw_wcB

and the Silicon Valley Bike Exchange https://bikex.org/

You don't necessarily have to stay private. Consider getting the bulk of your funding from state, federal, county and local awards (you would need to tie this to traffic safety or something), some from corporate grants, and the rest from donations and profits.

Our co-op doesn't work on the e-part of e-bikes for the simple reason that there is an appalling absence of standardization in the electric parts of these bikes. There is a near-limitless range of incompatible differences in battery configurations, connections, shapes, and sizes (think of all the differences in battery-powered power tools and then multiply that). Plus controllers that only talk to specific proprietary boards, at least three different standard voltages, and you start to understand why the person abandoned the bike when it stopped running.

I volunteer at the same co-op as Richard and I'd like to add that the customer probably bought the e-bike on the internet and then wants us to figure out how to fix it. This is not an economically logical proposition. Take it back to the people you bought it from. If you bought it from China, call the guy in China. I'm sure he'll be right over.

For me, keeping old steel bikes on the road is fun (mostly). Fixing Bicycle Shaped Objects that rely on relatively standardized technology is tolerable. Trying to make disposable electronic trash work properly is not fun and I'm not going to do it for any rate that a co-op can pay me.

Point being that the economics of co-ops are not really free market economics and the customer is not always right (unless they are willing and able to pay market rates for service, which they generally are not or they wouldn't have come to the co-op). You have to find a balance between the need of the consumer, ability to pay, and willingness of volunteers or underpaid employees to do the work . I hope the OP's co-op figures out what to do. It seems like they have a lot of potential resources.

I'm reading between the lines here but what my spidey-sense is telling me (Berkeley and recent financial/staff downsizing troubles) is this is the Street Level-Waterside Workshops co-op on Berkeley's Aquatic Park...I sure hope I'm wrong cause I am a big fan of these places (two locations on the same road). I don't have expertise in this field (nor any deep pockets) but sure want to see facilities like Waterside survive and thrive! I don't know who owns the glorified shacks they occupy right alongside the Berkeley Aquatic waters but I'd assume it's Municipal property (at least it once may have been) but just across the narrow road is one recently completed HUGE spec development that AFAIK was built to house some hard charging Tech and/or Bio-Tech tenants and is still mostly (or completely) vacant..sort of looms menacingly over the entire area.

I recently visited two new-to-me co-ops on the Peninsula (Live in Peace in East Palo Alto and Silicon Valley Bike Exchange in Palo Alto) and don't know if they have inside knowledge they might share but they (and SVBE in particular as mentioned by squirtdad) seem to be living large and very much alive!

I'd reach out to them (the guy I met at SVBE is Gregg K. and I have this email contact for him: gregg@bikex.org
The guy at LiP is Andrew Yee and this is an email addy for him: andrew@liveinpeace.org

These are great connections. Thank you guys!
Talking with some of those who are running successfully might reap some good intel.

Working Bikes here in Chicago is a great resource too. They do some good work.

https://workingbikes.org/

My Theme - Innovate or die!

So, you may need some staff at the shop that you don't currently have.

A co-op in Berkeley, eh? I think UC Berkeley has an electrical engineering program school that is at LEAST half-assed.

What I am describing is not difficult. Battery voltages,... not a big problem. Proprietary comm interfaces,... bypass or eliminate them. Go analog? 3d-print a few housings? Work out a solution for one brand and take that learning to other brands.

If the lack of standardization is a bad as you say, heck, you might be able to parlay that into a real business that goes way beyond the co-op.

A remedy to repair a $2k+ bike might have value.

Their co-op just isn't set up to deal with it.

I'm just trying to help.

Sounds like you need to start an e-bike co-op. I'm sure the recent electrical engineering grads are just dying for a chance to work on disposable Chinese crap for co-op wages.

The wrenches I have talked to say it is a total nightmare.....and what your are describing takes time which means it will cost. the ebikes being mentioned are more like $400 to $500 and even the $1000 ones the cost would add up.... not to mention liability, with poor components, cheap tires (another area of incosistency) not existant braking and no initial good assembly

I did first aid on a lady who was on a first ride on a ebike was going way to fast, brakes were suggestion and cheap tires slipped on a downhill turn. in getting her bike up on the trail I though the brakes were gone, but they almost as good as gone

Most shops do not work on anything they did not sell when it comes to ebikes