This is a letter to organizers: How do I start from zero?
Hi,
My name is Josh and I Co-Founded and manage The Culture Fund. I like to write. Here are some thoughts of mine about TCF!
You throw events. You make space. You like gathering people. You like to be the centre of attention/you like to hide behind others' joy.
What’s the reason that you organize things?
There are a million, I’m sure.
Mine is that I don’t want people to feel left out. I felt left out a lot growing up. Through music and dance, I create opportunities for belonging. That’s my high-level umbrella - there are a million other reasons.
I’ve always gathered people; invites over to the house for a playdate, the camping trip, UVIC surf club, art shows and parties, potluck dinners - I like to host - always have.
Then I accidentally started a business doing this. I joined Club Loading in the early Covid days - we invited 200 friends to a party in a warehouse and it went amazing. All of a sudden everyone wanted to come. We’d made our money back, even made a little - $4 an hour when I spread it out over the hours I’d worked - It was totally worth it.
Let’s do another one? YES.
We used personal cash and favours to fund this but I didn’t really have extra cash to front events.
Warehouse rental, artist fees, insurance, ice, lighting, backline gear, cups, square machines; the list was long and then it got even longer later on when we got our own spot - Tomley’s Market.
But wait, how did you get money to make your idea a reality?
I got a third job. That was the best answer I came up with to solve the cash flow issue. It was the best answer at the time. I worked 40 hours a week doing carpentry and 7 hour shifts at a restaurant Mon, Tues, Wed nights - plus Club Loading duties!
I was tired a lot of the time but it was also very exciting; I was surviving so that I could thrive (a Giancarlo Esposito line)!
I sustained this for a few months then burnt out but by that time, the events were running well and we had a purse to debit and credit from. I quit my restaurant job.
I traded my time for money. That’s the only way that I knew how to operate - that’s the way we all are, generally, shown how to operate. (I hope I don’t come across as a business bro)
What other options did I have? None that I saw!
What if there had been a system where I could leverage a simple to access loan to throw those events?
Check this out:
Loan 1:
Loan request: $5,000
Event Expenses: $5,000
Ticket cost: $25
Capacity: 300
Potential gross ticket revenue: $7500.00
Additional revenue entered: $0.00
Interest on loan (7.95%): $397.50
Tickets needed to cover interest: 16
Tickets needed to cover loan + interest: 216
Estimated net revenue (after costs + interest): $2102.50
Loan 2:
Loan request: $2,897.50
Event Expenses: $5,000
Additional revenue: $2102.50
Ticket cost: $25
Capacity: 300
Potential gross ticket revenue: $7500.00
Additional revenue entered: $2102.50
Interest on loan (7.95%): $230.35
Tickets needed to cover interest: 10
Tickets needed to cover loan + interest: 126
Estimated net revenue (after costs + interest): $4372.15
Loan 3:
Loan request: $627.85
Event Expenses: $5,000
Additional revenue: $4372.15
Ticket cost: $25
Capacity: 300
Potential gross ticket revenue: $7500.00
Additional revenue entered: $4372.15
Interest on loan (7.95%): $49.91
Tickets needed to cover interest: 2
Tickets needed to cover loan + interest: 28
Estimated net revenue (after costs + interest): $6822.24
TLDR: In three events, you’ve gone from loaning $5,000 to having a purse of $6822.24. No longer needing to access TCF for that sized loan.
“But I can’t sell 300 tickets to an event”
Change the numbers and the theory still applies!
This is the beautiful cyclical nature of enabling that I stand behind completely at The Culture Fund! Did I just over simplify the complexity of organizing events? Totally. There’s an astounding amount of moving parts that you have to consider when hosting but at its core, it's a simple endeavour, one that can so drastically impact your community.
Money in the arts can be a sticky subject. We’ll talk more about this later. For now, we leave with the ability to turn great ideas into tangible events. It starts with you and ends with you - we are here to help you along the way.
There are many ways to fund a great idea for an event - we are one of those ways. A simple, quick way where your success is not measured by the interest accrued but by the amount of people and events we can enable in this city - A city that deserves the best that you can dream up.
Keep up the good work.
Josh Franklin
Fund Manager
The Culture Fund
