Cohousing-L Mailing List: Funding and Organizational Model for Coho US

[Thomas Lofft (tlofft]

One of the future needs for all cohousing communities is to continue generating 
support for CoHoUS for developing and training the next generation of cohousing 
leaders. Just moving in to your new home is not the completion of the 
community, it is merely the beginning. 
 
We are all mere mortals. Every conference I attend gives me additional insights 
into what cohousing is all about, how it may be better managed, better 
designed, and become more sustainable. 
 
One of the convictions I brought away from Durham is that there are three 
levels of sustainability that are critical to our communities:
1. Sustainability of our facilities: community scale of design, adequate 
repairs, replacements, and reserve funding;
2. Sustainability of our natural environment; protection of our resources for 
our enjoyment and for later generations; we do not own the land, we hold it in 
trust for future generations, including plans for sustainably harvesting 
renewable resources like timber;
3. Sustainability of our social culture: living by agreement rather than by 
rules; what that means to us; how we do it; how we pass it on; 
 
I think a critical part of our sustainability is to sustain support for CoHoUS 
to pass on our lessons learned to our next generations.
 
Tom Lofft
Liberty Village, MD
 
 
R Philip Dowds wrote: 

One part of the challenge is that Coho/US (like a parish or diocese) is trying 
to raise money from the residential / consumer sector of the economy, not the 
commercial / producer sector.  Financially, many or most parishes and dioceses 
are in near-starvation mode, and rely heavily on a minority of participants who 
are willing to put huge amounts of unpaid volunteer time.  Because these 
participants believe in what they're doing.
 
There are obvious big differences between the two sectors.  The commercial 
sector spends money in the hope of getting more money, but the residential 
sector just spends.  Also, the commercial sector is spending ?cost of doing 
business?, before-tax money ? where a legitimate business cost may include 
anything from copy paper to a limousine and chauffeur for the CEO.  Residential 
households are spending after-tax money ? although in the case of 501(c)(3)s, 
this usefully reverts to before-tax money.  Even so, a dollar not spent on 
Coho/US is one available for school clothes or the next vacation or whatever.  
Households think about money differently than a does a business.
 
For a funding future, there are a couple of embellishments Coho/US might 
pursue.  First, be more like a church.  Or, more generally, be more like other 
NGO/NFPs:  Be more of something into which people want to volunteer time and 
money.  One obstacle has been identified by Sharon:  After the originators move 
into their completed cohousing development, their sense of mission, of 
promoting a ?movement?, may de-escalate into a simple and perfectly 
understandable desire to live a residential life (albeit one enhanced by coho 
features).  Even so, there are always some individuals and households looking 
for mission, purpose, and engagement supplemental to that of earning a living 
and/or raising a family ? and Coho/US might do more to be attractive to them.
 
Second, consider being more businesslike with those participating ?member? 
businesses that see Coho/US as an avenue to future clients and fees.  As a 
practicing architect, I always had more association-joining opportunities than 
I could make use of, and the annual dues for some of these were very high 
indeed.  Coho/US occupies a unique marketing position with virtually no 
competitors (for now, anyway).  Maybe it could turn that unique position to 
better financial advantage.
 
R Philip Dowds @ Cornerstone Cohousing
175 Harvey Street, Unit 5
Cambridge, MA 02140
 
land:     617.354.6094
mobile: 617.460.4549
email:   rpdowds [at] comcast.net <mailto:rpdowds [at] comcast.net