Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Advice about financial incentives

[Bsetzler (Bsetzler]

At Trillium Hollow we did the following:

New folks who were just checking us out were asked to support us with a $25
membership.  For that they got occassional updates and were invited to
participate in events/functions.  More serious folks were asked to support us
at the $100 and got a couple things beyond the basic.  

When people were really committed to seeing this get completed and join us, in
order to reserve a unit, officially join the community and get your place in
line for unit selection, you had to put down 10% of the estimated final unit
cost.  This money was at risk should the project fail and would not be repaid
until project completion and all units were sold.  (We could and did refund
money in a few instances when we were in a financial position to do so.)

Units were ultimately selected by consensus but the fall back was first come,
first serve.  Those who put more than there 10% were paid interest on the
extra.

Hope this helps,

Brian Setzler
Trillium Hollow Cohousing
Portland, Oregon