Celebrating Five Years
Friends,
The Hive—this community you’ve been a part of as a donor or member—is celebrating 5 years of community building and small group processes, ways that illuminate who we are inside and awaken us to serve the common good. Just think of how this community has impacted you and multiply that by the nearly 5,000 who’ve been through our doors or online opportunities!
We are celebrating and we are turning a crucial corner. This is a letter inviting you to join us in what is next. We hope you’ll sense the urgency, possibility, and vision enough to join us as we lean in. In these in-between times, now more than ever, the world needs brave space, a means to join others on the inner journey and out into the world with hope. Thanks, in advance, for your trim to read through this letter.
We had a great year programmatically when many, much larger systems have not been able to remain open. This is because of the generosity of our staff, leaders, and facilitators as well as the donors and members like you.
In 2021, so far, we’ve welcomed 28 new members, sold nearly 1000 tickets, facilitated over 600 hours of courses, and given away over $10,000 in scholarships through “pay what you can” offerings.
Beyond our classes, we have led the way for forming contemplative communities through antiracism training with a number of organizations, transformational leadership training with an area 500,000 member nonprofit, and expanded the Hive’s online programming both nationally and internationally.
We are so thankful for your partnership taking us this far! We’re taking this 5th anniversary as an opportunity to take stock and to go into the future in sustainable ways.
Moving from Start-Up to Sustainable:
In early September a small group of Hive stakeholders (you’ll see their signatures below) met to review the last five years and discern what next steps we are willing to take together. This meant reevaluating our budget and renewing our priorities.
Like most Start-Ups, the Hive’s launch and early success depended on countless hours of uncompensated and seriously undercompensated time of very talented people committed to incubating this sort of transformational community. To be sustainable and inclusive, the Hive needs to build a budget that doesn’t rely on staff and facilitators to continue to sacrifice their own financial stability. We have set a target to increase our operating budget of $100,000 to $250,000 over the next three years, to secure sustainable space and to develop additional revenue streams.
This year’s revenue from tickets and membership is roughly $40,000 and the remaining revenue comes from gifts, grants and professional fees for providing classes and facilitation outside the Hive. You read that right, in order to barely sustain the Hive, outside income is necessary. We need broader ownership of the Hive’s mission and vision to thrive.
Modest annual campaigns like in years past would only help us reach our current commitments, kicking the can down the curb another year. This fifth year, we are asking you to help us take the first step to move into a plan that is more sustainable. Our goal this Fall is to double this year’s annual campaign fundraising to $100,000. Increasing our annual campaign incrementally over the next few years will set us up for the following steps toward sustainability:
Reciprocity in Payment for High-Quality Offerings: An increase in donations would allow us to better compensate facilitators and staff while retaining quality and diversity of experience. Currently, our key staff members and facilitators volunteer twice as much time as we are able to pay them, even at a very modest rate. For our director and lead team to move to a wage comparable to other area nonprofits we would need to increase our current total personnel costs from $57,600 to $160,000, and total facilitator payments from $13,000 to at least $20,000. Your gifts can help us take steps in this direction.
Revenue Generation: We are developing a future-oriented revenue plan to increase awareness of the Hive, increase membership and support, as well as building out online services to provide consistent future revenue. A team is currently assessing business expansion to build online participation revenue. We have also been rebuilding a case for long-term grants in the years ahead.
Our Space: Meeting face to face matters. In addition to online community, a specific location enables us to welcome the stranger, develop partnerships, and impact neighbors in concrete ways. We are looking into buying and upgrading our current building or a suitable long-term alternative to give the Hive Community enduring roots. The success of our Annual Campaign will help inform the feasibility of a capital campaign for our space.
Right-Sizing: Each session there are courses that sell out, some with small attendance, and others that are cut due to low registration. We aim to refine our future course selections, as well as support and encourage longer-term cohorts, to ensure a more consistent Hive experience.
Multicultural Leadership: In addition to paying competitive wages to facilitators who cannot afford to teach at the Hive otherwise, we aim to build a scholarship fund to keep finances from being an obstacle for participation.
When you join the Hive as a member you are saying “I’m in” for this community. That membership payment makes it possible to plan from month to month. Your gift to the Annual Campaign, over and above membership or class fees, makes it possible for us to approach planning for longer-term sustainability.
We invite you to learn more and co-create what the sustainability of the Hive looks like at a special meeting on Saturday, October 30th from 9-11am at the Hive (register here).
Take a minute to look up from this letter and recall an experience you’ve had with the Hive- the gift you’ve been for others and others have been for you. Think of a time you logged out of zoom and felt noticeably different, where you stepped out in brave conversation because of a class, where you shed tears of freedom at a discovery, where you faced fear and continued on. Sense into the unique sustenance this community continues to provide in these in-between, disorienting times for you and so many others.
Consider how your resources are connected to this living system and how you might partner with us financially. (okay- go ahead and take three breaths before moving on)...
Keep the Gift Going
You and I are not alone, and we are not alone in this work. The combined gifts do add up to make something extraordinarily larger than the sum of the parts. Your gift works this way too. Hive members and donors have a wide range of resources -- only you know your capacity to help us reach this year’s annual campaign goal of $100,000. We simply invite you to consider how you can keep the gift of the Hive moving.
If you have an annual practice of directed charitable giving, we ask you consider including the Hive in a considerable way (we also can provide support for matching giving from your employer, as well as foundations and trusts). If you’ve not given before, know that we are seeking 100 new donors in this period and hope you’ll consider being one of them.
Thanks for taking the time to consider this. To give now, visit cincyhive.org/give
With Gratitude,
Hive Annual Fund Team: Troy Bronsink, Karen Ecker, Niki Pappas, Catherine Orsini, Adam Clark, Daniel Hughes, Chris McLaren, Geralyn Sparough, Chris LaRue.