Getting funds for the dojo

[Wind Warrior]

Greetings to all!

It's been quite a while since I had written anything! The Panama KTA is now expanding and we have a new dojo in Via Argentina, a fancy strip in the heart of Panama.

Although the new dojo is very nice, we are in desperate needs of funds to continue to grow. Our Sensei charges a nominal fee which is barely enough for rent. And many of the students can not afford to pay the complete fee (and sometimes none at all...)

We thought about asking for funds to the Japanese embassy here in Panama. After all, Rogelio Sensei is IMAF-certified and has the appropiate records in order.

Does anyone know if there is a better way to ask for funds to Japanese people? Rogelio Sensei was a student of Osamu Ozawa, but since Ozawa spent his last days in the USA, that might not be of much help in requesting funds.

We tried asking the government, but Karate ranks last in their list. Other MA like Judo and TKD, recognized by the Olympic bodies, get most of the available support.

Any recommendations will be welcomed. I am quite used to making PowerPoint presentations for business purposes, but a little lost when it comes to asking for funds.

Best regards,

Ariel Meilij aka Wind Warrior
Panama KTA Dojo

[Dark Kendoka]

I don't know how things work in Panama, but do you think that fund raisers are possible?

For example, you could do a bake sale, yard sale, or just have a thourough Kendo demonstration.

[Wind Warrior]

Fund raisers do work, but most of the people who go to our seminars (Iaido and Kobudo) have very limited funds themselves.

Any more ideas?

Best regards,

[Bushi Jon]

we have had a dojo for about a year it cost me 200 month to stay open

[gendzwil]

Here in Canada if you are a non-profit group you can get a lottery license, but it's a risk as you must award the prize even if you fail to sell enough tickets. A lower risk option here is to sell instant win lottery-type tickets.

Bingos are another route - they must be run at least partially for charity in Canada, and they need non-profit groups to work there so they can meet their charity requirements. A 6 hour bingo shift can raise as much as $100/worker here.

Car washes work well if you have some good-looking girls in your club. Don't know if you have the bottle deposit system in Panama but if you do you can go door to door asking for people's bottles (we call that a bottle drive). People also sell chocolate bars, nuts or whatever other stuff door to door. Bear in mind that people's patience for these is in proportion to how good the cause is - they're more likely to give their bottles to the Boy Scouts than to a martial arts club.

[Wind Warrior]

Thanks a lot for all the ideas!

- Bingo is only allowed to religious entities (we are not)
- Car wash could work if we had some pretty girls, but we are basically children oriented and the girls in the class average 7 years old.
- Bottles? Just might work... Let me dig deeper.

Now back to the original question: has anyone approached the Japanese embassy?

Best regards,

[Cassius]

Hola Ariel!

Greetings from an Argentinian iaidoka. We are permanently looking for ways to rise funds in order to afford the airplane tickets to have the soke of our ryu visit us for seminars (he comes from Japan for free, but we cover all of his expenses-travel, hotel and food for two weeks).

It´s a different situation because we´re not in the need to sustain the dojo, which might be seen as "just another business" for a non-budoka.

In our case we received support from the Japanese Embassy and from the Secretary of Culture because this "personality" was coming for a special occasion. But I don´t think we could have got it for everyday dojo running.

Anyway, what we do to get $$ is:

* raffles: we sell tickets to win equipment (full set of iaidogi+hakama+obi, bokken, naginata, etc), even a steel iaito was raffled off. Sensei buys them at special prices at friendly MA stores in exchange for advertising and recommendation. The numbers are sold within the school but also to friends, family and other budoka one may know. Quite often if the winner is some of the higher ranking sempai, they turn their prize down to have a new batch of numbers sold.

* student´s "professional" assistance: one of the students works in the chemical market. He found a lab that reproduced choji oil at an excellent price, and the bottles sold to other students (who need the oil anyway for their swords - iaito and personal) leave an interesting profit.

Another studend is a carpenter. Hello unlimited supply of bokken and wooden weapons/accesories (katanakake mostly) at cost price!

The wife of another student works with textiles and sews (how do you say costurera in English? She´s a "clothes maker", give her a model and she´ll do it by herself). Hello uniforms!

I myself work a lot with websites and forums, so I advertised the school a lot for free, and that brought quite a few people.

* seminars: every month, a special intensive extra-long class with a fee. All of the four dojo in our school together.

* T-shirts. Next to one of the dojo is a t-shirt stamping and embroidery place. We bought them t-shirts with bushido principles, and also for other martial arts practiced at the gym. Sell a little higher than what you paid for it, and it helps.

If your dojo works mostly with children, then you´ll need to focus on their parents. In what way can they contribute? Not only with cash, but perhaps with some form of aid or work, or with contacts. Networking is a very powerful tool, "I can´t do it, but I know someone who can help you with this". Perhaps that way you could even find a place with a lower rent.

My sensei runs a gym, he´s a full time physical education teacher and personal trainer (and has been for a long time, he´s in his 50's). A tennis club near his gym traded his personal work as a fitness trainer for their members in exchange for a really large room (http://www.culturamarcial.com.ar/index.php?spgmGal=Komei_Juku_Argentina_-_Seminario_2004&spgmPic=93&spgmFilters=&option=com_mambospgm&Itemid=77#pic) they didn´t use at night when we trained.


So all in all, it´s hard but if you can get everybody to move for the cause, it´s possible!

Best of lucks


Julian

[Norman Dehm]

I just opened my second dojo in Denver, CO USA and fortunately it is very affordable. But to attract students and funds I have been to some universities and did demonstrations for their martial arts clubs. It has been very successful at bringing people through my doors.

[icynorth]

Fortunatly my location is a renovated barn next to my house, hence no overhead. But whenever we needed funds we did the carwash thing. If you have the right location it can do well.
3-500 per day in good weather.

Go to a transport company and offer to wash their trucks for a fundraiser. They should help you out.

[Phantom Budo]

A barn next to the house, thats sounds like my dream locale. I can't afford the high dollar rent that developers around here charge. Good Job Dude.

[icynorth]

Just happened to be a fluke, I asked about the barn from a customer of mine, he says he'd rent me the house as well for 600 so I took it. The guy put heat in the barn for free for me.
So I have infloor heating in a 100 year old barn, but it took a good penny to refurb it and be attractive enough to work with.
I am pretty happy with it. Now if getting students here were easier. Slim pickins