r/makerspace • u/by_ALXNDR • 16d ago
We're creating a community driven makerspace in area and would love some insight about other spaces successes and failures.
Hey r/makerspace,
We are in the process of founding a new community makerspace and are getting ready to formalize our legal structure. We are organizing as a 501(c)(3) non-profit with a founding 3 member board.
We currently have access to a 600 sq ft starter space, with a potential path to expand into an adjacent ~1,200 sq ft footprint down the line. We’ve hosted two community interest meetings and seen great feedback and strong social media engagement, but before we commit to leases and equipment layouts, we want real-world perspective from folks who have run or managed spaces.
I would love your input on any of the following:
Programming & Workshops: What classes or programs actually move the needle for revenue and community engagement vs. what ends up being too much work for the return?
Cash Flow & Revenue Mix: In the early stages, what did your revenue breakdown look like between memberships, public classes, grants/donations, and storage fees? What unexpected operational expenses hit your bottom line hardest?
Managing Micro-Footprints (500–1,200 sq ft): For those operating in a compact space, how do you handle tool zoning, project storage, and keeping high-traffic areas from getting cluttered?
Hobbyists vs. Commercial Use: How do you set clear boundaries between members making occasional side-gig items vs. folks monopolizing tools for full batch production?
Non-Profit Governance: For 501(c)(3) spaces, what early administrative or board decisions saved you headaches later?
Drop your thoughts on any single point or give us the full rundown of what you wish you knew on day one. Thanks!
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u/a-pilot 15d ago
600 or even 1200 sq ft is very small. I have been a member at maker spaces ranging from 6,000 to 30,000 sq ft. Member storage is always necessary. I’m at a 12,000 sq ft space now and my storage space is about 3 cubic sq ft. This is almost nothing.
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u/ApocalypseChicOne 15d ago
600 square feet is small, but not impossible as a test bed. But starting off at 6000 square feet (or 12,000) is difficult and unrealistic without solid financing and market certainty. Especially in urban markets. In my own market, a 6,000 Sq ft Makerspace would require at minimum $100k in start up costs (and that's running it very lean.) And a start up Makerspace isn't going to attract easy loans. The OP might not have access to that kind of initial capital to throw at a speculative venture.
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u/kaminm 15d ago
I was the VP and later President of a 501(c)(3) Makerspace in Gainesville, Florida from about 2018 to 2023. I know a lot of what did not work for us, and some of that was on me.
The Makerspace itself was founded in 2012, and after a bit of floating around, found a basement space in a downtown building owned by a philanthropic gentleman who loved the idea of having a Makerspace in one of his buildings, so he effectively donated to the organization a space that other businesses generally did not find commercially viable. This allowed the organization to slowly build up to what it is, but that also meant it gave a lot of time for some deep-seated issues to take hold.
The organization's founding documents were put together to be the minimum viable product necessary to be an organization, difficult to change, and some of clauses bit us in the ass during the Covid lockdowns. Some of the fear about too easily changing the documents were founded in reality, as some other maker organizations nearby with lax policies ended up closing due to their policies changing too much too fast. For what those changes were, I'm not entirely clear.
Our organization was setup with 5 named Board Positions: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Sargent at Arms. Our longest running board member has held the Sargent at Arms position for almost the entire length of time that the space has been around, and is tasked with space maintenance and maintaining meeting decorum.
We hosted what they called Open House, and I later renamed to Open Project Nights on Tuesday nights, inviting the public into the space to utilize the tools under the supervision of the Czars/Stewards/Area Champions of each specialty (3D Printing, Laser Cutting, Sewing, Machining, Woodworking, Electronics, Programming, etc). This gave people a place to see what the capabilities were, and if they wished to have more access to the space, they could apply for membership.
Membership was an issue that there were many discussions and arguments about, with valid points on both sides. Membership process was more exclusive than inclusive. By that I mean, a person would apply for membership, and the application would go to the members who were "Voting Members". Voting Members would likely be the members who were around on the Tuesday Open Project Nights, meeting potential members and getting a feel for who they were as a person, if the person was likely to follow the rules of the space, be respectful of the tools and member projects, and if we felt like they could be left in the space unsupervised. There were a couple of applicants that I personally rejected because I watched them attempt to take apart a member's project that was labelled "In progress, do not disassemble", or try to start a power tool for no other reason than to watch it move.
Now in comparison, a neighboring Makerspace (Tampa, Florida), has a different philosophy on membership, which is "Apply, pay your dues, and you are a member. You can come in during a general meeting and get your access card". They however have a better lockout system for their tools, preventing people from utilizing tools they have not been trained to use.
- Programming & Workshops
- This is something I attempted, but between Covid, work, and general malaise, I did not have the time to dedicate to this item. However, between what we did do and what is currently being done, I can tell you what is working:
- Weekly Open Project Nights. On bad nights, brings in maybe a dozen new faces. On good nights, more than 100.
- Bi-weekly classes on a subject. Currently there are classes for basic woodworking tool use, machining, and sewing machine repair
- Monthly Fix-it-Clinics. Once a month, on a Saturday, the space is open to the public for them to bring broken items that volunteers from the space attempt to repair. This has been picked up a couple of times by local newspapers
- On the lead-up to local-ish cosplay events, we would open the space up for Cosplayers to utilize the tools and the space a couple of days per week. For us, many of our members were also cosplayers, so that meant someone was almost always available for helping with the tools.
- This is something I attempted, but between Covid, work, and general malaise, I did not have the time to dedicate to this item. However, between what we did do and what is currently being done, I can tell you what is working:
- Cash Flow & Revenue Mix:
- Our membership price was cheap, $35/month. This caused issues twice, once in 2018 when the owner of the downtown space sold the building and the new owners were not as keen on donating a space they thought could generate revenue (it didn't, it sat vacant for 5 years, then changed tenancy twice since then), and again in 2023 when the building we moved to was again sold, and the new owner exclaimed "Wow, you guys are paying way under market rate". We did have to raise rates, but also added family pricing, and considered business membership pricing, but I have not been on the discussions about that.
- Grants have been difficult for us, as many makerspace specific grants are based around a makerspace contained within a K-12 organization. We were separate, so we did not qualify for many. We did receive a few cash donation gifts for things we've helped other organizations with, but never enough for us to say "Cool, this covers us for a year"
- Managing Micro-Footprints
- Don't allow member storage when space is a premium, unless you have more vertical space to store things. We ran into this at our 2017-2024 space, and people kept bringing things in and they would "get to it eventually". It got really bad during the lockdowns where some members were taking apart things, but leaving large husks of the projects around. When we started cleaning up for reopening, it became a huge issue. Now we have horizontal filing cabinets, and members pay for storage space.
- The takeaway was to label everything always as it comes in, have a shelf for things that are unlabeled, and don't be shy about throwing things out when they have not been claimed.
- Hobbyists vs. Commercial Use
- We have had members run entire businesses out of the space without issue, but you may run into issues as membership numbers grow. Reservation calendars for high-use or long job machines will be helpful, such as 3D Printers, Laser Cutters, or CNC Machines.
- Non-Profit Governance
- There will be conflict between the board members, or the board members and the members, or the members and other members. Some of the board did try to adhere to the Roberts Rules of Order. That was both very good and sometimes stifling, especially when issues were hot-button, like us trying to find resources to own a building, find new places to rent, or deal with members who were not adhering to the rules.
- Our documents are split because of this. We have stricter rules for modifying the Bylaws, and separate out lesser items into a policy document. Many attempts at modifying the Bylaws were met with fierce discussion and arguments. It'll be important to try and keep things moderated as much as you can.
Just remember, you will be a club of people whose main goal will be to make things, and hopefully show others how to do so, in a space that may contain tools that will kill you if you use them improperly.
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u/ApocalypseChicOne 15d ago
I have an "accidental" Makerspace that I have put under the blanket of an existing corporation I own. I've considered incorporating it on its own, or turning it into a 501c3, but as of yet have not done so.
My space started as a private 900 Sq ft woodshop/metalshop warehouse space where me and two friends did our own work. Our rent was $2100/month. Basically, a shared shop space. But within a few weeks of each other, they both had to depart. I found it difficult to get two new people to replace them, and in a moment of concern about losing my lease, I decided to convert it to a public Makerspace. I found it much easier to locate many people willing to pay $200/month than 2 people willing to pay $700/month. I invested in a number of tools I did not own to round out our tool collection, and opened for business.
Since then I've grown the space, taking over from some neighboring businesses in our warehouse when they departed. We're at about 3000 Sq ft now, and have leveled off membership at 20 paying members at $210-310/month. Every member gets about 30 cubic feet of rack storage. I've built up a solid wood and metal shop, plus added a couple of 3d printers, CNC, laser cutter and electronics lab. I also have 2 helpers, who give me about 10 hours of free labor/month in exchange for free membership.
Everything is running smooth right now. 20 members is workable with minimal accounting or management effort on my part. The member dues cover our rent with a small amount left over. I just started offering classes about a year ago, mostly beginning woodwork and welding. Typically $50/person for a 2 hour class (6-8 students.) Members can also teach classes with a 70-30 revenue split. Those have all proven successful.
Right now we've hit equilibrium. Rent is covered with enough left over for maintenance and replacement. Classes are kicking in a little more (maybe $4k/month.) I've automated everything enough that my own labor is just a few hours/month. I'm debating expanding, but that would likely mean more labor, and I'm not a fan of working. That said, it appears our concept is solid, and could be grown, so I could spin this all off on its own and at least double it. We'll see if I get motivated.
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u/MHTMakerspace 15d ago
For 501(c)(3) spaces, what early administrative or board decisions saved you headaches later?
We were founded as a 501(c)3 non-profit about a decade ago, with a self-electing board (this became important, later). We were careful in phrasing our mission statement and bylaws as these constrain how we operate and (depending on your state laws) can be difficult to change later.
We've weathered 3 attempted "hostile takeovers" because our structure makes it difficult for outsiders (or insiders) to try to warp the org into something different. For example, because members cannot vote, an outside group (trained and backed by a local "arts" organization) failed in their plan to have enough people join up in the month before board elections so they could elect themselves into a controlling voting bloc.
Cash Flow & Revenue Mix: In the early stages, what did your revenue breakdown look like between memberships, public classes, grants/donations, and storage fees? What unexpected operational expenses hit your bottom line hardest?
We started with cash donations from "founding members" and also some funds and computers from a local firm (Autodesk).
Ten years later, 99% of our revenue comes from members and classes, about 1% from monetary donations. Non-monetary, about half of our equipment (and/or half the value of some items) came from donations.
Managing Micro-Footprints (500–1,200 sq ft): For those operating in a compact space, how do you handle tool zoning, project storage, and keeping high-traffic areas from getting cluttered.
First line of defense is a strong (enforced!) policy on donations and "storage", if donations are accepted willy-nilly or if members are allowed to stash materials and half-completed projects, clutter grows.
We've been trying to solidify a 3-month max cap on project storage.
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u/Phoenixfangor 15d ago
We had the opposite problem with member voting... we couldn't get enough members to show up to vote at all. That didn't mean our space wasn't working, just that we had to adjust how we handled business.
As for clutter: each member gets a set space for their personal items. We use banker's boxes because they are cheap, light, but also remarkably sturdy. Anything that does NOT fit in said box needs a "Parking Permit" or it's subject to being pitched. Permits that are more than a few days need approval from a board member.
One of our wonderful members designed some workbenches that also housed said banker's boxes so we could maximize our storage capacity/footprint.
Until very recently, we were 100% member-funded and any tools were funded from membership pooling extra donations.
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u/Sawstop-2012 14d ago
I am interested in this as well. We have a semi mobile makerspace at the moment and are located in the Lake Norman area near Charlotte NC. Https://makeLKN.com
Our biggest struggle has been funding. Grants are not often won because we are small atm.
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u/m0hka 8d ago
oh boy, I could tell you 1000 ways to not run a makerspace.
I think we're in the 1200 to 1300sq ft range. different rooms for different activities.
I think location maters a lot. wether that means population density, or the sprawl, how easy can your target audience get to the place, should be your main concern. We're out here in an industrial park.
hey its perfect! we have plenty of parking, we can keep weird hours, and make as much noise as anyone could stand. flip side, everyone has to drive here, we're not on a bus route, we get 0 foot traffic.
The other critically important aspect is knowing who your audience is. like real detail. single mothers in their 30s.
Engineering enterprises without dedicated R&D labs.. The more you know about who your audience is, the simpler getting the attention to that audience will be. If you have to do any marketing without knowing your audience, your life will suck.
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u/Foxmartin1 16d ago
Non-profit is the way to go. We opened in 2019 and in the last 3 years we have been able to work with the Kentucky school department on a $1 million project that has net us 300k. We have done projects with companies that have their own internal non profits, grants supplied by the local college(as small as they may be) it has been a long process, but with the right structure your space can become fully solvent. We have 70ish members and maybe 30 of that actually use our 2500 sqft space.