What we raised and what we spent

1

April 12, 2013 by susanyvivi

Well, it’s been a few days and the world has continued to turn and the sun has continued to rise.

All of us in The Village Farm group wanted to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you who’ve sent such understanding and supportive messages our way in the last few days. It makes us feel as if you were in the boat with us – and what a great feeling that is.

We thought everyone would be interested to know what we raised in total. And in the interest of complete financial transparency, what we spent getting there.

Donations

Indiegogo: 23,266.00

Blog: 17,181.00

Cheques: 18,830.00

Cash: 1,135.00

Donation Total: $60,412.00

Expenses

Appraisal of farm (required for subject removal): 2,856.00

Environmental study (required for subject removal): 1,250.00

Name approval for farm Co-op: 31.00

Business plan for farm co-op ($8000 granted by Vancity): 0

Photocopies, printing, office supplies, advertising: 365.93

Indiegogo, paypal fees: 3618.80

Expenses Total: $8,121.73

In our next kick at the can, we will be able to be much clearer about the amount needed to secure the land up front, and we will be. To give you a rough idea, to guarantee a mortgage with Vancity, we would have needed to raise at least $300,000. And to give the farmers time to get their footing to be able to pay the mortgage, we would have needed to raise at minimum, another $100,000. (All funds going to the farmland trust to protect the land. All mortgage payments going toward completing the payment to protect the land.)

Co-op membership payments by farmers and residents would have gone toward infrastructure, equipment and driveways/roads. Housing would have been paid for by the resident farmers.

We hope that gives you a better idea of our financial picture and why we made the decision we did.

We will begin contacting all of you who donated on Monday regarding your options for a refund or to let us hold the money in escrow for the next push. Thank you to those of you who have already reached out and asked us to hold your money – it will help us start again on a much stronger financial footing.

We will also be asking if you’re able to donate part of your refund in any amount to help us cover our expenses. We are a small group and it would help us get back on our feet that much quicker.

You should also know that any of the donations held for a year will not be used to cover expenses – they will go directly toward securing and protecting the land.

All our best.