Where Our Money Comes From, Where Our Money Goes

It takes money to run a non-profit.  Our annual operating expenses are approximately $130,000, and with that modest amount we are able to distribute hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of food each year.  Because the produce we give away during our Food Shares consists of donations from Alberts Organics, Co-op Partners, and other organic food distribution centers, Sisters’ Camelot’s operating expenses consist mainly of:

• modest salaries
• rent and utilities for a warehouse that serves as our office, our bus storage facility, and a vital community space
• gasoline
• mechanical maintenance and repairs
• insurance for our vehicles
• project funding

Some of our projects that require funding include renovating a new Kitchen Bus (just finished in October 2010!), converting one of our buses to run on used veggie oil,  providing community meals that feed hundreds of people (which sometimes require supplemental food purchases), and small-scale special projects, like our summer “weekend” kitchens and landscaping our community garden.

Our fund raising canvass, which also serves as an Urban Jobs Program, is out 5 days a week and is our primary source of revenue.  We don’t do direct mailings, operate phone canvasses, or use high-cost canvass consulting firms or middle-man charities. Like our method of collective decision making, our method of fund raising is truly grassroots.  Our canvass is unique because we raise the vast majority of our funds by going door-to-door, talking to people about our programs, making face-to-face connections, and asking for community support.

As 2010 nears its end, your support is especially vital.  As we begin to operate our newly-finished Kitchen Bus and move into a new space that will increase our monthly rent by 1/3, we need your help to keep the wheels on the bus turning.  Do your part to get healthy food out to folks in need here in the Twin Cities; donate today!