for organizers
you built the room.
followers can be bought. reach can be inflated. in a room, you can't fake it. people either showed up or they didn't.
we started with a tiki club. then roller derby skaters. some of our organizers are breaking their backs doing this full-time. others are hustling nights and weekends to make it happen. we're community leaders ourselves. we know what it takes.
your members stay because of your curation, your passion, and because you're the one who keeps showing up.
all you need is a little more help. an extra set of hands. an occasional photographer. raffle items. a space. a permit.
and that's why we're building communities.inc.
- you keep control. what gets funded, who shows up, what gets said. we never pick your programming.
- we're not adding to your plate. keep the same schedule, same themes, same projects, same social calendar. you're not running an advertising campaign on top of the community you already run.
- the ask is a thank you. post about your gathering like you always do, and name the supporters. no scripts, no selling, no banners.
here's how we define communities and fandoms
communities gather around each other. fandoms gather around a thing they love. either way, we look for the same three things:
- you meet in person, at least some of the time. online-only communities are real communities. we're just not built for them yet.
- you gather on a regular cadence. weekly, monthly, seasonally, once a year, whatever your rhythm is. a one-time event isn't a fit yet.
- there are at least 25 people in your community.
next steps
we don't want to work with 10,000 communities. anyone can scrape together a list of names that big. we'd rather know each of our organizers by name. so we move carefully, and sometimes we say no. here's how it goes:
- after you fill out the form below, a real person reads it. every single one. no scoring, no robots.
- you're in the greenroom. that's not a no. it's the room next to the stage. as the fund grows, or a supporter shows up looking for exactly your kind of room, we call you up.
- we go deeper. a longer conversation about your community: other locations, who your people are, what your gatherings cost to run.
- we meet on video. partly to get connected, partly to make sure you're a real human who really built this.
- you join a community circle. we add you where you fit, and the funding begins.
this is just an introduction and ninety-seconds of your time, nothing to prepare.
got it. thank you.
a real person reads every one of these. we'll come back to you at the email you gave us, either with next steps or with an honest no.
nothing you just sent commits you to anything. back to the site →
who we won't fund. we don't fund groups that promote hate, harassment, or violence against anyone, or that exist to demean a group of people.
communities centered on a shared identity are welcome here. that's not exclusion, that's the point. what we won't fund is a community built on being against somebody.
communities.inc is a registered 501c3. funding decisions are made at our sole discretion, and we may decline any application. we get a high volume of requests, so we can't provide individual feedback on declined applications. sending this costs nothing, has no hidden fees, and doesn't create an agreement between us.