Wouldn’t it be great if you could have access to a nice martial arts training facility that didn’t cost as much as your monthly car payment? How about having the choice to attend martial arts classes without having to choose between paying the electric bill or your membership fees? What if this place was located in your state or your city or in your town?
Well we are working on that! This is the idea of Project MARTiAL YOU. Some have hopes to look forward to and some have dreams to aspire to. Our hopes and dreams are getting that martial arts facility in your state and then in your city and finally if demand is there, in your town.
The concept for MARTiAL YOU was brought to light in 2010 by Shawn Hill, after several years of volunteer work with many martial arts programs including those run within the area YMCA. It became clear that a low cost martial arts community center was needed when student numbers and attendance decreased drastically as participation costs continued to rise. Witnessing the benefit of martial arts being removed from the lives of so many because of economic status spawned the need for an affordable center. While formal, for-profit schools in the area are available, the cost is normally much higher and limits the ability of those with low income from choosing martial arts as an activity.
After creating and proving a competent business model for this center, we plan to expand our efforts beyond the first community by bringing similar facilities to other cities / states nearby. Currently, a single facility for the local community of Bangor, Maine is in the planning stage. The center will be open to anyone with the ability to get there. A roadmap of future locations will be considered based on the demand for more facilities. Future growth is very important to our strategy and will depend much on how the facility is initially accepted within the local community.
Current ambitious planning to provide an affordable center combined with our green initiative will ensure we become well rooted in the community and set a good example for future business models.
This is a very bold project designed to create a non-profit community martial arts center focused on providing the best instruction to the broadest range of individuals possible through reduced membership fees subsidized by fundraising, grant funding and donations. Destined to house programs for multiple styles of martial arts, after school programs, community reach out programs and womens self-defense, we hope to create a facility that will become an asset to the entire community for which it serves.
BELOW IS FROM A PAST FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN FOR PROJECT MARTiAL YOU
This will serve as an example of the type of funding needed to help us reach our goal for this effort.
In order to achieve our goal of creating the best non-profit community center based on martial arts we are fundraising in small phases.
Phase 1 – Generate awareness of the project to peak interest through social media and advertisement. Raise initial funds to begin programs in donated space.
$15,000 – initially will be raised to cover operations within donated space, promotional goods, local advertisement and internet presence.
Phase 2 – Raise the funds to acquire our current location prospect. 33,000 s/f building structure located in bangor with 5 acres commercial land.
$160,000 Building Costs
$75,000 Land Costs
$20,000 Closing Cost / Permits / Initial Cleanup
Phase 3 – Raise funds for architectural planning and renovation. Funding for this phase is tricky due to the ability to receive In-Kind donations in the form of services rendered. Much of the work or labor needed to make the building a modern facility can be donated but still given a value. The amount here is high but very low compared to newly constructed facilities of its kind.
$2,000,000 is our initial goal and will change depending on the economy and construction costs.
Phase 4 - Generate / Raise funds to staff and operate facility along with member equipment purchases and in house technology needed for daily operations. Our faculty will rely heavily on volunteers to staff programs.
$500,000 is planned for this stage to spark operations and begin most programs.
Phase 5 – Annual operational costs estimated at approximately
$400,000, of this about $48,000 - $50,000 should be generated by membership fees.
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Budget Breakdown based on method of generating revenues:
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