Making a donation to our DIY Communities Safety Fund is a great, immediate way to help us continue our overwhelmingly volunteer-led effort to help support our community's low-income DIY spaces. Click below to make a tax-deductible donation:
(If donating toward a specific fiscally-sponsored project such as SFACTA, please note that in the donation.)
(3D scan of one of our client DIY sites.)
Funds donated will go toward the following:
Immediate assistance:
• 100% Confidential site inspections
• Immediate high hazard abatement
• Direct technical assistance for low-income DIY sites in need of significant repair
• Reparative construction & skilled contractor labor
• Architectural work & planset production
• Building & Zoning Permits
• Tenant and Property Owner representation to Code Enforcement, Fire Prevention, and Planning departments
• Lease and Compliance Plan negotiation
• Grantwriting and loan application assistance
Policy and legislative advocacy:
• Facilitating Building and Planning Code changes on the local and state level that advance improved building life-safety, rezoning, and legalization of DIY sites over the current status quo of rote displacement
• Facilitating the creation of municipal, county, state and private funds to finance life-safety improvements for, and tenant/land trust acquisition of, affordable DIY sites.
Long-term preservation:
• Working with client DIY sites toward financing the tenant and/or community land trust acquisition of eligible buildings, for permanently affordable DIY live/work and performance space.
Note: as of December 2017, our Fund is winding down our previous YouCaring crowdfunding page, and we are now intaking donations through the PayPal portal of our new fiscal sponsor, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. A huge thank you to everyone who donated over the last year!
If you live, work, and/or provide space for communities to gather and share culture, and are at risk of displacement or have safety concerns, you may be eligible to receive financial assistance, and we encourage you to contact us through our intake form.
Our Progress
As of November 2018, we have met with over 120 DIY spaces in the Bay Area. For low-income DIY sites, we are the only "boots on the ground" that we know of in the Bay Area providing immediate assistance, and have been first responders to countless individuals in DIY code-related crises facing displacement due to safety or zoning compliance issues.
Other Ways to Support Us
If you're holding an event that uses online ticket sales, consider using SPARXO - an amazing online ticketing platform. To support Safer DIY Spaces, SPARXO has committed to donating 100% of service fees incurred through online sales to our DIY Communities Safety Fund. To help us take advantage of this offer, register to use SPARXO here, using this link.