What Our Building Costs To Operate

I sometimes feel like I am from the Great Depression era.
If you ask me what my greatest fear is, without hesitation, it’s money.
I have spent countless sleepless nights worrying about money. (Some of you probably know the feeling.)
Fortunately, I have moments of bravery. And I act in spite of my fear. So far, it seems to have worked out. I try not to let my fears define me. It doesn’t always work. But at least I try.
I was curious what our building costs to run. It’s been a long time since I’ve put all of these numbers in one place. (Probably because I might as well be walking into Nightmare on Elm Street, for the fear it produces in me.) But facing your fears, at least occasionally, is a good idea.
Well, these numbers are pretty insane, at least for my level of comfort.
I’ll just get them all out of the way right now. Here are the building costs for 2016:

• Repairs and Maintenance: $10,456.82
• Internet: $2245.71
• Electric: $8,087.44
• Gas: $4,998.88
• Water: $805.74
• Mortgage:  $22,971.24
• Property Taxes: $8378.24

That comes to a lump-in-my-throat total of:
$57,944.07
Or to look at it another way: $4,828.47 per month.
That’s the amount of money our building needs to run.
Basically, $5,000/month
So, how do we pay that now?
As it stands, SageRock pays for it all. We then sublet spaces to other tenants to help cover some of the costs.
We have 4 tenants that probably pay a total of a little under $2,000/month.
But, as we focus more on the charity the more we’ll have to figure out how to cover these building expenses through that.
For now, that’s where the story stops. I don’t yet have a clear idea as how to get that money. I’m putting ideas together. But nothing is solid in my mind.
If you have experience with operating expenses for a non-profit I’d love to hear them.
My vision is to turn this entire building into a community  center for the homeless.
Instead of just warehousing them, we can help them become contributing members of the community.

• We’re currently building a woodworking shop
• We are going to have a bead making workshop
• We’re building raised bed gardens
• There was recently even talk of maybe doing some honey bees.

So, we’ve got a lot of ideas coming together. We’ve just got to figure out how to make it all happen financially.
All ideas are welcome.
🙂