How to Support Pumping Station One: NFP

Help Pumping Station: One Buy Our Building

Pumping Station is more than just a building, but this building has become our home. Graciously our landlord has allowed us to build and modify our space to suit our ever-growing needs over the past decade, and now wishes to give us the opportunity to control our fate. We are seeking $300,000 to cover the cost of a down payment on our building currently listed for $1.3m, and other various technical and legal costs incurred with a building purchase.

Pumping Station: One is the best hackerspace because of its members, who are all chipping in the best they can and fighting to keep the ability for us to offer [great stuff listed below] to our and the greater communities. We are asking for your help in raising the funds to be able to do this.

What is Pumping Station: One?

Pumping Station: One is a community of hackers and makers that work together to become greater than the sum of their parts. We give people access to tools, resources, and a community of artists, makers, techies with whom to connect, collaborate, and share ideas with. And a space to do them in.

How Long Have We Been Around?

The planning for Pumping Station: One started in 2008 at a coffee shop in Chicago, IL. In January 2009 we incorporated and also got our first lease and physical location. It was small and we quickly outgrew it, so a few years later we hopped down the street a few blocks to our current location. We outgrew that too, so in Dec 2015, we negotiated with our landlord to rent the other half of our building and expanded. With 730 members, we have grown to be Chicago’s largest hackerspace and have grown into our space well.

Why Support Us?

We, at Pumping Station, have a lot to offer. We offer more than anyone would be able to have on their own. Because, our amazing membership comes together to work collectively to offer a range of opportunity in a multitude of niche categories ranging from the small; like jewelry making and pottery, to large machines, like CNC Mills, forges, and a whole woodshop.

We are also community focused, with a variety of user groups for electronics, sewing, music, gaming and more. Our space gives all the ability to find and interact with great people whether for individual projects, or to gather with like minded individuals who love to brew beer.

Things Around The Space

Although some of our tooling is only available to members, we have frequent events and clubs that are open to the public in addition to all members.

Not Exclusively Raspberry Pi (NERP) Group

Biweekly meetup for the small computer, embedded control, electronics, special, and general interest group.

Brew Club

Weekly meetup of beer brewing enthusiasts meet up every week at Beer Church to brew together and share tips and tricks.

Python Office Hours Group

Biweekly meetup for people interested in improving their programming prowess. Although a lot of the attendees are Python pros, it is open to all skill levels and all languages.

Electronic Music Mangling Group

A biweekly group for people to talk about and play with music

Cycle Station: One

A group for bicycle enthusiasts meet weekly, to mingle and work on bikes together, in addition to showing newbies to diy bike-repair the ropes.

Sewing Machine Repair Workshop

Monthly meetup where people bring in their broken sewing machines and work together to fix their machines.

Public Board Game Nights

AI Club

Linux Club

DIY Days

We Help Other Nonprofits

TOOOL Group

TOOOL [LINK] is an international group of lockpicking enthusiasts dedicated to advancing the general public knowledge about locks and lockpicking through teaching, research, and competition. TOOOL in the United States is a fully volunteer-run organization with Chapters in more than 20 states, including affiliated Chapters in Canada.

Power Racing Series

PRS is a group for EV enthusiasts that focuses on making engineering accessible. In 2020, PS:1’s PRS team acquired the nonprofit organization and now organizes and conducts nonprofit events and activities, in addition to competing regularly.

Redemptive Plastics

Redemptive Plastics is a collaborative project co-founded and led by alt_ Chicago, a community-driven nonprofit based on the west side that revitalizes neighborhoods utilizing the arts as a tool.

Why Gofundme

Obviously we’re trying to raise funds to buy our building, and Gofundme is a great place to share our progress with not only our membership but the wider hackerspace community and more.

In addition to this campaign we also have many other initiatives including:

✶ Raising the price of member dues from $50 to $65 a month

✶ Various Public Events

⠀⠀⠀⠀• Silent Auction

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀• Featuring Art and Creations Made By Members

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀• Food and Bar

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀• Date upcoming

⠀⠀⠀⠀• Open House Chicago

⠀⠀⠀⠀• And More

✶ Private Events

⠀⠀⠀⠀• Kitchen 17 Volunteer Rally

⠀⠀⠀⠀• Halloween Party

✶ Purchase shirts and more from our store

Gift Matching with Companies

Gift matching from employers and employees is open to more than just members. Pumping Station: One is a 501(c)3 and is another great way to contribute. Find our form here.

We are also seeking other sources of funding. If you or someone you know is aware of some initiative from the city of Chicago, a grant program, a really awesome company or something we’re not aware of we’d love to know. Please contact us at [email redacted]