Save the Red & Black Cafe!

URGENT UPDATE!:  As of right now we've raised 3k of our 5k (sub)goal in a single day!  But we are not out of the woods yet.  Please donate and/or share if you haven't already.  Thanks!  (also: subscribe to notifications!)

Yeah, you don't have to use this thing.  You can totally just mail or drop off a check.  Or just give a ring (503-231-3899) and we'll do it right over the phone, easy peasy.  

Red & Black Cafe
400 SE 12th Ave.
Portland, OR 97214  

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

We need to raise $5,000 (a sub goal) by August 15th or our lender is going to take our building.  This is not a test.  Please, if you appreciate what we do, give us some of your money.

Also: Stay tuned and check in with us.  One super easy way to do that is to like us on facebook & THEN: hover your pointer over the word 'liked'.  Click 'subscribe to notifications.' Do it!  We put most of our current updates on there.  But chances are you won't see them unless you subscribe.  We promise that our posts will be good and that there won't be too many of them.  Not on facebook?  No problem: just go to our website: redandblackcafe.com.  Put us in your favorites on yer browser!  Someday we may even having an email list...  Stay tuned.

Thanks,

R&B <3

Original message:

"Just because I can't change everything, doesn't mean I can't change anything." -1905

We, the workers at the Red and Black Cafe, are seeking the assistance of our friends, larger community, and allied organizations. As you probably already know, we are the only worker-coop restaurant in Portland, and one of the longest running worker-owned co-op restaurants in the United States. We're one of Portland's few remaining all-ages venues. We are a welcoming, warm & dry space for Portland's ever growing houseless community. We've been going strong for almost 14 years years, but right now we need your help. We're reaching out our community first, because we sincerely believe that a community thrives best when it supports itself.

Three years ago we reached out to our community to get help for the downpayment for our building, and the response was amazing! This went a long way toward ensuring that the Red & Black Cafe sticks around for the long run. While this did vastly improve our situation, we're not out of the woods yet.

Your donation is needed: not only to help the Red & Black cafe directly but, by extension, lots of other stuff. Stuff like: the nearby houseless community, who we welcome in our space & work with on neighborhood self-determination issues; the vegan/animal rights and other food-justice communities in Portland through our menu & sourcing; the social justice community by offering no/low cost space for meetings and events; the all-ages music scene in Portland, by maintaining a venue inclusive of folks at any age (with a strictly enforced safer space policy); the co-op community, by demonstrating a democratic workplace which is easily accessible; feminists; copwatch activists; and more.

While a donation, either once or each month, is the best way to help us, you can even help if you're strapped for cash! Here's how:

- Take a second to share this page!
- Make a testimonial video, post, etc. explaining why the cafe is important to you!*
- Take a gander at our wishlist of skills and goods that we need!

In our pursuit of ***Flawlessness, we have 3 tiers of goals we're trying to reach:

"Billz, Billz, Billz" - If we can reach the 12,500 mark, we would offset the days at the beginning this month we had to close for restructuring, maintenance and menu redesign. Our bills would be current, our inventory would be completely stocked, and we'd be slightly ahead on our mortgage.
"Crazy in Debt" - Tier 2 is the $30,000 mark. If we can hit this mark we can be ahead on our outstanding debts; many of which are individual lenders in the community, who could invest in other projects if repaid for their loans to the cafe.

"Run the World (Workers)" - Beyond these goals, your donations help sustain our continued progress, support all the groups/efforts/projects that rely on us, allow us to expand our collective by adding new members into equitable and empowering collective positions (at a time when many in our community are looking for work and projects to plug into), and energize us to undertake the millions of amazing schemes/ideas/dreams we wish to enact in our (less-fucked) future!

an arrow from Portland, speeding towards a heart from everywhere,
the Red and Black Café <A3


*if you make a testimonial, supportive post, funny meme, whatever, tag us! Send it to us! We love all of youuu.