BREAKING NEWS! - On August 24, we signed a one year lease with the landlord for the property in Santa Monica. The lease will last until August 31, 2011. We'll now be able to do more longterm planning and have more events here. Thank you to the 29 people who chipped in to help us bridge the gap between our monthly rental and the lease expense. We can still use support so don't feel it's too late to help. 

The Santa Monica Story

We do not have a long-term lease for the space in Santa Monica. When we first moved in back in January 2009, we were partnered with InsightLA, but they left a few months later and we could not afford the entire lease ($5,200) on our own so the landlord agreed to let us stay month-to-month for our half ($2,600). Although this has worked out so far, it means we can’t plan too much for the future and could get a 30-day notice to leave at any time. (You may have noticed the extremely large FOR LEASE sign over the entrance.) The economy has worked in our favor in this regard, but this is indefinite.

The Proposal

We approached the landlord and asked if we could split the difference with him and get a short-term, one-year lease for $3,900 per month. That would raise our expenses by $1,300, but it would allow us to plan events in the future and utilize the space more. He is agreeable to this proposal and we have a little time to come up with the difference.

How You Can Help

We will not sign the one-year lease and agree to the increased rent unless we have a commitment from the community that will make up the difference. This means we need 13 people to commit to $100 per month, or 26 people to commit to $50 per month, and so on (or one person to give us $15,600). This money would be earmarked for the Santa Monica lease only.

What’s Next?

If you are interested in being part of this support, please contact Mary (323.665.4300 or write to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ). We need to have a commitment for this by mid-July. We already have a few people signed up, but we need more. If you would like to insure we stay in Santa Monica for another year, this is how you can help. We also hope that in putting this one year plan into place, we can grow the community and support so we can remain in this location for the long term.

SIGN UP HERE to become a Santa Monica Supporter.

Where We Are...almost there....