Role-Playing Game Research - Save the RPG Community Center and RPG Museum, Serving thousands - Help Re-open the doors to the public in 2024!
Serving thousands in Spokane and across 6 continents online each year: Help save the East-Central Spokane Community Center by donating, to re-open the doors to the public, or this unique and amazing r
Donate to the RPG Community Center before April 1st, 2024, or the East-Central Community Center will be lost!
Just $54,000 will re-open the doors to the public, and save the community center, enabling the 100% volunteer-run organization to be open for the community, serving thousands in Spokane, and online across 6 continents, for a whole year from March 2024 through March 2025!
https://rpgresearch.com/donate
STATUS UPDATE 20240303
We had some donations come in at the last minute the end of January. They kindly donated enough to catch up on the past-due December and January rent, and enough to cover February and March's rent, but not enough for utilities, taxes, and insurance to allow the public back on the property.
Thankfully this was enough to buy a little more time, but not enough to re-open the doors.
People donated a sum that was just enough to keep from losing the center until the end of March, but not enough to re-open the doors to the public (utilities and insurance).
So, the East-Central Spokane RPG Community Center and RPG Museum facility is still on life support.
Only enough to cover the rent to the end of this March, not enough to re-open the doors. RPG Research is still active twice per month at West-Central Spokane's Spark Central, but that is about it right now as we do all we can to try to get the community center reopened.
We only need $50k/yr to have the center open year-round to the public serving thousands per year on an incredibly efficient budget!
For the rest this year we just need $38k and we'll be able to reopen it to the public, serving thousands in Spokane and online across 6 continents! We're trying to rally some our volunteers in Spokane to participate with us, and the RPG Mobile fleet, https://rpgmobile.com/, in this year's Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Spokane (last year was the first time we participated, and it helped with both donations and people to have that visibility) https://youtu.be/XSMn-OOPKjc https://youtu.be/LIhUMexkyrg.
Please donate today to help re-open the center in 2024!
Every donation helps keep the dream alive! https://rpgresearch.com/donate
In "hunker-down to survive mode", we are unable to open our doors to the public, but we just hang on to the RPG Community Center property, that has all of the belonging, vehicles, etc. in storage, for us to use out in the community at Spark Central, Spokane School District, and other locations.
The lowest we can get this to in 2024, without being open to the public, but still providing services to the community locally and online, is about $3,300/month = $39,600/year (but we need to cover insurance at $10k/yr, so realistically this is actually $49,600/year, insurance due in the month of May each year).
In order to re-open the community center to the public, we have much higher utility bills for lights, heat, air conditioning, water, garbage, sewer, and especially insurance.
The lowest we have been able to get this, only being open to the public once or twice per week is:
- Open to the public 1-2 days per week: $4,500/month = $54,000/year operating costs.
We would like to be open 3, 5, or better yet, 7 days a week anywhere from 5 to 10 hours a day, but that requires the following to pay the bills:
- Open to the public 3 days per week: $5,000/month = $60,000/year operating costs.
- Open to the public 5 days per week: $6,000/month = $72,000/year operating costs.
- Open to the public 7 days per week: $6,500/month = $78,000/year operating costs.
RPG Community Center operating costs list
Assuming remaining open between 2 to 5 days per week, the estimate monthly and annual base operating costs to have the community center open to the public is as follows:
| Year (March to March) | Rent per month (annual) | Insurance | Electricity, Heat, AC | City, Water, Sewer, Garbage,etc. | Internet Connection to Center | Phone | ISP (AWS, Xmission, Website, email, back office, etc.) | Total |
| Per month / year | Per month / year | Per month / year | Per month / year | Per month / year | Per month / year | Per month / year | Per month / year | |
| 2022 - 2023 | $1,500 / $18,000 | $650 / $7,800 | $500 / $6,000 | $200 / $2,400 | $200 / $2400 | $50 / $600 | $120 / $1,440 | $3,220 / $38,640 |
| 2023 -2024 | $2,000 / $24,000 | $800 / $9,600 | $600 / $7,200 | $200 / $2,400 | $200 / $2400 | $50 / $600 | $120 / $1,440 | $3,970 / $47,640 |
| 2024-2025 | $2,500 / $30,000 | ~$1,000 / quote pending | $700 / $8,400 | $200 / $2,400 | $200 / $2400 | $50 / $600 | $120 / $1,440 | $4,770 / $57,240 |
| 2025 - 2026 | $3,000 / $36,000 | ~1,000 / -- | $800 / $9,600 | $225 / $2,700 | $250 / $3,000 | $50 / $600 | $120 / $1,440 | $5445 / $65,340 |
Note, we have the option to buy the entire property, which would save us from rent potentially ballooning when the lease ends in 2025.
If we could raise a lump sum of around $350,000 to $400,000 we could own the entire 1/12th of a city block property outright, which would over time lower our operating costs due to rent and insurance (no difference on the rest of the costs).
The remarkable non-profit RPG Research Community Center and RPG Research have been helping many thousands of people through distiinctive, original, research and evidence-in-practice supported programs using role-playing games to help improve the bio-psycho-socio-emotional functioning and quality of life for all ages and abilities from ages 2 years old through senior adults, and everyone in between with a wide range of abilities.
Save the East-Central Spokane Community Center by donating before February 1st, 2024, or the community will lost this impactful resource!
LATEST VERSION AND UPDATES OF THIS ARTICLE HERE:
From 2021 through 2023, just $50k/yr kept our doors open for a full year, each year, helping us serve thousands in Spokane and online across 6 continents!
Rent has gone up in 2024, but we are still incredibly efficient.
Just $54,000 will re-open the doors to the public, and save the community center, enabling the 100% volunteer-run organization to be open for the community, serving thousands in Spokane, and online across 6 continents, for a whole year from March 2024 through March 2025!
We are extremely lean and efficient, 100% volunteer run, less than $50k/year covers our full year of operations and providing our community programs to thousands of people throughout the greater Spokane region and online across 6 continents, from ages 2 through senior adults, and everyone in between, including those with accessibility and special needs, so that everyone benefits from our cooperative social programs.
Please donate anything you can today, and help spread the word as fast as possible!
PayPal (one time or recurring))
The easiest option is to use Paypal for a one-time, or recurring (help us cover our monthly rent, utilities, and insurance, for example). Use this link to send us your generous donation through Paypal. All amounts help and are welcomed.
Of if you are a company wishing to donate:
Benevity
Some corporate donors like to use Benevity, and we are a listed charity, so you can have your organization donate (often anonymously) to RPG Research by sharing this link with your employer to donate to RPG Research.
Just one $50k benefactor per year can cover our entire year's worth of costs to exist and deliver our programs!
Please donate all you can today:
https://rpgresearch.com/donate
We have to somehow come up with around $10k before February, this week will be the last time we can meet at the RPG Research Community Center.
Impacting more than 100,000 lives directly, and millions more indirectly with our programs, this non-profit using role-playing games for all ages to improve functioning and quality of life needs your support today!
Donations plummeted in 2023 affecting non-profits everywhere, and we are now receving just barely enough for the utilities each month over the last 6 months, so unfortunately I have been personally trying to carry the rent through the RPG Therapeutics LLC income, and my own personal funds for several months, but by November I completely maxed all of the LLC's and my own finances.
All donated money goes directly to the non-profit to provide our programs to the public. Right now that means rent and utilities, then we can keep/reopen our doors to the thousands of the public that we serve directly, and the millions more indirectly. We have everything else covered to provide our programs.
We are one of the most lean and efficient, most bang for the buck non-profits anywhere.
We're 100% volunteer run, so all donations go directly to resources to provide the programs, not to any salaries.
The administrative overhead is the lowest possible.
We run on all opensource software, on donated hardware.
It is amazing how many people we've helped with our programs. We impact the lives of thousands of people and we've never broken the $50k USD mark in a year! Talk about impact! https://rpgresearch.com/impact
Unfortunately we are now behind on December and January's rent, plus property taxes. Right now we owe about $8k, and it is $10k due by February 5th.
We're doing all we can to try to get the word out to get people to donate ASAP to save the center and the museum, but apparently most nonprofits have had a record bad year in 2023, so I am very concerned about our ability to save it.
Since we incorporated as a non-profit in 2017, we have directly provided programs directly impacting more than 100,000 people! And our online resources have helped millions more around the world. At our peak (before the insurance companies) we had over 200 volunteers across 6 continents, running programs guided by us in communities all over the world!
If we lose the RPG Community Center, it impacts:
* RPG Museum and our unique historical collection
* RPG Research
* RPG Research online archives (over 10,000 content items on role-playiong game research)
* RPG Community Center
* RPG Mobile Wheelchair accessible RPG Bus and trailers (nowhere to store them)
* RPG Community center neighborhood participants.
* RPG Research online community sessions.
* RPG Research broadcasts, shows.
* Tolkien Society monthly meetings.
* TolkienMoot
* American Sign Language community study group
* Spokane Music Therapy study group
* And many others.
Additionally, because the non-profit was too small, the landlord wouldn't let us get the lease without my being an additional personal guarantor. So, I will still be personally stuck paying for another year's rent and the back pay, penalties, and taxes (about $40k! USD) even if we are evicted. I would much rather be paying rent on a place we can use.
If you didn't know about the RPG Community Center and RPG Museum, learn more about them, and the many challenges with insurance company underwriters biases against RPG-based non-profits (not a problem on the for-profit, but small non-profit it was shocking). They are a large part of the reason our donations died off because they made us shut down 95% of our operations temporarily in order to get any insurance for the property. We eventually overcame it, but it cost us dearly in donations.
You can read that saga here:
Please help spread the word and donate ASAP at https://rpgresearch.com/donate.
See you all online in a few hours.
-Hawke Robinson
USA +1 509.481.5437
RPG Research phone: +1 509.608.7630
Photos from our various programs:
STATUS UPDATE JANUARY 24TH, 2024
Fortunately some one donated $9,000 USD, which is enough to save the RPG Center to the end of February 2024. This bought us another 5 weeks of runway for the community and/or another benefactor to help us get the place reopened. We're still having to pack up everything in case the situation doesn't improve, but we're hoping these additional weeks will give time for more help to gather. We need less than $50k per year to operate for a full year to help provide services to thousands of people, help us get the RPG Center bills paid so we can reopen to the public.
Join Us in The 2024 Spokane Saint Patrick's Day Parade with the Wheelchair Accessible RPG Mobile Fleet!
As a non-profit, we can participate for free in the Spokane Saint Patrick's Day parade. 2023 was our first year doing so. We're going to try again in 2024, to try to get more funding to reopen the RPG Community Center and RPG Museum doors to the public.
We only need $50k/yr to keep open our doors to the public and enabler our volunteers to serve thousands of people in Spokane and across 6 continents online!
Video clips from last year's parade:
Hope to see you at the parade, or via our live-stream we'll be running during the parade!
https://youtube.com/rpgresearch
STATUS UPDATE 20240302
We had some donations come in at the last minute the end of January. They kindly donated enough to catch up on the past-due December and January rent, and enough to cover February and March's rent, but not enough for utilities, taxes, and insurance to allow the public back on the property.
Thankfully this was enough to buy a little more time, but not enough to re-open the doors.
People donated a sum that was just enough to keep from losing the center until the end of March, but not enough to re-open the doors to the public (utilities and insurance).
So, the East-Central Spokane RPG Community Center and RPG Museum facility is still on life support.
--
RPG Research, a non-profit 501(c)3 100% volunteer-run charitable organization providing tabletop role-playing game community programs for everyone ages 4 through 104+, at 101 North Stone Street, Spokane Washington, 99202.
TAX ID EIN: 82-3521274
Learn more about our 100% volunteer-run organization at:
Hawke Robinson
Known across multiple industries as "The Grandfather of Therapeutic Gaming" because he has been studying the effects and uses of role-playing games and their potential to achieve therapeutic goals longer than anyone else, Hawke Robinson is a Washington State Department of Health Registered Recreational Therapist.
He has a diverse and deep background in Therapeutic Recreation / Recreation Therapy, computer science, neuroscience, cognitive neuropsychology, neurotech, research psychology, nursing, play therapy, education, music, and role-playing gaming.
- Hawke Robinson has been involved with role-playing games in community settings since 1977.
- Studying methods for optimizing the experience of role-playing games, software development, and online since 1979.
- A paid professional game master since 1982.
- Studying the effects of role-playing games upon participants since 1983.
- Providing role-playing games in educational settings and for educational goals since 1985.
- Working with incarcerated populations since 1989.
- Researching and using role-playing games to achieve therapeutic goals for a wide range of populations from 2 years old through senior adults since 2004.
- Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit 501(c)3 charitable research and human services organization, RPG Research.
- Founder and CEO of the for-profit RPG Therapeutics LLC and RPG.LLC.
- Author of multiple books in technology and gaming W.A. Hawkes-Robinson books available on Amazon.
- Creator of the wheelchair accessible RPG Mobile fleet vehicles and trailers.
- Founder of the experiential learning Role-Playing Game RPG Museum, and much more.
- Creator of the Brain-Computer Interface Role-Playing Game (BCI RPG) and many other related projects.
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