Asking for donations is a possibility, but it’s not sustainable.  Unless it’s toward a certain end (“help us buy this building or pull of this one event”), you’ll saturate your audience by asking for donations all the time.  We are creating value in this community, and people are willing to engage in a monetary exchange for that!

• Sell things we make, like T-shirts and postcards online and at all events
• Charge cover / solicit donations at events
• Make/Sell larger collaborative projects to notable community businesses (like Art Cube)
• Individual Membership: person gets magazine subscription and T-shirt
• Business Membership: business gets “We support Chords & Oil” sticker for their front window, in addition to X magazine subscriptions and X T-shirts.

We could also work out some symbiosis with for-profit businesses – a percentage of sales go to C&O in exchange for C&O hosting events at their venue… things like that.