Marcy Darling, Beauty Operator

Toys for Tots time! If you’d like a physical postcard, drop me a message with your current address and I’ll mail it out asap!!! Now-December 17.

2025 Toys for Tots poster reveal coming soon! If you want a copy in the (snail) mail, please message me your current address!

bit.ly/underdare-spring-fundraiser

Check out this update from underdare

Hello Friends!

What a year, yeah? Tumultuous to say the least… I hope you all are holding steady and are taking care of yourselves any way you need to – I know that community has a way of holding itself together even when some of its pieces aren’t able to come to the table. Stronger fu***ng together! Rawr!

Anyhoo, I wanted to send an Underdare update in the midst of chaos. I’m still here, I just ordered and received a bunch of inventory, even some brand new to Underdare items! I’ve created a new organizational system for the garment inventory that will hopefully mean easier packing and unpacking for events and pop-ups. Stay tuned for that…

Speaking of events and pop-ups, I really want to have an Undercarriage up and running this summer. I’ve actually spoken to a couple of folks about a couple of vehicles, and there is one that actually hits 85-90% of what I’m looking for to start. It’s a converted shuttle bus that already has solar power installed (it might need a bigger battery), air conditioning and heat, has a real floor, and apple car play–just to name a few things. It’s listed at $16k. I’d probably have to put $5-10k into it to have it function properly as a retail store, so I’m back to my original estimate of $25-30k. Money is stupid.

And because money is stupid, but you can’t run a business without it, later this week I’m meeting with someone from Venn Foundation to see how I can raise some more of it AND have it be tax-deductible. Venn is a non-profit that works in Program-Related Investments* (PRI), which could eventually mean, if we mutually decide we’d be a good fit for each other, that your larger donations could garner a tax-deductible receipt, if made through Venn. More on that later, too.

While I’m working that whole PRI business out, I’m looping through other scenarios as well. Lottery/pull tabs/meat raffles are out because you need to spend too much money in the hopes of making any, and it’s way too cold outside to read poetry on the corner for tips (that actually happened to me once in the 90s, and if you ask me about it sometime, I’ll tell you the whole story – it’s a good one!) So I’d like to talk about monthly support of the Underdare. Not unlike something akin to Patreon or Substack or Tipjar or one of those thingies, if you like what Underdare is doing for our community – locally, and hopefully on the road – chipping in $5, $10, $25, $83 a month, whatever chump change you could afford to spare, that would be SO amazing. And, I’ll maybe even send you a sticker in the mail every month as a thank you. How freakin’ cool would that be? Who doesn’t love to get a letter in the actual mail??!?

Fundraising is hard, and I’m particularly bad at it and I can’t say I wasn’t incredibly envious of Twin Cities Pride when they raised $70,000 in two days, but I’m really glad that they made up what they lost from the traitors at Target (who were *supposed to be the good guys, but I guess capitalism will always kick you in the ass once it’s only about dollars).

Have I written enough? Recap?
Year is a dumpster fire ✔️
New inventory ✔️
Undercarriage ✔️
PRI”s / tax-deductible receipts ✔️
Monthly support ✔️
Capitalism blows ✔️

Yep, that’s it. Here are some links;

https://chuffed.org/pay/campaign/101985
https://www.vennfoundation.org/
www.underdare.me

Thank you all for your continued support. Let’s keep on keeping on. I’ve literally got your backs!!!

🫶marcy

*Program-Related Investments (PRIs) are investments that private foundations and public charities can make to advance their charitable missions. To be classified as a PRI, an investment must meet two main requirements:

The primary purpose of the investment is to advance a charitable purpose.

The financial terms of the investment are in some way "below-market.

Versatile

Program-Related Investments are extremely versatile. They can be structured in any form (equity, loans, guarantees, etc…), made to any type of recipient (nonprofits, businesses, social businesses, government, and individuals), and used to advance any approved charitable purpose.

Impactful

In addition to making a direct charitable impact, each PRI can earn financial returns, as long as production of income or appreciation of property is not a significant purpose of the investment. Any financial returns from a PRI get recycled and put to new charitable uses, leading to compounding charitable impact.

Involved

PRIs are not without requirements and nuance, which is why Venn is working to specialize in PRIs and share our experience and services across the entire philanthropic community. Over time, our hope is to develop economies of scale and significantly reduce the transaction costs currently associated with PRIs, allowing them to be used as regularly and creatively as grants.