The Organization
Imagine Black is a Portland, Oregon-based organization dedicated to building Black political power and advancing transformative change for Black Oregonians. Rooted in the belief that there are as many ways of being Black as there are Black people, Imagine Black centers collective liberation, civic participation, and radical imagination in all of its work.
Imagine Black is working to activate two creative production spaces, the Nina Simone Creative Studio and the Black Futures Video Studio, as sustainable, community-accessible, revenue-generating resources. The constraint is straightforward. Community members, local artists, organizers, and small organizations without their own production infrastructure are the people these spaces serve, but the spaces need steady, paying support to stay open and accessible.
The Goal
Hypothesis: By giving tours and signing up already-interested individuals and organizations as subscribers, Imagine Black can turn the studios into spaces that sustain themselves. The original three-year revenue projection is $32,250.
Two linked experiments:
- Generate interest and paying subscribers by giving tours, workshops, and demonstrations.
- Convert that interest into new paying subscribers while testing a dynamic pricing model.
Early indicators we're watching: tour and workshop participation (benchmark: 50 participants), conversion into paying subscribers (benchmark: 30%), and membership (benchmark: 25 members).
Strategies and Tactics in Motion
The experiment is in its opening weeks of a six-month grant period (October 2026–March 2027), supported by a $25,000 grant from Northwest Collaborative budgeted across wages, facility rental, and administrative costs. The team has completed the Blueprint Core and held two of four planning meetings, which gave it a base from which to define its audience: curious community members, existing supporters and partners, local artists and makers, organizers, and small organizations. With that audience in view, it set a two-tier pricing structure for the subscription tests, with individuals at $20/month and organizations at $75/month, so that tours can lead directly into paid sign-ups. Six monthly implementation calls, beginning October 30, 2026, give the team regular points to check how these pieces are working together.
Early Learnings
Early evidence suggests the audience is warm: the plan starts with people already interested in the spaces rather than cold outreach, and the team has capacity to host regular events throughout the year. That strong starting point sits alongside an important gap, because participation and subscription numbers are not yet recorded, so every conversion figure is still an assumption. Those estimates draw on community networks and benchmarks from similar nonprofit membership models, adjusted for a niche audience and limited capacity. The gap bears directly on the second experiment, since an open question emerging is how dynamic pricing should work in practice.
In-Flight Multiplier Signals
- Recurring revenue potential: Subscriptions are billed monthly, so a six-month pilot could become a steady annual income stream. Income is projected at $12,900 in each of Years 2 and 3 ($9,300 from direct sign-ups and $3,600 from tour conversions).
- Outsized weight from the organizational tier: Five organizational members at $75/month would generate $375 per month, nearly matching the $400 projected from 20 individual members at $20/month. If organizations respond, a small number of sign-ups could carry a large share of revenue.
- Built-in replication checkpoints: The same tour-to-subscription approach is being tested across both studios. Imagine Black also set bimonthly reflection points and a Year 1 review that ask what to fix and what to replicate, so lessons can be captured as they emerge.
- Capacity: The team brings knowledge of its audience size and engagement levels, plus hands-on experience from workshops, tours, and partner use of the spaces.
What We're Watching Next
- Do tours convert? The 50-participant and 30% conversion benchmarks give a clear yardstick for whether to adjust, scale, or rethink.
- Does tiered pricing resonate? The team will see whether individuals and organizations respond differently to the two price points.
- Does revenue track the grant-period projection? The six-month projection of $6,450, is made up of $1,800 from tour conversions and $4,650 from direct sign-ups. As the first actuals replace assumptions, the team will see which estimates hold and which need revisiting.
- Do subscribers stay? The Year 2 projections assume members keep paying monthly after the grant period ends. Whether early subscribers renew past March 2027 will show if the model can become recurring income.
- Milestones: Blueprint Core meetings #3 and #4, monthly implementation calls through March 2027, grant period end on March 31, 2027, and a final oral report on April 30, 2027.
Why This Matters Now
The six-month grant window is when Imagine Black finds out whether two community creative studios can sustain themselves. The $25,000 grant from Northwest Collaborative covers wages, facility rental, and administrative costs, but the three-year plan depends on subscription income of $32,250 that does not yet exist. For the artists, organizers, and small organizations without their own production infrastructure, these studios are the point of access. Keeping them open and community-accessible depends on steady, paying support. The audience is already warm and the team has capacity to host events, so the open question is whether that interest becomes recurring revenue. Learning that while the grant is still funding the test lets the team adjust, scale, or rethink before the grant period ends on March 31, 2027.
Many small organizations and artists lack access to production tools. This experiment tests whether already-interested supporters will pay to keep such spaces open, and whether flexible pricing makes that possible without closing the door on the community. Early lessons about tours as an entry point and pricing as a lever could inform other community-based organizations building subscription revenue.
