Why Donate to Our New Location Effort?

It makes sense that you wouldn’t think of donating money to Exxon or Microsoft, but the BioFuel Oasis is a different kind of business. We’re a small, locally-owned, independent, grassroots business. We started this business because we love it and are passionate about providing sustainable biodiesel from recycled vegetable oil. We exist solely to serve the sustainable biodiesel community.

Here’s why $100 donations from many people makes sense:

• People want to be part of what we’re doing. Giving a donation makes everyone part of the project. It’s like a whole village coming together to raise a barn. Everyone doing a little can create an amazing thing. It’s inspiring!
• Taking larger amounts money from a small number of investors makes us beholden to their interests and vulnerable to compromising our values. Small donations from our customers keep us solidly independent and committed to selling the most sustainable biodiesel.
• It’s going to take a lot of money in infrastructure ($250K) to set-up our new station. This is a one-time hurdle. We’re taking out a business loan and investing a lot of our personal time & money.  We are raising the rest of this money to clear the move-in hurdle.
• Raising money from customers is not a new idea. We raised a third of the money for our current location’s infrastructure from $50 customer donations. Today, we get our inspiration from some of the groups and individuals linked below.
• Our plan is not to sell the business. We plan on being around a long, long time. As we are successful, we will give back to you our customers. We will support other local, community-based businesses, like we were supported.

We are so thankful for the abundance of support from our community. If you do not feel comfortable giving us a donation, that’s completely okay.

Our inspirations and ideas have come from some of the following groups, books, & individuals. Check them out!

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE): http://www.livingeconomies.org/

Coop America: http://www.coopamerica.org/

Deep Economy by Bill McKibben: http://www.billmckibben.com/

Daily Acts: http://www.daily-acts.org/