Giving to Get, Getting to Give: How Queermunity is Building a Regenerative Economy

In a bright, open-concept space in Uptown Minneapolis, Queermunity is redefining what a community center can be. Just six months after its grand opening, the queer-led hub has already become a vital gathering space, offering coworking offices, a café, event venues and even a bar.

Queermunity is more than a hangout. It’s a self-sustaining social enterprise built for — and by — the LGBTQ+ community. Every dollar spent inside goes directly back into the organization, creating a regenerative economy that supports the people it serves.

Cofounders Hilary Otey and Kayla Barth knew they wanted to create a community space for everyone.

“We wanted this to be an intersectional space. We wanted to ensure everybody came here. Being a Black woman, there are spaces where I don’t feel welcome,” Barth reflects.

“I wanted to go and create a space where I felt welcome in all of my intersectionality.”

They knew what they wanted to do, but the how eluded them. Otey has more than 25 years of nonprofit management experience and an MBA in nonprofit administration, giving her an intimate understanding of how the nonprofit world functions. With Otey’s extensive professional experience and educational background, she knew the potential pitfalls she could encounter, and she wanted to create something that was structured for sustainability while meeting the needs of a community. So, Otey applied for the Finnovation Fellowship, a program that supports sustainable social entrepreneurship.

The fellowship provided a year-long stipend, wherein Otey wanted to make a substantial impact. Otey researched the history of queer and trans spaces in the Twin Cities area, considering why some projects succeed where others failed. She hosted town hall meetings and focus groups, fielded hundreds of surveys and interviewed upwards of 60 community leaders.

Otey dedicated her fellowship to trying to understand what the community needed and wanted. No surprise — the queer community needed … everything.

And that’s exactly what they set out to do. But Otey was intimately familiar with the limitations of existing business models like nonprofits and crowdfunded organizations.

With a vision in place, the next step was figuring out how to bring it to life. Otey’s investigation made it clear what not to do: start an NGO. She did not want her organization to be yet another nonprofit competing for already limited grants and donors, adding another player to an already competitive market.

If not an NGO, then what? Otey didn’t want to sponsor a crowdfunding campaign and ask their community to invest in the distant promise of a “someday.” To crowdfund Queermunity would likely take serious time, time they didn’t have. Queermunity needed to happen fast.

Queermunity decided to try something unconventional for their business model: a social enterprise, or a business with the explicit purpose of generating revenue for a specific social issue. Traditionally, a social enterprise reinvests the majority of its income into its mission.

That isn’t all that out of the ordinary. Queermunity sets itself apart from similar business structures because it is sustained by the community it was created to serve. The people who buy coffee at the cafe, rent a coworking space and pay their membership fees are paying directly back into the Queermunity space and contributing to a regenerative economy.

“It’s an experiment,” Otey says. “Nothing has been done like this before. It’s a unique model worth trying.”

Barth and Otey bankrolled the initial founding, startup and renovation with small business loans. They consider it an investment in their long-term vision of transitioning Queermunity into a member/worker-owned co-op. This model would give community members concrete control over the direction of the organization. But they’re not quite there yet. Queermunity first has to prove its long-term viability. While there are some loans to pay off, the first six months of Queermunity are more than promising, with the organization on the fast-track to installing itself as a pillar in the Twin Cities’ queer community.

The social enterprise model isn’t permanent, and the founders hope to eventually transition to a co-op after the business has gained enough traction and has proven its long-term sustainability.

Queermunity is harnessing a swath of different revenue streams from cafes to office space rentals to community partner offices. The unique business model affords Queermunity the flexibility to adapt.

That’s what Queermunity provides: opportunity. Opportunity for the community to do what they want. It’s just the beginning for the community center, and it’s likely to evolve, just like their founders designed it.

Otey reflects on her years-long journey, expressing that she believes she was called to open Queermunity.

“I envision this huge wooden door with a thousand keyholes. Every single little key had to fit, and everyone had to turn it at the same time for something this big to happen. And it did.”