Silver Spring Residents Raise Funds to Support Local Shop
UPDATE Local residents have partnered with owners of Kefa Café, a local Silver Spring coffee shop in the heart of downtown Silver Spring, to raise $50,000 dollars to support the place’s expansion into the new Silver Spring Library.
A GoFundMe account was set up to reach this goal. As of March 9, the fund sits at $25,826 in donations.
Owners Lene and Abeba Tsegaye said they were honored by the faith Montgomery County has “placed in us to launch the very first community coffee café in a library. But the response from the community has been even more overwhelming.”
Dolores McDonagh, of Silver Spring, said Lene and Abeba are the “heart and soul of our community. They are the perfect small business role models for young people who will be walking into the library everyday – and I feel that I am helping to make our community stronger through my gift.”
According to a press release, the group set a goal of raising $50,000 in donations in just 30 days to help these owners’ costs associated with opening the satellite café in the new library, which is set to open in early summer.
Kefa Café opened in 1996. The coffee shop is the 2013 and 2014 Café Winner in the Best of Fenton Village, and winner of IMPACT Silver Spring’s Community Builder Award.
The coffee shop is at 963 Bonifant Street in downtown Silver Spring.
I don’t think it’s appropriate for a private for-profit business to seek donations from the public. If they are looking to raise capital, they can either get a loan or seek investors.
In addition, according to Maryland’s Dept. of Assessment and Taxation, Kefa Cafe has gone into forfeiture five times within the last 15 years for failure to pay property taxes: the first two times in 2003 and 2007, and then again in 2008, 2009, and 2014 after reforming under the name Kafar Kafe. At present, Kefa Cafe/Kafar Kafe is not NOT in good standing with the state.
In short, I think the fact that they are raising capital through donations is indicative of a poor business model, and the fact that they’ve been delinquent with their taxes is indicative or poor business management. In either case, I wouldn’t give them donations and I’d discourage others from doing so as well
I HavE not set up a cafe shop, but i will if i can raise some funDs.