Five months after Gator Stompin’ — Gainesville’s biggest pub crawl — local nonprofit Pledge 5 Foundation still owes vendors, businesses and employees that participated in this year’s event about $100,000.
But with the inception of the nonprofit’s $50-an-event volunteer credit rewards program, Community Overdrive, businesses are asking how the indebted organization plans to fund its incentive program.
“When they haven’t paid the people back, how can they even talk about that?” said Shauna Dixon, co-owner of Durty Nelly’s Irish Pub.
Pledge 5 Director Jason Bowman explained that the new program is a way for the business to generate money to pay back its debts.
“I don’t want people to confuse us trying to generate more revenue with us spending money frivolously,” Bowman said.
The new program allows volunteers to garner credit toward the purchase of a car, Bowman said. The cars in the program have been purchased from auctions for discounted prices.
After being refurbished, the cars are then sold to volunteers. Bowman said Pledge 5 expects to make about 50 percent of the original cost of the car back from the sales.
Volunteers who attend all 52 events can garner up to $2,600 toward a new car. The credit expires after one year.
Before the program, Bowman was using revenue from Pledge 5’s two thrift shops, located on West University Avenue and North Main Street, to pay back the debt.
“We needed to look outside the revenue that was being generated at the thrift shops and really get creative in how we were able to accumulate revenue,” he said.
Bowman said the organization has been able to chip away at the $150,000 it incurred after Gator Stompin’, but not at the rate he expected.
The delay in payments has discouraged some businesses from participating in future Gator Stompin’ events.
Dixon said Durty Nelly’s will not participate in future Pledge 5 pub crawls unless major changes are made.
“The whole thing seems very unprofessional,” Dixon said. “We did the best on our behalf to honor everything on the contract, and we would expect everything in return.”
Dixon said Durty Nelly’s has been paid back about $150 of the about $1,300 Bowman’s organization owes her. The last check she received, about two months ago, was for $6.
She hasn’t heard from Bowman or Pledge 5 since.
“I give up to be honest,” she said.
Alex Thomas, owner of 101 Downtown and 101 Cantina, said he is surprised Bowman stuck around and faced the issue.
“He really manned up in that sense as far as business is concerned,” Thomas said.
Between the two venues, Pledge 5 owed Thomas more than it owed any other business — about $7,500. He has paid back about $500.
Thomas said it can’t be overlooked that Bowman created a large event on a Thursday in May when business is usually slow.
“It was just a bad mistake, and we have to understand that,” he said. “The customer loves it, don’t forget that. For a restaurant to be angry about it is just shortsighted.”
Shawn Shepherd, owner of Vellos Brickstreet Grill and Wahoo Seafood and Grill, said he knows Bowman and also believes he is doing everything in his power to return the money.
“He tried and he failed, but he’s paying us back, and it may be small, but I got to give him the attempt,” Shepard said.
Shepard said Pledge 5 still owes him about $1,700 from the $2,000 Vellos sold at Gator Stompin’.
“If giving money away will create more dollars and giving more money back, I’m all for it,” he said.
Bowman said he takes full responsibility for the debt and attributes it to a miscalculation on the organization’s behalf. This year’s Gator Stompin’ was projected to grow by 20 percent in attendance from last year, but instead only grew by 2 percent.
In the coming months, Bowman said the business will look into crowdsourcing to raise money to pay off the debt and possibly make Gator Stompin’ a separate entity from Pledge 5.
[A version of this story ran on page 10 on 10/17/2014]
