Dreamfit Foundation founder and youngest-ever WA Business News 40under40 award winner Darren Lomman has continued to grow his not-for-profit organisation through some of the toughest economic times it has ever faced.
Since winning the award in 2007, the now 28-year-old has had to steer Dreamfit through the global financial crisis and work very hard to secure each dollar that goes towards its engineering projects for people with disabilities.
Mr Lomman said 2007 was also the year Dreamfit got its first big break, when it signed a five-year partnership deal with the University of Western Australia for $300,000 worth of funding a year.
Operating Dreamfit from a 150-square metre shed up until the end of last year, Mr Lomman has since moved his team of four staff and more than 200 UWA engineering students and volunteers into the 1,500sqm Dreamplex.
The Dreamplex was previously an old workshop located on the university’s Shenton Park campus. It was offered by UWA to Dreamfit for $1 a year.
However, Mr Lomman said the use of the workshop was conditional on Dreamfit completely refurbishing the building, which included the removal of asbestos and the replacement of plumbing and electrics.
The estimated fitout was to cost $6 million. Mr Lomman had received undertakings from various companies totalling $5 million just before the GFC.
“We had sought out all these corporate donations and in three months it went from a $5 million budget to zero because people were pulling back on everything,” he said.
“It was a tough year for all business, but particularly not for profits because we were relying on these businesses to do well and donate to us and we found it virtually impossible to get people to give us money.”
Mr Lomman said it took another two years for Dreamfit to secure the sponsors it needed to complete its Dreamplex.
“Being a small, relatively unknown organisation, a lot of the companies were still supporting the ones they had a long-term relationship with,” he said.
“It took a lot of leg work because there are a lot of good causes out there in the not-for-profit world … but in the end we spent less than $5000 to do the complete refurbishment.”
Mr Lomman has focused on growing Dreamfit’s Dreamcatcher competition, where engineering students are split into teams to design leisure apparatus for people with disabilities, such as motorbikes, water-skis and archery equipment.
However, sourcing funding for each individual project is still sometimes a challenge because of the economic climate.
“Next year, who knows where the project funding will come from and that’s one of the challenges, we would love some three to five-year funding but the fact is, we work on annual budgeting cycles,” he said.
But seeing the effect that Dreamfit’s innovations have on the people who use them make it all worthwhile for Mr Lomman.
“Seeing the client fulfill their dreams is the thing that drives me everyday and my ultimate goal is to get Dreamfit to the point where it keeps building on the number of people it helps, even beyond my lifetime,” he said.
To nominate for the 2012 awards, go to www.40under40.com.au.
