White Swan Coffee Lab at 2025 W. Franklin St. in Evansville is one of the many local businesses who are struggling to make ends meet during this unpredictable year due to Covid-19. 
Business owners David and Kendra Rudibaugh are reaching out to the community for support. David Rudibaugh said, “Instead of just throwing in the towel and closing with short notice, we wanted to give the community a chance to save White Swan Coffee Lab.”
The Rudibaugh’s started a Kickstarter crowdfunding page to ask the community for help. The following can be found on that page:
White Swan Coffee Lab’s Future is in the Community’s Hands
Instead of closing, we’re inviting our community to help us buy the building we’re in. We hope to do more creating & memory making.
Story
During the course of this crowdfunding project we’ll surpass 5 years serving coffee and hosting community events in Evansville. Five years feels like a big deal. In our time we’ve had the pleasure of befriending people across every spectrum of Evansville’s society, and these relationships are what have driven us to try to remain through the times that we’ve all been facing.
From February to April we saw 60% of our sales disappear and, without your support, we would’ve been forced to close already. This amazing community of friends and neighbors and caffeine addicts have saved our little shop more than you could know.
Now we face a new obstacle. Our home on Franklin Street is up for sale, and we need your help all the more.
With over 6500 people in our rewards and loyalty program, if everyone were to pledge at least $25, we could reach our goal to raise enough funds to cover the down payment. We don’t ask this lightly, and wouldn’t ask at all if it weren’t for the encouragement of many of you. This is a big goal and a big project, but we felt we owed it to you all to make every effort to remain.
We have already made an official offer and it has been accepted pending financing. This is our hurdle. Please join us as we take this leap.
Risks and challenges
The goal is high. Higher than we’d like it to be. That’s due to income taxes and fees. We’re hoping to be able to purchase the building we’re in, but if for any reason this doesn’t work out even if we reach our goal, we’ll use the funds to remain in the community and reopen in another location. We love this community on Franklin Street, and hope to be able to remain where we are!
Donate
Did you know that if everyone in Vanderburgh County donated just $1, we could save White Swan Coffee Lab? To Donate toward saving White Swan Coffee Lab, please click here. To let your friends and family know about White Swan Coffee Lab’s story, please share this article and the Kickstarter link on social media.
