A few ideas to stimulate your thinking….
Get sponsorship from family and friends in exchange for design work after the course. They will be investing in your education and the payoff is in taking advantage of the skills you learn. If you can get four sponsors for $200 each, then you will get the benefit of four practice designs. Then you can sell your skills to others.
Throw a fundraising party. Tell people a little bit about Permaculture and what you plan to do with what you learn, then ask people to donate $25-$50 to help you achieve your goals. Ask some friends to play music or donate food. You will only need to convince 15-25 people to give money to cover your costs.
Hold a workshop teaching whatever skill you have or whatever is your passion or hobby… everyone wants to learn something new! (I’ve found charging people $10 per workshop hour seems about right, so a 3 hour workshop is $30) Or ask your friends to donate their time to teach a workshop. Making cheese, keeping chickens, pruning trees, baking bread, starting a garden, making a website, knitting, etc.
