Diversions offers the warm and homey board gaming experience out of your family game night fantasies. Tucked in cozy and welcoming surroundings, you’ll enjoy unlimited access to hundreds of card and board games with your gaming pass. Sit back and sip a soda or beer while we recommend the perfect game for your party’s size and interests.

At the end of the night, head home with your own copy of the game you fell in love with, a themed sticker for your water bottle, and a few pins you know your friends will wear everywhere. Next time, they’ll want to join you for a game night at Diversions!

Nolan and Sean are Iowa City transplants who have taken root in this town we now consider home. Our shared love of community spaces led us to spend years dreaming of building a welcoming queer space. As board games have provided endless hours of joy, companionship, and conversation for both us and many of our friends, we saw a need for a board game cafe in Iowa City. Okay, now let’s get into the details!

Starting a business is no joke, no matter how much you prepare. While we are prepared to invest our own resources into this new adventure (see a summary of our business plan by clicking here), we recognize that we will only be able to succeed in building this space if we have the support of our community. Support comes in many different forms, and this funding campaign is focused on the initial financial resources that will be critical to making Diversions a reality in Iowa City.

Your support of this funding campaign will ensure Diversions can open sooner, with more amenities and games, while also providing a firm financial foundation that will keep Diversions stable during those early days as we work to bring more community and customers into our space.

Your support does more than help us open!

Your generosity won't just leave you with feel-good vibes: by contributing to this campaign, you will have exclusive access to perks, merch, and progress updates -- tangible benefits that are just part of the way we can thank you for your support! You can review the perks shown on the right side of this webpage, and if you're someone who likes the details, you can get the full listing of benefits and membership options on our website by clicking here!

As we noted, opening a business is no small endeavor, whether financial, temporal, emotional, or physical. We have identified some of our risks as:

• Insufficient funds to open a clean, thoughtfully-designed, and well-curated space
• Lack of engagement from the community, resulting in a short-lived business
• Personal ignorance of the costs of running this kind of business, which might mean we aren't profitable enough to continue operating

Having identified these challenges, however, we have already investing time in researching options to address each of these possible hurdles by:

• Identifying and applying for additional funding resources
• Working with marketing and design professionals to both build our marketing and educate us on best practices
• Learning from current business owners, mentors, community educational opportunities, and peer networks about the ways to estimate, control, and plan for the costs of doing business

While a promise on the internet is not always a guarantee, we can guarantee that we are deeply invested in seeing a gaming space like Diversions come to Iowa City, and we believe we have the right combination of skills, care, and network of support to make such a space come to life. We also guarantee that your support will also be essential to bring Diversions to life, whether you are able to financially support this campaign, share the word on social media, or come visit us once we are open!

If you want to see a game cafe like Diversions join the scene in Iowa City, take a look at the perks we're offering in exchange for your financial support! Not sure if a monetary investment is the right fit for you, but still looking to support the cause? There are so many other ways to cheers us on!

• Claim your free membership by joining the Diversions Gameology Academy (also known as our mailing list) by filling out the form here.
   
• Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok — just seach for "diversions.ic" and follow us to stay updated on all the things we're doing. You also can find our profile on BoardGameGeek.com under the username diversionsic. Share our page on your profile, invite your friends to follow us, and help us grow our community!
   
• Invite others to learn more about our crowdfunding effort — share the link to this funding page (https://igg.me/at/diversions-ic) to help us reach our goal.
   
• Send us your feedback, ideas, and stories! We are made better when our community shares their thoughts with us; click here to send us your ideas!