Andrew Kruso is the President of DRIVE Dayton, a budding 501C3 non-profit group whose goal is to create long-term change in people's lives through responsible vehicle ownership. Kruso and the DRIVE Dayton team aim to make an impact in the lives of Daytonians by making success easier to attain.
Dayton.com caught up with Kruso who says "consistent access to a vehicle is something that many of us take for granted in our daily lives."
People deserve to be able to "move through space freely and at will," according to Kruso.
"For example—myself just driving from Centerville behind every slow driver in order to make it to the coffee shop to buy my 5 dollar coffee," according to Kruso is something many of us forget to take value in.
"A decent car raises social status over time," according to Kruso. "It allows people to improve their lives."
DRIVE Dayton is a tool people can use if they are financially unable to afford a car of their very own. The non-profit makes lives easier for families and individuals who need to accomplish basic tasks like going to the grocery store, or make it to a dentist appointment.
The multi-level organization is taking off! They recently had a fundraiser at Blind Bob's and you'll see them at Toxic Brew's Oktoberfest this weekend, October 11th.
When we spoke with Kruso, he told us everything we needed to know about DRIVE Dayton's plan to improve Dayton with just four wheels.
What's your goal?
Kruso: We want to take donations and raise money so that we can buy cars and essentially give them away. We need to make sure that we are giving the cars away to the right people—which I think is the hardest part.
How did you come up with the idea?
Kruso: I played with cars with my father and I messed around and built jeeps and that's kind of how this all got started. I bought a $300 Jeep and it didn't run well and the wheel was broken off. I brought it home and although it wasn't fully functional—I was excited because it was almost free. I brought it home and I fixed it. One day I am driving around and I was at a stop light and I looked over next to me—at a bus stop nearby—I looked over and saw a young lady with two children, one in a stroller and another in her arms. She was wearing a uniform—I just had a thought immediately—'Get out, and give her your car.'
When I look at someone at a bus stop with two kids, I couldn't help but wonder how I could make her life easier with this car.
I didn't think fast enough, but as the light changed I just kept thinking 'well how do you just give someone a car?' 'Is it legal to just walk up to someone and give them a car?' 'How do you do it?' 'Can you just walk up to someone and give them the keys and the notarized title and walk away?' I didn't know.
So for about three of four years this whole idea never left my brain. I spoke to a few key people in town. People who I spoke to loved it, but very few people could devote all of the time and the effort that would really be needed for an idea like this. So, I created a Facebook status that read something like 'Do you want to do more with your free time?' I got overwhelming responses…I reached out to about 15—some of which I had never even met. They didn't know much about me either. I set a meeting with them. I made a 20 minute pitch to them and everyone's jaws were on the floor. Apparently no one had ever thought of this.
That's pretty much how it got started. Of those people at the first meeting, those that shook my hand and showed up at the next meeting were a part of my team.
What are your road blocks?
Kruso: Anytime you deviate from a regular 9-5 traditional work situation where you come home and you are done, you are really putting yourself out there and you are dedicating yourself to long nights and constantly reading, doing homework and writing about it because you have never done anything like this before. So, it was a big commitment to make this happen and it took a lot of hard work to make this happen. It was a challenge. Often times it can be a challenge to work with people on larger projects where everyone pretty much has a say and a responsibility. So, we had to set ground rules—if you submit an idea—don't get hurt if it's not accepted immediately or we can't implement it right away. However, we never had any extremely big hurdles that we could not overcome. I think that is mainly due to the eclectic group of people that we have on the team.
How do you directly serve the community?
Kruso: One of my greatest fears for DRIVE Dayton was that the organization would become so big that it would not be able to directly impact the people it is designed to serve. I wanted to make sure that it continued to focus on the community rather than getting consumed in the marketing and the publicity of it all. I want a lot of bang for my dollars when I give. I want to see the results. I want to see that the money I am giving to someone is going somewhere. I came up with this concept called direct philanthropy which means our group is given the money and we directly give it to the people who need it the most. We are not getting paid. The concept of direct philanthropy coupled with an interactive giving experience—that is the end goal. The whole interactive giving experience comes from someone giving this money and DRIVE Dayton saying 'okay here's a car we bought.' We seek to tap into the younger generations with YouTube videos and selfies to show who and how we directly impact the community each time we are able to give someone a car.
Talk about the personal connection:
Kruso: As I was sitting there at that light I had several flashes. I know what it is like to not have a driver's license for a little while, and I saw what that does for a single male—it crushes you. I learned that in order to be successful, you need to get to work, but in order to get a job they ask if you have reliable transportation.
Our service extends into your social life. If you constantly have to get your friends to come pick you up to go places—or what if you want to ask a girl on a date and then when it is that time for the first date and you have to ask her to come pick you up. She might not show, and she may move on to the next guy. So those were some of the things that I thought about. Without a car it's hard to go to the grocery store or to go get a bill paid or any kind of personal appointment like a dentist appointment or doctor's appointment. To not have a vehicle is detrimental in this society where we don't have everything in town and sometimes you have to travel long distances—on the fly—to get anything done. That's not even factoring in having kids and having a successful career—all of these things that do raise your social status over the course of time.
Where do you see this in 10-20 years?
Kruso: For now it's about the short term goals and the long term goals that are coming to pass. I am a realist—I like to be realistic. So I like to keep it in the realm of what are we doing and what can we do right now? I would like for this to be an ongoing thing even if we just give away one car a year.
How do you decide who gets the car?
Kruso: This whole process has been a lot of work but it has not been difficult. Going through everything we've had to go through, I've always said that the hardest thing we'd have to do is figure out who we are going to give the car to. We've had several requirements. We don't want to leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth. Our criteria isn't so strict in that we are only tapping into one demographic, but we definitely want to make sure that we are not going to give the car to someone who isn't going to sell it. We want to give it to someone who really needs it. We have started working with other charities who have relationships with families and people who might be in need of our help. These charities know the people we are considering on a first name and face-to-face basis, or they know who is working hard to get out of the situations they are in.
Why is it needed in Dayton?
Kruso: I think it is needed everywhere. Everyone needs a car—just like everyone needs to take a shower every day and everyone needs to eat a healthy meal. I think these are things that the world needs and it goes back to the direct philanthropy concept. I want to give money to people and help people. What makes it specific to Dayton—I am a proud Gem City native, my parents were born and raised here and I am very proud of my city and that's why it is called DRIVE Dayton. Dayton is the city of innovation—Dayton is the city of 'do.'
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