Raising Capital for Ideas

[cityimrov]

Metro Jacksonville is filled with ideas.  Lots and lots of ideas.  No matter what idea, capital is needed to fund, support, market, and advertise these ideas to the general public.  Mass media advertising isn't free, land isn't free, construction isn't free, and to implement some of these ideas w/o living in the IM Sulzbacher Center, people's services aren't free.  

So this topic belongs to the idea of raising capital for our ideas.  How is it done?  Who here has done it before?  How hard is it?  How many hours a week needs to be spend on just raising money?

[Jerry Moran]

All panhandling and begging is prohibited by ordinance in the B.I.D., so cross a good bit of Downtown off your area of solicitation.  Aggressive panhandling is prohibited throughout Duval County.

Have you considered doing without non-essentials and saving the  money (assuming you have a job) you would have otherwise spent?

Playing the Lottery is popular in North Florida.

[thelakelander]

Capital for different projects comes from different sources.  In most cases, we already have the capital but money isn't being used as efficiently as it could be. So that's where I would probably start.  First determining what we want to be and then looking to see how we can better use our existing resources and built environment to help get us there.

[cityimrov]

Lobbying the people that has control over this money takes time and money.  Making poster charts and graphs takes time and money.  Convincing the general public who these people represent (if it's a big money spending project) takes time and money.

[thelakelander]

All routes will take time and money.  That's not avoidable. However, if you choose to strike and strike hard, that time may be a year or two instead of a decade or two.

[cityimrov]

All routes will take time and money.

So how do you raise that money? 

[thelakelander]

First you must pick an issue to raise money for since there are various pots of money and funding sources for a variety of issues.  In the St. Louis Delmar Loop Trolley case, they recently landed a $25 million "urban circulator" grant from the feds to help pay for the $44 million project.  They plan to get the rest through a mix of sources such as tax credits, corporate support and help from philanthropists "who care enough about St. Louis."  In our case. money for better mass transit could be as simple as getting some form of the 2030 Mobility Plan passed.  As mentioned in previous articles, the plan calls for multimodal solutions to our transportation network.  Money for mass transit, bike and pedestrian facilities are included.  Anyway, how you raise money really depends on what you want to raise money for and tapping into available funding sources for that specific project.