Thursday (OK, a little late) Toolkit: Get on the list for the Alternative Funding Community
Ok, this was supposed to be a Thursday thing, but …it’s been a week. So here we are.
If you’ve ever tried to find funding for a small business, a neighborhood startup, a community program or, well, pretty much anything that isn’t a mortgage or a venture capital unicorn, you know it’s…
Usually damn near impossible.
Grants are too big, too overwhelmingly competitive, or require you to make it a second career just to do all the paperwork. Loans might work fine if you already have money, or real estate - the valuable kind, not the kind that actually needs investment. And investors either want to take over the project, or expect it to become their personal money printing machine.
If you’re trying to rehab a building, start or grow a small business, fix a park, create a new future for a street or a block or a community, you can spend years looking for the right funding. And you might regret what you end up with.
For several years, I’ve been watching innovators across the country create alternative ways to get good work done, They’ve invented new financial vehicles, pioneered new structures for businesses and philathropy, and found direct ways to include the people around them in the fruits of their investment - even people some might have thought could never participate in investing at all. And they’ve done all of this in ways that are true to their communities, fair to their collaborators, and empowering to other potential innovators around the county.
But unless you were at the right meetings and read the right white (or Black) papers, you didn’t find out. And hundreds of potential innovators are struggling to create a solution that someone else might have already tested.
Maybe that’s you.
Within the next month or so, I’ll be opening the doors to a new community - first online, then hopefully in real life - that’s designed to give you immediate access to the people and the information you need to be part of this innovation.
And the people, the stories and the information that you need to make your dream happen.
If you want to be on the waiting list when we open membership, please fill out this quick form. We’re getting feedback from a few longtime practioners right now, and as soon as we’re sure we can create a great experience, you’ll be the first to know!
