I'm starting a coworking space in Kenosha, Wisconsin that's basically a government funded / non-profit model. To answer your question, Lars, here are some of the government programs that have helped us get traction on the project (not open yet, but moving along):
- *Grants* - the Wisconsin Economic Development Coalition (WEDC) has a state-funded program that will pay 25% of the expenses for any incubator / coworking / growth accelerator program, up to $250,000 (a.k.a. $1 million project). What's really cool is that it includes in-kind donations, so like marketing from local colleges and such can contribute to the reimbursement check. This is obviously one of our big funding sources. - *Economic Development Organization* - I'm working with Kenosha Area Business Alliance (KABA), a well-run organization with a LOT of top-level connections. They also have a mandate to open an incubator / coworking space and have provided a huge amount of support in helping get it set-up. - *Private - Public Partnerships* - We're setting the organization up as a non-profit, so that we can accept donations from large organizations and they can write that off. The most substantial is for our space. We're planning on opening in an 7,500 sf unused space in the Kenosha News, since they got rid of their printing presses a few years ago. They're donating the space (at least for the first few years), so that they can have access to the synergy of a media coworking space in their offices, but let others have the responsibilities of running it. Plus, they haven't been able to use or lease it, so the tax write-off generates more income than it has for years. This connection was setup via KABA. - *Internship programs* - several of the local colleges have expressed interest in having interns working out of the space, which gives their students a ton of advantages. Also, the government is pretty much for starting up. After that, it will be sustained on market-rate membership rates, like privately-held coworking spaces. So it's not just the government writing you checks (although SUPER helpful), but also providing you connections to other organizations and resources, both private and things they already do. Also, I think others have written up wishlists of legislation that would help coworking (mostly on the federal level): - recognition that coworking is NOT passive-income and thus eligible for SBA loan funding - a dedicated NAICS code would simplify things - more dedicated funding - actually, Brad Schneider just introduced legislation for this<http://schneider.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-schneider-introduces-legislation-to-support-startup-businesses> . I think I saw some threads on here about people gripping about particular issues they've had with local government. Might be worth searching for and/or googling around the web for. Once we're up and running, I'm looking forward to sharing more of what works (and what doesn't) about working with the government and a non-profit board of directors. But until then, I hope this helps. - Brendan -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
