Looking to fund a community project? The answer is just a click away

“This is the first in a series of TKF Foundation articles highlighting resources to help communities build and develop urban green space.” 

Obtaining the financial resources needed to develop grass-roots, community-based projects is never easy. Smaller projects are often overlooked by the large foundations while community leaders who truly understand the needs of their neighborhood find themselves struggling to find resources. Crowdfunding site Ioby hopes to build connections between community leaders and financial resources while providing the project consulting help needed to bring neighborhood ideas to fruition.

Ioby, an acronym for “In Our backyards,” combines the crowdfunding (or crowd resourcing) power of websites like Kickstarter with the advocacy of a strong community organizer. “Running the platform is only part of what we do,” Katie Lorah, director of communications and creative strategy at Ioby said. “We have staff members whose entire job is to walk people through the process of developing their project. It’s what helps make our projects so successful.”

Originally founded in New York City as a pilot program aimed primarily at environmental projects, the founders quickly realized that people involved in community based environmental work were also involved in other community projects that needed help. This lead to a nationwide expansion that now includes local offices in Detroit, Washington D.C., Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

Lorah said that unlike most crowdfunding platforms that exist purely on the web, Ioby feels it is important to have people on the ground who know the community and understand the specific needs of the neighborhoods. By creating partnerships with organizations already working in a given community they are able to actively seek out new projects and help those who might not normally use a crowdfunding site.

“A lot of crowdfunding platforms exist purely on the internet and people find them through Google. We wanted to be able to reach people who may not be comfortable with crowdfunding tools. We wanted to reach people who may be affected by the digital divide. By working with a partner who already has connections in a certain area based around a certain topic, we can create a targeted outreach and maximize word of mouth opportunities.”

She added that anyone from anywhere can run an Ioby project and that they try to make it as easy as possible to start a project. They will help with everything from clearly defining the project to budgeting to contacting potential donors to seeing the project through to completion.

“It is firmly embedded in our mission that we aren’t going to be the ones dictating what neighborhoods need. They [community leaders] are the one’s who encounter the problems  every day and they have the networks that will be best for raising money and putting it in the right place,” Lorah said. “All we ask people to do is to come to us with an idea. It has to help the public and it has to be local. We will have a conversation to clearly define the project if needed, help them form it into something that is fundable and easy to communicate which is key when making a short pitch.” Once underway, Lorah said that they will help all the way down to making a plan for any given week. “We will go the extra mile to walk people through the project.”

Volunteers from the Buy James a Lawnmower project.
Volunteers from the Buy James a Lawnmower project.

Successful Ioby projects aren’t necessarily large in scale either. Sometimes the smallest things can have a big impact on a neighborhood. One such project, “We want to buy James a lawnmower” may seem rather simple at first. However, when you look into the project, it quickly becomes evident that this is about much more than a lawn mower. Mr. James lives next door to a community garden and made it his job to water, tend to the garden and mow with a borrowed lawn mower. When he lost access to the mower, the garden started to fall into disrepair. Community organizers came together asking for a total of $559 to buy Mr. James a lawnmower, gas can and a chain and lock for the lawnmower.

As you read the Ioby project page, you can quickly see the importance of such a small investment:

“The neighborhood in which the garden is located is blighted. There are numerous small, vacant lots with accumulated trash, dumping, and overgrowth present. We chose to start a community garden in one of the vacant lots to show that there is a solution for blighted lots.  The lot, once neglected with a uneven surface and buried debris from the structure that used to occupy it, is now a flourishing garden that contains many native plants and attracts butterflies, bees and other insects essential for supporting our local birds. We were able to convert an abandoned lot into a balanced ecosystem where the students and residents can observe the relationships between plants, insects, birds, and other animals in a natural environment.

Carnes Garden is a model for what can be done for many other vacant lots in the neighborhood and serves as a reminder to those passing by that the resident’s care about and are proud of their neighborhood. We want to make sure Carnes Garden remains a place in which residents can be proud. We need to tackle the overgrowth before it gets out of hand in order to make sure the garden is a welcoming and safe space for all residents of the community. The next door neighbor, Mr. James Alsobrook, always helps us to maintain the garden and attends every event we hold there. In the past, he has cut the garden’s grass with a push lawnmower but no longer has access to it. This year, he has tried to keep the grass low and weeds pulled but can only do so much without the proper tools. We want to provide him with a lawnmower so he can do what he wants to do, which is make Carnes Garden beautiful. “

Not all of Ioby’s projects are environmentally based. Once such project, “Stripe Memphis Basketball Courts” started from a need to paint public basketball courts in Memphis. According to Lorah, “Basketball courts were playing central roles as gathering places but weren’t being cared for. Project leader Daniel Peterson realized that for just $200 he could buy paint and stencils and it would make a huge difference in the neighborhood. He started doing it on his own. People came to see what he was doing and started helping. Fifty-two courts in Memphis didn’t have lines. So far they have painted 18 courts and the goal is to fix up all 52 courts.” The project was so successful that it has grown into a larger project, “Project Backboard” that hopes to expand nationwide.

“Two-hundred dollars is so little but when you actually see the difference it makes in the community, it is amazing,” Lorah said.

Ioby encourages anyone with an idea to improve their neighborhood to apply to start a project. To learn more and to start an Ioby project, click here.