The
Cincinnati Development Fund is soliciting
donations to support urban redevelopment through the
Create Jobs for USA program, but time is running out to make a difference.
Specificially, CDF wants to help local businesses in Walnut Hills and Pendleton through the targeted fundraising the crowd-sourcing opportunity provides.
“The funding will allow building owners to improve vacant storefronts,” says Jeanne Golliher, president and CEO of the CDF.
Golliher says the funding will help building owners lease their units at attractive rates, “which will lead to job creation and revitalization of street level business districts.” CDF hopes it will create a snowball effect that spreads through the targeted neighborhoods.
Create Jobs for USA was developed by Starbucks and the
Opportunity Finance Network to restore and improve underserved urban areas that have suffered through tumultuous economic times. According to the program's website: “In one year, Create Jobs for USA has turned $15 million in donations into $105 million in loans to community businesses, creating or maintaining 5,000 jobs.”
CDF has raised $230,000 in loan capital that will go toward Create Jobs for USA.
“Our board decided that because it is a relatively small amount, we should focus on bringing life and jobs to vacant storefronts in one or two neighborhoods,” Golliher says. CDF's decision to focus on only a few areas will ultimately make a maximum impact in those neighborhoods.
Three loans have cleared in Walnut Hills that will help businesses capitalize off the reversion of McMillan and Taft Streets back to two-way roads. Discussions are underway for development in Pendleton in anticipation of the new casino, but no deal has yet been made.
Donations are being accepted through
CrowdRise.com, a website developed by the OFN. The deadline is March 1.
“If you are one of those people who drive through these neighborhoods and ask ‘why don’t they do something about all this vacancy?’ This is your chance to be part of the change," says Goliher.
By Sean Peters
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