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
thishttp://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
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