Friday, November 14, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The Youngstown Business Incubator, having raised nearly four-fifths of its $2.5 million campaign goal, is targeting individuals, including local residents, to raise the balance.
YBI has raised about $1.9 million during the first phase of the capital campaign, launched in January 2013, from corporations, businesses, foundations and similar entities, reports Colleen Kelly, incubator director of development. “What we found is there’s a lot of good will of our organization, so we’re using online donations (CLICK HERE), directing people to our website and offering the chance to be friends of the YBI,” she said Thursday.
An email went out yesterday morning to more than 7,500 individuals on the list of YBI CEO and self-described “chief evangelist,” Jim Cossler. The email, which also contains a video featuring Cossler and YBI tenants (CLICK HERE), urges recipients to join in Youngstown’s “comeback” and highlights YBI’s recent ranking as the No. 1 university-affiliated incubator in the world.
“But that title does not come cheap,” and YBI “would be nothing without the support and commitment of its city and people,” Cossler said. “Our campus has become the magnet that not only holds our talent in place, but draws them back home.” Positive media coverage of YBI “has dramatically changed the way the nation and the world view Youngstown.”
Cossler asks recipients for its help “to take the community and YBI to an even higher level.” It contains a link to a page on the YBI website where they can donate online.
“Jim prides himself on what he calls the ‘Youngstown Diaspora,’ ” Kelly said. “He tries to find out where the best and the brightest of Youngstown went.” Often when he contacts them though social media such as Facebook or LinkedIn, they express their good will toward Youngstown and ask how they can help, she continued.
“We’ve got former Youngstown residents” who live all over the world but still care abut the area, Cossler affirmed. “They’re excited for Youngstown and so we’re going to be reaching out to them with this fundraising campaign as well,” he said.
Already his email has drawn attention beyond its target audience, Cossler reported. Two firms based in Cleveland responded about giving corporate gifts. “So that was kind of cool,” he remarked.
The need for funds is great, Kelly emphasizes. In addition to preparing to go into its fifth building, YBI has companies interested in coming into the incubator, “so we definitely do have the need to put that money back into portfolio companies and to use for our new additive manufacturing program,” she said.
In addition to directly investing in portfolio companies, Cossler says, the funds will be spent as an “attraction tool [to encourage] highly promising companies” and entrepreneurs to come to the area. Deals follow dollars and, until a year ago, YBI lacked funds to invest in its companies.
He shares a favorite story about “a really promising startup” at YBI, StratQor, formerly known as SalesKatz, and one of the companies featured in the video. The company CEO and his wife sold their house in Cleveland and moved to Youngstown, he points out.
“What they realize is there is nothing like [YBI] in Cleveland,” Cossler said. “When you take the step of putting your house on the market, selling it, moving it to Youngstown, I think that’s a statement about Youngstown.
“Could we have done that 10 years ago?” Cossler asked. “I don’t know. But I think we can do it over and over now, so we’ll see.”
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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