New Urbanism Non-Profit

[Just the facts]

After the first of the year I am looking to get more involved with re-urbanizing downtown Jacksonville by starting my own grass-roots awareness campaign, and then building on it from there. Are there any OKCTalk members who have a non-profit geared towards urbanization/transit/redevelopment? I would like to raise some money to help pay for future expenses (printing, web site hosting, etc) but don't want to have to go through the effort of starting my own non-profit yet.

[mkjeeves]

Not sure you can have it both ways...your own and something existing. For something existing, have you thought about getting involved in a local chapter of a larger org like this? CNU Florida - Congress for the New Urbanism, Florida Chapter - Welcome

Sometimes those types of orgs are set up to give the motivated some rope to run with under their umbrella and sometimes they aren't.

If you want to start your own, even independent of them, look at their resources under starting a chapter at the main org page and they have a bunch of sample documents like bylaws, but I think you might already know you could spend more time and money getting set up and maintaining it than what you might spend otherwise.

[Just the facts]

I am going to join CNU after the first of the year so I will see what they have available. However, I doubt there are enough certified New Urbansit here in Jax to start a local chapter.

[mkjeeves]

There's a NE Florida/JAX contact listed under groups on that page. I'd drop her an introductory email and see about having coffee. Or just let her know you have a high interest level and are looking for a way to get local. (She may even be looking for her volunteer replacement. Be careful what you wish for.)

I know one org I'm involved with (not specific to NU) doesn't care if you are a member to be involved with or attend any event. They would like you to join and you do have to be a member to organize or lead events. You also have to go through some training on how they want to conduct events under their umbrella. They do have an approval on what gets organized and happens. The bonus is, and something you may not have thought too much about, anything that's sanctioned is covered under their liability insurance. If you lead a field trip for instance to look at downtown walkability and someone falls off a curb and wants to sue you, it's the org's liability issue.

But based on having that liability, whatever the org mission is and how they operate, they may or may not give you the freedom to do whatever specifically you want to do.