ICAD Group sets foundation for next five-year funding campaign

Iowa City Area Development Group is setting the foundations for a major five-year fundraising campaign.

The group recently hired Janee Bradshaw as fundraising coordinator for its

Vision 2030 Campaign, and selected Austin, Texas-based Funding Solutions to assist with the fundraising effort.

ICAD Group President Joe Raso said the economic development organization will announce its campaign goals, early results and other details in March. He said one challenge, as in past campaigns, is to explain how the organization selects the types of businesses it assists.

"We look at what that company is doing to generate revenue from outside the marketplace," Raso said. That's the important thing. If you don't have dollars coming in to your local economy, there's nothing to move around."

Raso said ICAD Group is ocassionally asked why it doesn't spend more time working with small local businesses. Size is not the issue in deciding which businesses to assist, Raso said, noting that the group's mission of assisting interstate commerce companies dates to its founding in 1984.

The economic development group raised $3.885 million in its last five-year funding campaign for 2006-2012 from 167 investors, using Stellar Fundraising as its fundraising consultant. That was more than double the amount raised in its previous campaign for 2001-2006.

Bradshaw served as administrative coordinator for Louisville Metro Government in Louisville, Ky., before moving to Cedar Rapids with her husband, Tim Bradshaw, director of the Eastern Iowa Airport. She will work closely for the next six months with Funding Solutions, Bradshaw said. Her subsequent role will depend on "how we move our planning and programming forward."

Using a five-year fundraising cycle allows the economic development group to do a thorough job of planning and goal-setting, Raso said. He said Funding Solutions helped guide ICAD's planning to focus its past strengths into new directions.

Funding Solutions's past work has included raising $8 million for the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, $10 million for the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, and $31 million for the Boy Scouts of America in Orange County, Calif.

ICAD plans to augment its core work with existing industry, business recruitment and workforce development with new strategies and investor outreach, Raso said.

ICAD serves interstate commerce companies in Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, Solon, Tiffin, Tipton, the Amana Colonies, West Branch, Kalona, West Liberty, and Johnson County.