Fund Raising: A Potential Role for Build it Right

The Build it Right group has expressed interest in assisting to raise funds for the Mainland Common Recreation Centre, but only under the proper conditions. Our position is:

• Fund raising should be spearheaded by influential leaders in our community.
• A fund raising group should not have to fill out applications or be required to sign legal confidentiality documents; an unnamed leading fund raiser in Halifax has stated that over the entire course of his career, he has never once signed a legal document with respect to fund raising.
• It would be futile to attempt fund raising for a facility the community is not excited about; businesses and philanthropists will not get behind a project the community is not interested in.
• Existing infrastructure funding allocated to this project should not be the driving factor in how this facility should be designed and built; HRM seems intent on building a small facility now before the $2.6 million infrastructure funding expires rather than aggressively lobbying for an extension on the spending deadline.
• Fund raising should focus on lobbying other levels of government; at the time of the last public meeting conducted by HRM regarding this project, neither the province nor the federal government had been asked for additional funding.
• Facility naming rights should drive the corporate fund raising initiative. This model is consistent with fund raising for other municipal facilities.
• Given the lack of new recreational facilities developed in our community over the past 30 years, proceeds from the sale of Northcliffe land should be allocated towards this project.
• A thorough review of other government funding programs should be conducted in order to minimize the community fund raising burden; the recently constructed Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre received funding from various government programs including ACOA ($750,000) and the FCM Green Fund ($1.1 million).
• With the appropriate long term vision for a facility, there will be a ground-swell of support for raising the necessary funds to build it.

It is our belief that with the proper vision and approach, Build it Right would be able to lead a fund raising initiative towards achieving a facility that meets the needs of the community.