Local, city and state municipalities care deeply about their residents and communities, but are often overburdened and underfunded. Neighborhood SOS seeks to be a viable private, partner to municipalities, supplementing community improvement through an innovative online web experience. The Neighborhood SOS proposed concept allows individuals, community organizations and businesses to identify revitalization projects, or “SOS’s”, which can be located, assessed, donated to, and tracked to completion, all within a simple, intuitive website.
This “Kickstarter for Community Improvement” empowers committed individuals, or “Neighborhood Leaders” to change their neighborhoods for the better. As we’ll see below, Neighborhood SOS also provides a unique venue for businesses and global corporations to show their support for the communities that they serve, by allowing them to sponsor, donate towards, and promote projects that can change neighborhoods, and lives.
Neighborhood SOS seeks to build a grassroots-inspired web application dedicated to allowing community members and businesses to create neighborhood improvement projects as Kickstarter-like campaigns.
Upon first visiting the Neighborhood SOS website for the first time, visitors can browse a list of projects available to donate capital, time or materials. Users may search for specific types of projects, or by a particular neighborhood, and filter through by keywords, location, funded status, or project type. When they’re ready to get started, a Neighborhood Leader may create an account, and begin donating towards, or creating new SOS projects.
The concept builds upon communities’ desire to drive their own revitalization, and builds in a multitude of tools and measures to ensure that projects are funded in a scalable and responsible manner. The Neighborhood SOS application puts improvement projects, and their individual and corporate sponsors, front and center. Neighborhood Leaders, and the business community, are recognized for their contributions, and are provided a platform to broadcast their SOS to drive interest and further investment.
Every project submitted to Neighborhood SOS is thoroughly reviewed by the Neighborhood SOS committee and approved upon meeting minimum criteria consistent with charitable standards. Upon approval, each project is given an estimated value to completion by a bonded and licensed contractor. To help guide the project, and allow Neighborhood SOS to continue to improve communities, an overhead charge of 5.0-20.0% would be added to the project cost, depending on size and scope.
Not only is Neighborhood SOS a source of pride for individuals and communities, it’s also an ideal vehicle for businesses of any size to show their support for local neighborhoods by sponsoring and sharing projects. The highly visible, and highly sharable structure of Neighborhood SOS projects assure companies that the projects they sponsor will be seen by their customers, and the community at large.
Projects are overlaid on a Google Map (for instance) with color-coded icons to demonstrate project type (e.g., landscaping), and its status (e.g., accepting donations).
Neighborhood SOS provides the perfect opportunity for businesses and corporations to help make projects possible that have a measurable difference to their customers’ communities. The Neighborhood SOS platform is a revolutionary change in community economic investment, allowing individuals and businesses to easily identify, submit, and share improvement projects at multiple scales, and actually see the benefits of that investment in a simple, intuitive product.
Neighborhood SOS is in the early stages of fundraising and/or garnering sponsorship from corporations that seek to make a difference in the quality of the communities they serve. The plan our organization has outlined can be made possible through financial donations or donations of technology, staff, or materials.
An investment in Neighborhood SOS allows you or your corporation’s technology to applied and associated with a positive message, and measurable outcomes.
I am very engaged and focused in making this venture a success but it cannot launch without funding to complete the website. I have personally invested numerous hours and thousands of dollars to get to this point because I believe this project will improve neighborhoods and lives….and I am hopeful that once you review the concept you will want to invest as well to make this a concept a reality.
Thank you so much for your support! Best, Greg