The director of a capital campaign to generate five years of support for the Barrow County Economic Development Commission told two local development authorities Friday that he has cut in half his original estimate of the amount of money he expects the campaign to generate.
Bob Saacke of National Community Development Services said his original goal of $2.2 million was overly optimistic in light of the county’s current economic situation.
A more realistic goal is about $1.3 million in pledges, he said at a joint meeting of the Winder-Barrow Joint Development Authority and the WinderBarrow Industrial Business Authority.
The JDA voted to give the campaign $75,000 on top of an original pledge of $25,000. The IBA earlier agreed to give the campaign $100,000.
With Friday’s additional JDA funding, the campaign has raised $868,600 in pledges. All but about $500,000 of that has come from the authorities and local governments.
But Saacke said about $1.2 million in private-sector funding requests are on the table, and there are 69 other potential donors that the campaign has yet to meet with.
In an interview this week, he said that even at the reduced estimate, the EDC would have about $200,000 per year in operating expenses for the next five years, after the costs of the campaign. That is almost triple the current annual budget of about $70,000.
He said if the campaign generates the new estimate of $1.3 million, the fundraising expense will be about 17 percent of that and be well below industry standards.
Saacke, who has lived in Winder since the campaign began seven months ago, said he will remain onsite until mid-January. Then his assistant will be here for another month or two.
Saacke said he is devising a plan to help volunteers keep the campaign going for another three months after that.
