A group pushing to grow the number of knowledge-sector workers in the area launched the public part of its fundraising campaign Thursday.

Cape Fear Future organizers want to hit their $1 million goal in the coming weeks, officials told about 100 people who attended the morning announcement at the Wilmington Convention Center.

Cape Fear Future, which is the flagship initiative of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, already has raised about $620,000 in pledges by approaching donors privately since May.
 
“We have six weeks left to close this campaign,” said Jack Barto, chairman of the campaign, dubbed Passion Works, and president and CEO of New Hanover Regional Medical Center.

To draw skilled and knowledge-based workers such as engineers, software developers and entrepreneurs, the initiative has focused on three core issues to make the area more enticing to them.

Formed in 2006, Cape Fear Future has made some headway in those areas – education, quality of life and entrepreneurial development – through things like creating a business advisory council with the New Hanover County school system, working with city and downtown officials to utilize a federal grant studying the development of a riverfront park and supporting the creation of the UNCW Entrepreneurship Center.

But much of the initiative’s work so far has been accomplished with tight resources and through the efforts of volunteers, Barto said.

“Where it’s had a lot of success – that has been done on a shoestring budget,” he said. “This introduces it on a larger scale.”

He said the money raised would bolster the group’s ability to support improvements in those same three core areas.

One example Barto gave was being able to help New Hanover Schools Superintendent Tim Markley pay for curriculum introducing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, education in more middle schools.

Barto said the money also could be used to hire a full-time person to manage the initiative. Sallie Smyth, Cape Fear Future’s previous coordinator, left the position in June and moved to Virginia.

While the foundation has received some financial support from area companies and the city since forming, the current drive is its first organized fundraising campaign.

The money being raised now all stems from the private sector and business community, said campaign director Tamera Toogood.

Speakers at Thursday’s event said people, especially those working in the knowledge sector, are more often picking where they want to live and then worrying about a job.

Having a good school system for their children, enjoying their post-workday lives and living in a thriving entrepreneurial community can be key deciding factors for those workers, particularly younger ones replacing baby boomers as they retire out of the workforce, Cape Fear Future officials said.

“The next five years are going to be a crucial area for Wilmington. We have a unique occasion to decide the direction of our community,” said Randy Tomsic, vice chairman of the fundraising campaign and Wells Fargo’s Wilmington market president.

Representing the initiative’s three focus areas, Markley, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and Fran Scarlett, regional director of the Small Business & Technology Development Center at UNCW and interim director of the UNCW Entrepreneurship Center, spoke on a panel at Thursday’s event. Rob Kaiser, publisher of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal, moderated the panel. Kaiser is a Cape Fear Foundation board member.

Scarlett told the audience that she recently read in article in Entrepreneur magazine highlighting Bend, Ore. as the country’s next big city for entrepreneurship. The mountain city lures vacationers, who have increasingly begun to stay and put down business roots, attracted by good schools and an innovative entrepreneurship scene.

“Wilmington should be on this list next year, or the year after next, or very soon,” Scarlett said, “because we have all the basics to make that work.”