Q2030, the organization first created to help get the Quad Cities region to think and act in cool, creative, connected and prosperous ways, has a new and evolving twin mission:
- To develop a sustainable regional funding model to invest in Quad Cities future, and
- To support and align the region in the development of leadership programs which benefit all of the Quad Cities communities and organizations.
An elusive regional economic development funding mechanism has long been on the agendas of many regional community and business leaders who regularly confront the challenge of finding resources and support to grow the area that is divided geographically – and often politically – by two states, multiple cities and counties and a river.
The Q2030 organization itself grew out of the initial Q2030 Regional Action Plan, which officially kicked off in April of 2017 and was designed to better align the Quad Cities as a single region with common purposes.
Q2030 nonprofit is formed
With the regional action plan in place, Q2030 became a 501(c)3 standalone organization in 2021 and is led today by Executive Director Kate Jennings. The nonprofit was designed to provide a new sustainable model for governance and funding led by a diverse and inclusive board.
At the same time the organization became a standalone entity, the initial champions of the regional action plan – the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce, Quad Cities Community Foundation, United Way Quad Cities and Visit Quad Cities – all agreed to strengthen their partnership with Q2030 by committing to aligning their work with the Q2030 vision.
Over the past year and half, Q2030 has been working to bring those and other organizations and groups together to collaborate on ideas or initiatives that could significantly advance our region, the organizations said. Those efforts resulted in Q2030’s now evolving mission which is led by the need for a regional funding mechanism, Q2030 leadership said in a recent news release.
“Over the next year or so, Q2030 will be in the process of exploring how some type of sustainable funding model might be possible that would provide benefits for the entire region,” Kent Pilcher, Q2030 board chair and the president and owner of Estes Construction, Davenport, told the QCBJ.
Q2030 champions onboard
Creating such a regional public-private partnership also is among the top regional priorities of the recently released Quad Cities Chamber’s legislative agenda for 2024.
That type of sustainable funding model is necessary, Q2030 said, to fund big ideas that are larger than any single community or organization and will benefit the entire region. In addition, the release said the QC needs leadership development to cultivate and promote the strong leadership and community culture necessary in business, not-for-profit, labor, and public sectors to sustain organizations that can do the work necessary to have a thriving, equitable region.
Over the next year, Q2030 said, it and those backbone organizations, the Quad Cities Chamber, Quad Cities Community Foundation, United Way Quad Cities, and Visit Quad Cities, will continue to work together on developing some further specifics about these two focus areas.
“Our purpose remains clear and that is by 2030, transform the Quad Cities region into a broadly prosperous and equitable community that provides a high quality of life and place for all Quad Citizens,” the Q2030 release said.
