Knopes of the Week: Julie Lein, Tumml and Jase Wilson, Neighbor.ly

Fascinating. Awesome. Perfect Timing

Thanks to our generous partner Strategic Government Resources, ELGL members were able to enjoy an upgraded webinar experience with Julie Lein, Tumml and Jase Wilson, Neighbor.ly. Tumml (a Yiddish word meaning shakeup or disruption) empowers entrepreneurs to solve urban problems. A nonprofit, Tumml’s goal is to support the next generation of Zipcars and Revolution Foods. Neighbor.ly’s mission is to connect communities with new funding sources, companies with new earned media opportunities, and citizens with the community projects they care about.

It clear from the webinar that the future of local government funding will involve partners such as Neighbor.ly and Tumml. The only question is how long will it take change resistant governments to embrace new funding solutions. If you missed the webinar or want to binge watch it over and over, you are in luck. The webinar was recorded and will be made available for ELGL members.

Background Check

Julie Lein, Tumml President and Co-Founder

Connect with Julie: LinkedIn and Twitter

Julie is responsible for Tumml’s day-to-day operations, programming, and financial planning. Julie has a background in polling and political consulting. Prior to founding Tumml, she worked as an Education Pioneers Fellow with Revolution Foods, a healthy school meals provider for schools where she reported directly to the Co-founder and CIO on projects ranging from financial budgeting to IT information systems. Previously, she was the Lead Analyst and first employee at Tulchin Research, a start-up strategic polling and consulting firm in the Bay Area. Julie earned her MBA from MIT Sloan and her BA from Stanford.

Jase Wilson, ‎Neighbor.ly CEO

Connect with Jase: LinkedIn and Twitter

Born in a rural Midwestern town, Jase Wilson studied cities and technology at MIT. He has worked with communities around the world over the past decade.

Jase is an impact entrepreneur by trade, urban designer by training. Interests include helping cities better connect with citizens, using tech to enhance places, helping local governments save time and money, and helping others earn what they want in life.

Webinar Takeaways

In some ways, Neighbor.ly and Tumml are “Kickstarter” types for the public sector.

Tumml has played a role in developing projects like WorkHands. WorkHands is a LinkedIn-type network for blue collar workers.

KidAdmit is the first comprehensive admissions management system designed for preschools. The idea was part of the Tumml Accelerator program.

Neighbor.ly also has its roots in Tumml.

Neighbor.ly is focused on civic projects in need of new funding sources.

Neighbor.ly is part of the solution in addressing governments going broke and makes it easier for investors to give back to communities.

Neighbor.ly connects unfunded civic projects with investors.

Knight Foundation is a backer of Neighbor.ly.

City of New Orleans used Neighbor.ly to fund bike lanes.

Coming Soon: @Neighborly is bringing “crowdsurfing” to the municipal bond market.

Water departments have approached @Neighborly for help funding infrastructure projects. However, the less visible the project, the tougher the sell.

Neighborly assisted with skate park in Portland.

Word on the Street

Brian Southey, City of Bloomington, IL

Within an hour of the webinar ending I was already sharing information about the two organizations with my supervisor. I thought it was great to see non for profit and for profit sector groups working so hard to help local governments accomplish their goals.

Julie Underwood, City of Daly City, CA

I learned so much from Julie and Jase! I had never heard the term “urban impact entrepreneurs” before Julie explained it–and it’s clear that Tumml is providing much needed experience and support to these modern business leaders. And I really appreciate Tumml’s focus on urban environments. Jase’s work with Neighbor.ly is a great way to solve investment problems (lack thereof) in our local communities. I’m very excited to see Neighbor.ly’s goal of 1,000 communities, 10,000 projects, and $100 million – I hope I can find a way to use their expertise and funding in my community. Julie and Jase have inspired me to do what I can to support our “urban impact entrepreneurs”! They definitely deserve to be the Knope of the Week!

John McCarter, City of Novi, MI

Tumml & Neighbor.ly are funding the type of grassroots initiatives that strengthen communities across the country. It’s invigorating as a public employee to hear about private and non-profit organizations contributing to their communities and having a stake in betterment of society.

Ben Kittelson, ELGL Project Manager

The webinar was awesome, it was cool to hear about the work Neighbor.ly does to give community groups the platform to fund local projects. Also, the work Tumml is doing to strengthen urban innovation is fascinating. I look forward to seeing what these two companies can achieve in the future.

Brian Hart, Allied Video Productions

Crowdsourcing can be a creative way to fund and move forward with an urban development idea in your community. Going through the city is not the only option.

Thanks for making this webinar happen, my brain was on fire with ideas on how to work to make my city a better place to live.

Dan Englund, Engineering Consultant & Portland State University MPA Candidate

The deficit in public sector financing projects verses private sector financing projects is astounding — billions of dollars. Thankfully, there are new innovative companies like Tumml and Neighbor.ly helping close that gap. These businesses and others like them are local government must knows. If you have a project, but lack the financing, try their tools.

Kent Wyatt, City of Tigard

Neighbor.ly comes along at the perfect time. Governments have shrinking resources but growing demands. I think Neighbor.ly has the potential to play a key role in helping cities meets these growing demands.