Clarksville, TN – Aspire Clarksville Foundation Chair Lawson Mabry, Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts and Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett announced that the Aspire Clarksville Foundation had secured over $4.4 million in pledges for its Aspire VI “Connect” Campaign on Tuesday evening, October 29th, 2019.
Aspire Clarksville, is a charitable foundation whose mission is to continuously improve the economy and quality of life of the community by attracting significant capital investment and expansion by businesses and corporations, thereby creating better opportunities and higher-paying jobs for Clarksville-Montgomery County, Tennessee, residents.
The Aspire VI Campaign not only enlisted early investors whom have been involved since the Foundations creation in 1996 but it also boosted the number of investors from just over 50 in previous campaigns to a total of 80, adding 32 new investors – and many local and regional small businesses to the pledge list.
The success of the Aspire VI campaign was due in large part to the commitment and dedication of Aspire Clarksville Board Members (Lawson Mabry, Don Jenkins, Marco Medici, Tom Kane and Earl Bradley) and campaign cabinet (Charlie Koon, Ginna Holleman, Kyle Luther, Lance Morgan, Paul Turner, Rex Hawkins and Suzanne Langford) and as well as the community and business leaders who invested their resources into the Foundation. The total, to date, in campaign pledges is $4,435,000 with the expectation to surpass $4.5 million by the end of 2019.
Aspire VI dollars are key to the future of our local business development, which is anticipated to bring over 4,500 new jobs, $3 billion in new capital investment and, in turn, a 20% increase in the median household income to the area over the next five years. The projected return on investment for this campaign is nearly $30 for every $1 invested.
“Our leaders and business owners in Clarksville-Montgomery County are the heart of our community and have made a strong commitment it’s growth and prosperity,” said Jeff Truitt, Executive Director of Aspire and the Economic Development Council (EDC). “I want to thank each and every one of them for their commitment to this campaign.”
The Aspire Clarksville Foundation has a 23-year track record of making growth and an enhanced quality of life possible through its ability to fund the work of the EDC and its partners including the Clarksville-Montgomery County Industrial Development Board (IDB), Clarksville Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Clarksville Montgomery County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) also known as Visit Clarksville.
Announcements, such as the recruitment of Google, Hankook and LG Electronics along with expansions of existing industries including Bridgestone Metalpha USA can be directly attributed to the work of the EDC and the Aspire Foundation, and we are ready to rise to new levels of success in the next 5 years.
Aspire has made a strong impact on the local economy since its inception and The Aspire VI Campaign will allow for Clarksville-Montgomery County to remain competitive with other communities in our state, region and across the country by utilizing campaign resources to effectively execute the Strategic Economic Development Blueprint developed for the new five-year plan. The time is now to continue the momentum with a unified approach – One Vision, One Mission, One Goal, One Community.
