Rally St. Louis
Online crowdfunding engine for St. Louis projects
Just ask Aaron Perlut. His 2011 Forbes article (appropriately titled, St. Louis Doesn’t Suck) garnered national attention and rallied local pride. The PR guru has lived in multiple cities and says few locals realized the many assets St. Louis has—or how to market them. “There was a notion that great press was the only solution,” Perlut says. “Obviously that’s not the case. You have to fix the problems and tell the story so it focuses on what makes the region a great place to live, work and do business. And you have to improve on what’s not working. I didn’t
see any of that happening.”
His article went viral, and suddenly his email and social media accounts were flooded with ideas on how to improve St. Louis. Perlut and cofounder Brian Cross saw a chance to connect ordinary St. Louisans who had extraordinary ideas; a few months later, they launched Rally Saint Louis, an online platform to crowdsource and crowdfund local projects. “Rally solely focuses
on improving our region, not launching products or starting companies,” Perlut says. “We want to create a better perception of the region through beautification projects or marketing endeavors.”
Anyone can submit an idea to the website. Visitors vote for their favorite ideas, and each month, the five most popular move to the funding stage. The projects then have 90 days to gain enough pledges to meet their minimum fundraising goal. Just one year after its launch, Rally announced its first two funded projects: Food Roof and Cotton Belt. Food Roof, an urban rooftop garden, is the brainchild of Urban Harvest director Mary Ostafi. The pledged $33,115, combined with additional donations, will allow Ostafi and her team to begin building out the rooftop farm this summer. By this time next year, she hopes to have crops growing high above downtown St. Louis. “We couldn’t be happier,” Ostafi says. “People are contacting us on a daily basis wanting to know how they can be a part. We connected with people we may never have met otherwise.”
Perlut says Rally also helps connect project coordinators with local resources, if needed. “We see Rally as a mosaic that links a lot of parties and efforts,” he says. “Both projects were mixtures of corporate, community and quasi-governmental involvement. It’s helping build relationships that I think will benefit the region.” Perlut says he’s impressed with St. Louis’ enthusiasm for the project. “It’s like watching a child grow up without burning your house down,” he says, laughing. “It’s a great feeling and the tip of the iceberg. We want to inspire more activity and participation.”
For more information about Rally Saint Louis, visit rallystl.org.
