Future City Inc.

What Future City Inc. does

Future City Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit corporation incorporated in late fall 1997 and headquartered at 1045 East Jersey St, Suite 204, Elizabeth, New Jersey, in the historic Bonnell House. The organization was established to provide a facilitating presence in sustainable environmental and community development, with an explicit priority of bringing African American and rapidly growing immigrant communities into planning and implementation processes. It is led by CEO Michelle Doran-McBean, a Harvard University graduate with an M.Div from Princeton Theological Seminary, and operates with a 22-person staff under board governance. The organization is funded entirely through donations and accepts contributions via a PayPal button on its website.

Future City Inc. delivers its mission through three interconnected programmatic pillars: Blue Infrastructure (water quality monitoring, bilingual Catch and Release advisories for fish, blue claw crab, and shellfish, rain gardens, storm drain marking, and Environmental Day/Estuary Day events), Green Infrastructure (healthy homes and neighborhoods, home toxin awareness, and community-based education), and Grey Infrastructure (storm drain and sewer marking and testing). Underlying capabilities include a Citizen Scientist Water Monitoring Program that conducts laboratory and watershed testing on streams, the Elizabeth River, and the Arthur Kill, with the resulting quantitative data used for reporting and clean-water advocacy. The organization also runs the Spaces & Places Project (land use and water resource planning), the Elizabeth River/Arthur Kill Watershed Association, and the Healthy Neighborhood/Healthy Home initiative.

The business model is donation-based rather than commercial: there are no products for sale, no pricing tiers, no app or API platform, and no disclosed grants, corporate sponsors, or institutional funders in the input. Go-to-market is purely grassroots — direct community outreach, school partnerships, and recurring annual events — with the entire operating geography limited to New Jersey. There is no disclosed technology platform beyond the static informational website, and no evidence of digital productization, automation, or AI/ML capability.

Name

Future City Inc.

Legal name

Future City Inc.

Website

https://futurecityinc.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Future City Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit founded in 1997 in Elizabeth, NJ that runs Blue, Green, and Grey Infrastructure programs delivering water quality monitoring, healthy homes education, and storm drain services to emerging racial and ethnic communities in the Elizabeth River/Arthur Kill watershed, funded through donations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Development and Environmental Services

NAICS

Nature Parks and Other Similar Institutions (712190)

SIC

Water Supply (4941), Land Subdividers & Developers (No Cemeteries) (6552)

akta.pro primary industry

Community Development & Neighborhood Revitalization (CDBG, Place-Based Initiatives) (BPAIANAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

State/Provincial Housing, Urban/Regional Planning & Community Development (BPAIABAM), Urban & Regional Planning (Land Use, Zoning, Master Planning) (BPAIANAD), Housing & Neighborhood Services (Local Housing Programs) (BPAIACAJ), Public Works & Municipal Infrastructure (Streets, Stormwater, Facilities) (BPAIACAF)

Keywords

• Community development services
• Watershed protection programs
• Environmental education outreach
• Citizen science water monitoring
• Healthy homes initiatives

Headquarters

HQ city

Elizabeth, New Jersey

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Future City Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit that delivers community-based environmental and sustainable development programs targeting African American and immigrant communities in the Elizabeth River/Arthur Kill watershed. Its core offerings are organized into Blue Infrastructure (clean water advocacy, water quality monitoring, storm drain marking, rain gardens), Green Infrastructure (community education, healthy homes, home toxin awareness), and Grey Infrastructure (storm drain and sewer marking and testing), supplemented by the Spaces & Places Project, the Elizabeth River/Arthur Kill Watershed Association, and the Healthy Neighborhood/Healthy Home initiative. Services are delivered free to residents through grassroots outreach, citizen science programs, and school partnerships.

Product overview

Future City Inc. is a non-profit organization offering a coordinated suite of environmental and community development programs. The core offerings include three interconnected infrastructure services: Blue Infrastructure (water quality monitoring and watershed protection), Green Infrastructure (healthy homes and community education), and Grey Infrastructure (storm drain and wastewater systems). These are supplemented by targeted initiatives including the Spaces & Places Project, Elizabeth River/Arthur Kill Watershed Association, and Healthy Neighborhood/Healthy Home programs, all designed to foster sustainable development in emerging communities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Blue Infrastructure Program Environmental program delivering clean water advocacy, laboratory and watershed water quality monitoring, bilingual Catch and Release advisories for fish, blue claw crab, and shellfish, rain gardens, storm drain marking, and rain barrels for watershed residents and schools.
• Green Infrastructure Program Community development program providing community education, healthy homes and neighborhood initiatives, and home toxin awareness through long-term community-based delivery systems that build awareness and change attitudes and behaviors toward home toxins and cleanup techniques.
• Grey Infrastructure Program Wastewater management infrastructure services focused on storm drain and storm sewer marking and testing for homes and businesses in the Elizabeth River/Arthur Kill watershed area.
• Spaces & Places Project Strategic initiative focused on land use, local water resources, and community development as part of sustainable community development planning for Elizabeth, New Jersey communities.
• Elizabeth River/Arthur Kill Watershed Association Watershed association dedicated to protecting and monitoring the Elizabeth River/Arthur Kill estuary and watershed through citizen science, water quality monitoring, reporting, and environmental advocacy.
• Healthy Neighborhood/Healthy Home Initiative Community health initiative working with residents to improve family health, home conditions, and neighborhood quality through respectful and dignified community engagement and home toxin awareness education.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Recent moves1 record

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Clean Ocean Action: New Jersey-based coastal and watershed advocacy organization running citizen science beach sweeps, water quality programs, and bilingual outreach. Operates in overlapping NJ geography with comparable mission around protecting coastal and estuarine environments.
• Groundwork USA: National network of local Trust organizations doing environmental community development in underserved urban neighborhoods. Shares Future City's integration of environmental work (water, green infrastructure) with community development and equitable engagement of emerging communities.
• NY/NJ Baykeeper: Regional waterkeeper organization protecting the NY/NJ harbor and adjacent waterways through citizen science, advocacy, and water quality monitoring. Directly comparable in mission, citizen science methodology, and watershed focus to Future City's Elizabeth River/Arthur Kill work.
• Hackensack Riverkeeper: New Jersey-based watershed advocacy and water quality monitoring organization. Operates in a similar regional watershed context with comparable citizen science and environmental stewardship programming to Future City.

Broad incumbents

• Surfrider Foundation: National coastal environmental non-profit with volunteer-driven water quality monitoring, advocacy, and beach cleanup programs. Comparable in citizen science methodology and community-based environmental activism model.
• New Jersey Audubon: Established NJ environmental stewardship organization with statewide programs in conservation, environmental education, and community engagement. Comparable in environmental education, stewardship events, and school partnership models.
• Riverkeeper: Original waterkeeper organization operating across the Hudson River watershed with broader geographic scope and larger scale. Comparable citizen science water quality monitoring methodology and watershed advocacy model to Future City's program.

Regional players

• Ironbound Community Corporation: Elizabeth-area community development organization working on housing, environmental justice, and community organizing in the same Ironbound neighborhood as Future City. Highly relevant local peer with overlapping environmental justice and community development mission.
• Pinelands Preservation Alliance: New Jersey-based environmental advocacy organization focused on protecting the Pinelands region through advocacy, education, and community engagement. Comparable in NJ-focused environmental mission and stewardship programming.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/future-city-inc-

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Future City Inc.