Jacksonville Riverfront Alliance: From Volunteer Conservancy to a Professionalized Public-Private Partner

John Hawley

Sep 16, 2026

The Public Money Pipeline: Part VI

Jacksonville’s newest riverfront partner is being presented as a new organization.

Legally, however, the story goes back several years.

The Jax Riverfront Alliance, or JRA, uses the same federal tax identification number and Florida corporate registration as the former Riverfront Parks Conservancy. Florida records show the nonprofit was incorporated June 18, 2021, and formally changed its name to Jacksonville Riverfront Alliance on Sept. 12, 2025.

What has changed much more dramatically is the organization itself.

A nonprofit that initially relied on volunteer leadership and relatively modest private funding is now becoming a professionalized public-private partner of the City of Jacksonville. It is searching nationally for a CEO at up to $250,000 a year, advertising a programming director position at up to $110,000, and a marketing and communications manager at up to $85,000, while preparing to help program and activate publicly owned downtown riverfront parks.

That transition doesn't necessarily mean the model is wrong.

But it does make the finances, staffing structure and division of responsibility with City government worth understanding.

Riverfront Parks Now Began as a Volunteer Civic Coalition

Before there was a Jax Riverfront Alliance, there was Riverfront Parks Now.

The advocacy coalition began in 2020 after organizations including Scenic Jacksonville, St. Johns Riverkeeper, Greenscape, the Late Bloomers Garden Club and the Garden Club of Jacksonville began discussing the opportunity created by publicly owned downtown riverfront land. By 2021, Riverfront Parks Now identified itself as a coalition of 12 nonprofit organizations advocating for connected public parks and green space along the St. Johns River.

Its structure was civic and volunteer-oriented.

A seven-member steering committee included Barbara Ketchum, Nancy Powell, Jimmy Orth, Susan Caven, Michael Kirwan, Barbara Goodman and Ted Pappas. Powell served as project manager while also leading Scenic Jacksonville.

The group advocated, organized presentations, communicated with City leaders and built public support.

It was not yet being positioned as a professional operating organization responsible for staffing and managing a substantial riverfront program.

The Riverfront Parks Conservancy Created the Legal Nonprofit

The next iteration was the Riverfront Parks Conservancy.

The corporation was created in 2021 and received federal 501(c)(3) recognition in 2022. Its mission moved beyond advocacy toward stewardship, activation and improvement of downtown riverfront parks through a Friends of the Park relationship with Jacksonville's Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department.

Initially, however, the Conservancy still looked much more like a traditional volunteer nonprofit than the organization emerging today.

In June 2024, when it advertised for a programming manager, the Conservancy explicitly said it had operated with a volunteer board since its inception. The proposed position was its first paid program role: a 1099 contractor working about 10 to 20 hours per week at approximately $30 an hour, initially for six months and without benefits.

The scope already included significant work—riverfront programming, vendor coordination, sponsorships, marketing, event staffing and coordination with City agencies.

But the staffing model remained lean.

The Old Conservancy Operated on About $100,000 to $150,000 a Year

The financial filings reinforce that difference.

The nonprofit reported approximately $56,000 in revenue in 2022, $119,000 in 2023 and $154,000 in 2024. Its 2024 expenses were about $52,000, and its year-end net assets were approximately $211,000. The officers and directors listed on that return reported no compensation from the organization.

Its most recent IRS filing, covering 2025, reported $100,773 in revenue, $45,392 in expenses and $266,782 in net assets. Board Chair David Sweeney, Vice Chair Mike Zaffaroni and Treasurer David Marovich again showed no compensation from the nonprofit.

The City had previously authorized $150,000 for the Riverfront Parks Conservancy to support operations, maintenance, programming and access at riverfront parks.

That was the financial scale of the organization immediately before its transformation accelerated.

The Same Corporation Became the Jax Riverfront Alliance

During 2025, a 19-member public-private steering group worked on a more formal management model for Jacksonville's downtown riverfront. The organization says that process culminated in the formation of the Jax Riverfront Alliance in August 2025. A month later, Florida corporate records show the existing Riverfront Parks Conservancy legally changed its name to Jacksonville Riverfront Alliance Inc.

So the distinction is important.

JRA is not an entirely unrelated nonprofit created from scratch. It is the legal successor—and technically the same corporate entity—as Riverfront Parks Conservancy.

But its intended scale, staffing and relationship with government are substantially different.

Linzee Ott Became the Alliance’s First Employee

That transition also brought a different management structure.

Linzee Ott became JRA's first employee and interim director. The Alliance describes her as responsible for building its “operational architecture from the ground up.” Ott previously served as CEO of Build Up Downtown and currently chairs Jacksonville's Downtown Development Review Board.

Her prior nonprofit provides some useful compensation context.

Build Up Downtown's 2025 tax filing reported $99,519 in compensation for Ott, plus $4,115 in other compensation.

JRA has not publicly posted Ott's current compensation in the sources we reviewed.

But Ott is overseeing an organization whose planned payroll structure is considerably larger than that of the former volunteer Conservancy.

JRA Is Advertising Up to $445,000 in Base Salary for Three Positions

The largest proposed position is the founding CEO.

JRA's national search lists anticipated compensation of $190,000 to $250,000 annually. The CEO would establish strategy, build the organization, manage relationships with government, community organizations and developers, develop staff and raise public and private support.

JRA also advertised:

Programming & Events Director: $75,000 to $110,000 annually.

Marketing & Communications Manager: $70,000 to $85,000 annually.

Together, those three positions alone represent $335,000 to $445,000 in annual base salary, before the organization's benefits contributions and before compensation for its interim director, executive assistant or future staff.

That comparison is striking when placed beside the organization's own financial history.

The maximum proposed base salaries for those three positions alone are almost three times the Conservancy's entire 2024 revenue and more than four times its 2025 revenue.

Jacksonville Is Providing $570,159 Directly to JRA

The City's financial relationship has grown as well.

Jacksonville originally considered an arrangement under which considerably more operating responsibility would shift to the nonprofit. During Council deliberations, Parks Director Daryl Joseph explained that the earlier concept contemplated JRA essentially taking over the riverfront operation.

The final structure was narrowed.

City Council approved Ordinance 2026-0552-E on Aug. 11, appropriating $570,159 directly to JRA, while reserving another $1 million for City-managed downtown park maintenance. The ordinance also waived Jacksonville's normal competitive evaluated-award requirement for nonprofit funding, allowing the City to contract directly with JRA.

Joseph subsequently described the revised division more simply: the City would handle maintenance, while JRA would focus on programming and fundraising.

The $570,159 City allocation alone is approximately 5.7 times the nonprofit's entire 2025 revenue.

And the three publicly advertised JRA salary ranges together equal roughly 59% to 78% of that City allocation.

That does not mean those salaries will all be paid from taxpayer dollars. JRA says part of its mission is to develop private and diversified funding. But the comparison illustrates the size of the staffing structure being built around an organization whose historical finances were much smaller.

The Programming Job Shows How Much the Model Has Changed

Perhaps the clearest apples-to-apples comparison is programming.

In 2024, the Conservancy sought a programming manager for 10 to 20 hours per week at about $30 an hour, working as an independent contractor without benefits.

Two years later, JRA is recruiting a full-time Programming & Events Director at $75,000 to $110,000 plus benefits. The position will build a year-round calendar of activities, manage internal and third-party programming and help establish the riverfront as a regular destination.

That is clearly a larger job.

But it also captures the transformation: Jacksonville is moving from a volunteer-and-contractor model toward a professionally staffed nonprofit organization operating alongside City government.

Could Jacksonville Perform Some of This Work Internally?

That question becomes relevant because the City already employs people performing many similar functions.

Jacksonville's Office of Sports and Entertainment has a Senior Marketing Manager, marketing specialists, Special Events Manager, event logistics personnel, sponsorship staff and other event employees.

The Parks Department already manages parks, waterfront facilities, programs, marinas and recreation services. Its proposed FY2026-27 General Fund allocation is approximately $58.7 million. Public Works, which handles infrastructure, mowing, landscaping and numerous City assets, is proposed at about $69.4 million.

That doesn't prove an in-house model would be cheaper.

The City has not publicly produced, in the materials we reviewed, a detailed side-by-side analysis showing the marginal cost of performing JRA's programming, marketing and fundraising responsibilities with existing City employees compared with outsourcing them to a nonprofit.

Supporters of the conservancy model argue that an independent nonprofit can raise private money, develop sponsorships and devote specialized attention to one place in ways a large municipal department may not.

The relevant fiscal question is therefore not simply “Why does JRA have employees?”

It is whether the professionalized nonprofit ultimately generates enough private support, programming and measurable public benefit to justify the additional administrative structure.

Jacksonville’s Salary Pyramid Provides Useful Context

This question comes as Jacksonville is already debating public-sector compensation more broadly.

A Sept. 10 Jacksonville Daily Record analysis found that the average compensation of Jacksonville's 20 highest-paid public employees was approximately $379,955, higher than the comparison cities examined in that report. The list was heavily influenced by highly compensated positions in independent authorities and specialized medical work rather than ordinary City departments.

JRA is different: its employees are nonprofit employees, not City employees.

But the underlying taxpayer question is related.

When public responsibilities migrate to independent authorities, quasi-public entities and private nonprofits, compensation structures can also migrate outside the traditional City departmental framework.

A $190,000-to-$250,000 nonprofit CEO may therefore oversee a comparatively narrow riverfront mission while major City department directors oversee far larger workforces, budgets and citywide responsibilities.

That does not establish that the JRA salary is excessive. It does establish why the scope, performance measures and private fundraising results deserve continued public comparison.

Some Volunteers Did Carry Over

The change wasn't a complete replacement of the original civic leadership.

Barbara Goodman, who co-founded the Conservancy and chaired it from 2021 through 2025, remains with JRA as board secretary. Natalie Rosenberg, meanwhile, has been involved with Riverfront Parks Now since 2021 and now sits on the JRA board while chairing the Riverfront Parks Now steering committee.

Nancy Powell's status illustrates another issue common to volunteer organizations: public records and websites don't always update simultaneously.

Powell announced her retirement from Scenic Jacksonville in April 2026, and her LinkedIn profile lists her Riverfront Parks Conservancy board service as ending in October 2025. Florida corporate records still list her as a JRA board member, while JRA's current public board page does not.

That appears more consistent with an administrative lag than evidence she remains active in the new operating structure.

The New Jax Riverfront Alliance Is a Different Animal

The history matters because it shows that Jacksonville didn't simply invent a riverfront nonprofit in 2026.

The current Alliance grew from years of civic advocacy, volunteer work, private philanthropy, the Riverfront Parks Now coalition and the Riverfront Parks Conservancy.

But the organization Jacksonville is funding today is becoming something considerably different.

It has a professional interim director.

It is conducting a national CEO search.

It is adding full-time programming and marketing positions.

It has a direct City funding relationship.

And it is being positioned as an ongoing institutional partner in how Jacksonville activates some of its most expensive and visible public spaces.

JRA's new website makes that transition particularly clear and now provides detailed information about the organization, board members, staff, riverfront plans and employment opportunities.

Follow the Jax Riverfront Alliance and its riverfront work

The next measure will be performance.

How much private funding does the Alliance raise?

How much of its operating budget ultimately comes from taxpayers?

What does programming cost per visitor?

How much does the professional staffing structure grow?

And does Jacksonville receive a level of riverfront programming and private financial support that it could not reasonably have produced through the City structure it already maintains?

The volunteer organizations that started this effort helped create the opportunity largely with civic time, advocacy and philanthropy.

The Jax Riverfront Alliance is now being funded and staffed to turn that vision into an institution.

The financial question is no longer simply whether Jacksonville should have great riverfront parks. It is what organizational structure gives taxpayers, donors and park users the strongest return for maintaining and activating them.