The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce has hired a consulting firm to study the feasibility of starting a fund-raising campaign that would ask Douglas County residents to donate money to support economic development activities.

Bill Sepic, chamber president, said Thursday the organization has hired Atlanta-based National Community Development Services to begin talking with business leaders and other “well-established” Douglas County residents to assess whether there would be support for a private fund-raising campaign.

“We really want to step up to the plate in regards to economic development, and we know there is only a finite amount of dollars the city and county government can invest,” Sepic said. “This would be a way to give the private sector an opportunity to invest directly into economic development.”

The feasibility study is expected to take six weeks to complete. If a fund-raising drive is undertaken, it likely would take six months to complete, Sepic said.

The chamber has not set any dollar amount it hopes a fund-raising drive would generate, but Sepic said a drive in Manhattan raised slightly more than $2 million for economic development.

Hutchinson, Sepic said, currently has a fund-raiser in process for economic development and hopes to raise approximately $2 million as well. National Community Development Services has assisted both communities with their fund-raising efforts.

Any money raised would be used by the chamber to increase the number of jobs in Lawrence, enhance the business climate, improve the community’s image and create a better trained work force, Kelvin Heck, chamber chairman, said.

Sepic said the potential fund-raising drive will not stop the chamber’s ECO2 task force from continuing to gather information about a 1/4-cent sales tax that would be used to spur development and preserve green space.

National Community Development Services has assisted about 450 nonprofit organizations in raising $1 billion.