There are many ways to finance a bike-share program.

One is the public model, where the city or region owns the program and it’s operated on a day-to-day basis by a contractor. Then there are public-private partnerships, run by for-profits or non-profits. And, as with Toronto’s Bixi, there is the private non-profit model.

The public model, seen in Washington D.C. and London, England:

D.C.’s Department of Transportation runs its Capital Bikeshare program with a mix its own funds, grants from various levels of government, and corporate partnerships. It has 1,700 bikes and more than 200 stations. Day-to-day operations are contracted out to Alta Bicycle Share (Bixi’s American partner).

London’s Barclays Cycle-Hire program (or Boris bikes, after their cycle-loving mayor Boris Johnson) was recently expanded to more than 8,000 bicycles at 570 docking stations across London. The city’s transport authority, Transport for London, contracts service provider Serco to handle the launch and operations, paid for in part by a hefty sponsorship deal with Barclays.

The private model, seen in Paris, New York and Los Angeles:

Paris’s Velib is perhaps the most well-known bike-sharing system in the world and second in size only to China’s. Outdoor advertising agency JCDecaux covered the start-up and operational costs in exchange for exclusive control and revenue from 1,628 city-owned billboards. JCDecaux also pays the city a yearly fee of $4.3 million, and the city picks up any revenue from the program. The city currently has 1,800 stations and more than 20,000 bikes.

New York’s long-awaited Citibike program, also poised to launch this spring, is run by Alta Bicycle Share and is entirely privately financed with $41 million from Citibank and $6.5 million from Mastercard. Any profits will be split with the city.

In Los Angeles, instead of advertising companies or private companies ponying up funding, it’s the bike-sharing operator Bike Nation USA that handles financing. They put in $16 million for the program that launches this month.

The hybrid model, seen in Fullerton, Calif., and Minneapolis:

Public-private partnerships where both the city and the bike-share operator are involved in funding could be the future, according to Bike Nation USA. It’s the model they are pursuing in Fullerton, where both Bike Nation USA and the city put in a share of start-up capital.

Another version of this happens in Minneapolis, which created a non-profit to finance and run its Twin Cities Bike Share Project. The non-profit, Nice Ride Minnesota, uses government funding and corporate sponsorships to operate the bike-share program (using Bixi’s technology), with no subsidies from the city.