Make Your Case: Triple Your Membership article in Main Street Now
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MainStreet Libertyville survived a financial crisis by asking residents to invest in the organization
The September/October 2010 Main Street Now has hit the streets, and this issue is about local support. My article about MainStreet Libertyville is the featured article. Learn about how this 18 year old organization on the brink of financial collapse in 2007, asked area residents to support their program. Their amazing success in raising $88,000 in less than four months from 800 new members is truly astonishing. Downtown organizations nationwide can recreate their successes.
The first page of the article is below.
In October 2007, Board members of MainStreet Libertyville, Illinois, a 1997 Great American Main Street Award winner, realized the organization was on the brink of financial collapse. The month before, their annual fundraiser, Street Dance, was held on a “rainy and cold night. Attendance was down drastically and so was the revenue.” Street Dance’s net profits, which had been upwards of $60,000 in past years, fell precipitously to $2,000 that year.
MainStreet Libertyville raised over $88,000 from members in 2007
Adding to this looming deficit was the swift decline in Village support during the last three years. Since the organization was founded in 1989, the Village of Libertyville had made $50,000 matching contributions each year to support the organization’s revitalization work. In 2005, a new mayor and several council members decided to cut their support in half. A further reduction occurred in 2007 bringing the village contribution to $10,000. Between the losses in these two key revenue sources, the year-end projections indicated that the organization would need close to $60,000 to make it through December. All the Board members were understandably nervous. Without an immediate infusion of cash, the organization would not be able to put on its holiday events, and would most likely fold by the end of the year. Pam Hume, then Board President, said “I was determined that MainStreet would not go south on my watch.”
Read the entire article MakeYourCase MSN SeptOct 2010
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