Heritage Consulting has developed a wide range of interactive and engaging workshops and training programs for our commercial district revitalization and Main Street clients. In the past eight years we have consulted with organizations and government agencies on many issues to make organizations more effective. Listed below are workshops and consultations we have developed for clients in recent years. Our workshops and training programs can be as detailed as you wish: from one hour to a full day in length. We are happy to develop training programs or consultations on other topics to suit your needs.

Downtown management organizations, whether using the Main Street Four Point Approach™ or another organizing methodology, struggle to grow and thrive. We know, because we have worked with more than 150 downtown organizations in the last twelve years to advance their agendas and make a difference in their community. At its heart, downtown organizations are about the people who volunteer or manage these critical enterprises and our training programs are designed specifically for them.

Our workshops are excellent for statewide or regional conferences, group trainings or local downtown management organizations. Our workshops are hands-on, engaging and fun. We include several hands-on learning experiences during each workshop, and offer stories from our experiences, and practical solutions that can be used immediately. We prefer to offer peer learning opportunities during these workshops, so that the audience can learn from their contemporaries as well as from Ms. Harris. We provide an extensive packet of information for each workshop participant that includes a bibliography, articles, checklists and forms as resources to reinforce the content of the workshop. We ask all participants to evaluate every one of our workshops so we can include continuous improvement in our sessions.

 

        

Why Ask Donna to help?

I have worked in the Main Street movement for more than a dozen years, and during that time I have found that my consulting, training and writing have been become more and more focused on fundraising aspects of the Main Street Four Point Approach™.  I suspect the reason for this is because local revitalization programs are seeking ways to create stable and predictable funding to ensure that their organization remains viable over time. 

I learned about fundraising the hard way, by trial and error throughout the first fifteen years of my career when I was working for nonprofit preservation organizations.  I have started three nonprofit organizations from scratch.  For each, I launched a membership or annual gifts program, inaugurated special events/conferences, and wrote many successful grants to foundations and corporations. As staff or Executive Director for other preservation organizations, I learned about gala fundraising events, board giving, sponsorship, capital campaigns, and government grants. I wrote successful grants of more than $3.75 million dollars from foundations while working for the local preservation organization in Philadelphia.  I am a generalist when it comes to fundraising, because I have had to raise money for a variety of organizations, and I actually like raising money and can help your board and staff understand what I have learned.

As I began working for Illinois Main Street, I became aware that my nonprofit management experience and fundraising skills were highly useful to the local Main Street programs I served as State Coordinator. I have concentrated on the Organization point ever since.

Three of the five feature articles I published in Main Street News in the last six years have dealt with fundraising topics, especially membership retention. Click to see all of these articles below:

• “Make Your Case: Triple Your Membership” feature article for Main Street Now, September/October 2010
• “Make More Money From Members”  feature article for Main Street News, August 2008
• “Is a BID Feasible in Your Town?  Ten Questions to Ponder” feature article for Main Street News, June 2007
• "Illinois Main Street Back on Track Case Studies" feature article for Main Street News, August/September 2012
• Advocacy Issue: "Lessons Learned from Illinois Main Street," feature article for Main Street News, January 2004

While I have implemented business improvement districts in several states, the vast majority of Main Street communities I work with, do not have access to property or sales tax revenue from BIDs to fund their programs. These programs instead must rely on a variety of revenue sources each year to build their operating budgets, and this has been the focus of my training programs in the last few years.  I enjoy working with local communities on fundraising issues and helping them diversify their revenue sources so that they can create and rely on predictable income streams over time.

Please contact us if any one of these topics interests you, or if you would like us to customize a workshop for your special needs.

 

2013 FIVE New Main Street Workshops

Each year, we develop a new training series based on feedback and requests from local and state Main Street coordinating programs around the country. This new workshop series for 2013 highlights the people that make Main Street great: Board, Staff and Volunteers. 

These five new workshops for revitalization organi­zations show some new and innovative ways to staff and implement downtown improvement work. This new workshop series adds to the extensive list of 40 other workshops we have presented over the last dozen years for start-up as well as seasoned downtown organizations. We can customize all of our workshops for the specific needs of your organization!

1. Ten Tips for Main Street Boards to Improve Manager Retention

Main Street manager turnover is real and expensive for downtown organizations with limited funds.  The “revolving door” thwarts downtown progress, and high turnover reflects poorly on organizations. Main Street managers leave for a number of reasons, but the good news is that Main Street Boards can prevent some manager turnover by addressing root causes.  This 90-minute workshop discusses ten actions that Main Street Boards can take to slow down the “revolving door” and create a healthier work/life balance for Main Street Executive Directors. This workshop contains one small group exercise and in addition, participants will receive an extensive packet of resources including the PowerPoint slides, informative articles and the bibliography for further reference. This is a basic level workshop.  This workshop was the NTMSC Story of the Week for March 6, 2013, see it here.

 

2. A Dozen Alternatives to Volunteers

For the last 30 years, one of the Main Street Movement’s bedrock values has been the use of volunteers.  It is well known that volunteer activity has fundamentally changed nationwide and today’s volunteers are unlikely to commit to long term projects and seem to prefer “bite sized” or “done in a day” tasks.  Given this dilemma, many towns have begun to use alternatives to volunteers to implement traditional committee activities and events. We will discuss the pros/cons, costs, and tasks best suited for a dozen different volunteer alternatives including college and high school formal and informal programs as well as internship/coop programs, clubs and classes;  AmeriCorps/Vista, community service, and local service organizations. Finally, we will focus on the ever more pressing need for job descriptions, high quality supervision, feedback and timing to use these potential workers for Main Street.  This 90-minute session includes one short group exercise, articles for reference and a template for creating job descriptions. This is a basic level workshop.

3. Your New Board, PRONTO!

This workshop is geared towards growing Main Street organizations that are ready to begin strategically adding new board members to help the organization transition to the next phase of growth and development.  Since the Nominating Committee is the only committee concerned about the organization’s near term future, we will discuss who should serve on this committee, its work throughout the year, how to organize for best results and current nonprofit best practices for the Board Nominating Committee in local Main Street organizations.  We will use a mnemonic device, PRONTO, to organize this highly interactive presentation, and show how this committee should effectively identify, recruit, discuss obligations, nominate, train and orient new board members for maximum benefit.  This 90-minute workshop includes one group exercise and a CD full of documents and articles to use right away. This is an intermediate level workshop.

 

4. Weak committees?  Try Task Forces Instead

Main Street managers engage in a never-ending struggle to maintain a vibrant committee structure—the very bedrock of the Main Street Committee system—for their local revitalization programs.  Some towns are experimenting with alternatives to committees. Learn about the benefits of devolving committee work into small, limited term task forces or short individual projects to help engage more people in your organization's work.  We will discuss how the role and activities of the Committee chair must evolve to permit these new task forces to thrive.  See why work plans are still critical to the success of these arrangements and how to create reliable reporting relationships. We will also recommend how the Committee chair can supervise this new army of task forces and how to recognize their work.  This 90-minute session contains one exercise and participants will receive a resource packet of materials including the presentation handout, job descriptions, sample Committee chair spreadsheet to chart task force/individual project work and a bibliography for further references.  This is an intermediate level workshop.

 

5. Why Aren’t You Asking for Year End Gifts?

According to Charity Navigator, your Main Street organization could be raising up to 40% of its donations during the last six weeks of the year through an effective Year End Appeal.  This workshop will give you all the tools you need to implement a year-end fundraising campaign using both social and traditional media to seek support for the general operations of your Main Street organization.  This fast-paced session will outline a simple ten-step process to implement a campaign starting in mid-November until December 31.  We’ll discuss how to set a realistic goal, prepare your website for online donations, sort mailing lists, create compelling stories and letters/emails, reinforce the campaign with appropriate PR, schedule and automate thank you letters and how to prepare for the last push between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  This session can either be a 90-minute overview or an in-depth 3.5-hour discussion.  This workshop contains one or two small group exercises (depending on length of session).   Participants will receive an extensive packet of resources including the presentation handouts, articles, calendar and bibliography of references.  This is an intermediate/advanced level workshop. This workshop topic expands on an extensive blog post we did in November 2011 on this topic, see it here.

 

Fundraising Topics

Diversify Your Revenue Sources

Start up and established downtown organizations need regular, predictable income to sustain their organizations and to ensure a viable future. This 3.5 hour session informs participants about various sources and methods they can use to broaden their funding base. Content includes: fund-raising roles and responsibilities; a diversified, sustainable funding base; the seven traditional sources of downtown funding; “growing” existing donations; ideal revenue mixes for organizations at different life stages; and the importance of Business Improvement Districts, planned giving programs and endowments. We will do three group or individual exercises as part of the workshop. Participants will receive a resource packet of materials including the PowerPoint, several articles and bibliography on CD. Beginner level.

More Members: More Revenue

For most Main Street organizations, membership is the first form of fundraising undertaken, but it can be a potent resource for expanding the organization's financial base. This session revolves around a case study of Main Street Libertyville Illinois, where 75% of their organizational revenue now comes from 1100 members. You will learn how they acquired, developed and renew their members in detail, so that you can recreate their success. There will be considerable discussion of the renewal process so you maximize revenue from this already committed group of investors. This session can be 90 minutes or 3.5 hours in length and includes two group exercises. Participants will receive a resource packet of materials including the PowerPoint, our Main Street Now article, ideal membership brochure, renewal letters and bibliography on CD. Intermediate/Advanced level.

Main Street Fundraising Event Catalogue

Many Main Street organizations rely on fundraising events to supply operating funds. Learn about more than 100 different types of fundraising events in ten different categories that are designed to raise revenue only. We will delve into the  component parts of these fundraising events so that you'll know what can be donated, sponsored, offered in kind or sold to boost the net profits of these fundraising events. This session will help you freshen up tired events, or give you some new ideas.  You’ll learn from audience members too, who will be encouraged to add suggestions throughout the session that will be transcribed for all participants. This 90 minute workshop includes two group or individual exercises and a 40 page resource packet of articles, sample files and a bibliography provided on CD.  Beginner level.

Creating A Fundraising Plan 

As downtown programs mature, and committees seek ever greater revenue sources to support their activities, Board members are insisting on clear, measurable fundraising plans as a means to monitor fundraising across the whole organization. This 3.5 hour workshop will introduce you to the component parts of a fundraising plan and how it is integrated into the work planning process. This 90 minutes workshop includes one group exercise. Participants will receive a resource packet of materials including the PowerPoint presentation, several articles, template, sample fundraising calendar and bibliography on CD. Intermediate/Advanced level.

Friend Raising not Fundraising

Potential board members may be reluctant to serve on Main Street boards because they are concerned about their individual fundraising responsibilities. This workshop will help you understand how every board member can participate in some aspect of raising the necessary funds to operate your local organization. You will learn about the many tasks needed to raise funds, and how to identify and place board members in tasks where they will thrive. Based on the work of Hildy Gottleib (http://www.hildygottlieb.org) this workshop shows you how you can turn the most reluctant board member into an enthusiastic worker for downtown fundraising efforts. This workshop includes one group exercise and a 40 page resource packet of articles, checklists and a bibliography provided on CD. Beginner level.

Why Aren’t You Asking for Year End Gifts?

According to Charity Navigator, your Main Street organization could be raising up to 40% of its donations during the last six weeks of the year through an effective Year End Appeal.  This workshop will give you all the tools you need to implement a year-end fundraising campaign using both social and traditional media to seek support for the general operations of your Main Street organization.  This fast-paced session will outline a simple ten-step process to implement a campaign starting in mid-November until December 31.  We’ll discuss how to set a realistic goal, prepare your website for online donations, sort mailing lists, create compelling stories and letters/emails, reinforce the campaign with appropriate PR, schedule and automate thank you letters and how to prepare for the last push between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  This session can either be a 90-minute overview or an in-depth 3.5-hour discussion.  This workshop contains one or two small group exercises (depending on length of session).   Participants will receive an extensive packet of resources including the presentation handouts, articles, calendar and bibliography of references.  This is an intermediate/advanced level workshop. This workshop topic expands on an extensive blog post we did in November 2011 on this topic, see it here.

 

Is an Improvement District Feasible in Your Town?

Improvement districts (BIDs) are an extremely effective method to assure that downtown organizations have appropriate funding available.  But how do you start to interest both merchants and property owners to organize a non voluntary increase in their property or sales tax dedicated for downtown services. This workshop, geared to your state’s enabling legislation, will help you identify the skills, people and steps need to determine if a BID is feasible in your town so you can make your own judgment on its viability.  This session can be 90 minutes or 3.5 hours in length and includes two or three group exercises depending on the workshop length. Participants will receive a resource packet of materials including the PowerPoint, our Main Street Now article, checklists, state legislation, budget templates and bibliography on CD. Intermediate level.

Year-Long Sponsorship Packages

Learn why you should gather all of your sponsorship opportunities into one package to solicit sponsors on a yearly basis, rather than one at a time.  We will review three examples of downtown year-long sponsorship packages and explain how this simple marketing effort can help you diversify your sponsorship base, gain more revenue from existing sponsors by offering more opportunities, and allow you to fine tune your sponsorship benefits across all events and programs your organization promotes throughout the year. This 90 minute workshop includes one group exercise and a 40 page resource packet of articles, three sample sponsorship packages and a bibliography provided on CD. Intermediate level.

Introduction to "The Ask:" Getting Your Board Comfortable with Fundraising

Mounting a capital campaign to raise large sums to save or restore an historic building in town is hard work over many years for any Main Street organization.  In this 3.5 hour session you will be introduced to the components of a capital campaign: donor cultivation, the ASK, and stewardship of the donor. We will talk about developing prospect files and the information you will need in those files.  You will learn about the five different parts of the Ask, which is the “in person” approach to a potential donor to support your project. We will conclude with a short group exercise:  a piece of improvisational theater to show you how to do the different parts of the ASK. This workshop includes two group exercises and a 40 page resource packet of articles, sample files and a bibliography provided on CD. Advanced level.

 

Other Training Workshops Available

Organization & Board Issues

Roles of Board and Staff in Main Street Organizations

Clear up the confusion about who does what in Main Street organizations by hosting this session.  We will first discuss the legal responsibilities of all nonprofit board members, and then turn to what Main Street Board members do collectively and as individual members to support the organization.  During this 90 minute session you will learn about what managers do and don’t do for Main Street organizations, and how to promote manager longevity. We will share some horror stories along the way about good boards gone bad, so that you won’t make the same mistakes!  A resource packet will be distributed with lots of blank forms, letters, articles, a bibliography and other information to help to boost your board and manager effectiveness. Beginner level.

Ten Tips for Main Street Boards to Improve Manager Retention

Main Street manager turnover is real and expensive for downtown organizations with limited funds.  The “revolving door” thwarts downtown progress, and high turnover reflects poorly on organizations. Main Street managers leave for a number of reasons, but the good news is that Main Street Boards can prevent some manager turnover by addressing root causes.  This 90-minute workshop discusses ten actions that Main Street Boards can take to slow down the “revolving door” and create a healthier work/life balance for Main Street Executive Directors. This workshop contains one small group exercise and in addition, participants will receive an extensive packet of resources including the PowerPoint slides, informative articles and the bibliography for further reference. This is a basic level workshop.  This workshop was the NTMSC Story of the Week for March 6, 2013, see it here.

Your New Board Policies Courtesy of the IRS

Recently the IRS completely redesigned the 990 form to collect much more information about nonprofit governance practices. Main Street organizations need to understand these expansive and highly technical changes and what information must be submitted. During this 90 minute session, we will review the pertinent IRS 990 form questions and definitions, and provide sample policies and documents so that you understand the IRS concerns and will be able to bring your organization into compliance. Beginner level.

Your New Board, PRONTO!

This workshop is geared towards growing Main Street organizations that are ready to begin strategically adding new board members to help the organization transition to the next phase of growth and development.  Since the Nominating Committee is the only committee concerned about the organization’s near term future, we will discuss who should serve on this committee, its work throughout the year, how to organize for best results and current nonprofit best practices for the Board Nominating Committee in local Main Street organizations.  We will use a mnemonic device, PRONTO, to organize this highly interactive presentation, and show how this committee should effectively identify, recruit, discuss obligations, nominate, train and orient new board members for maximum benefit.  This 90-minute workshop includes one group exercise and a CD full of documents and articles to use right away. This is an intermediate level workshop.

Grow Your Ambassadors: Keep Former Board Members Involved

Board members rotating off your board are an often overlooked resource for many Main Street organizations. This workshop discusses a variety of methods, both formal and informal; to retain past Board members’ accumulated wisdom and good feelings about the organization so your ambassador corps grows for the good of the organization. Recent research and best practices for retaining the hearts of these good natured people, who have nobly served the local Main Street organization over the years, will be reviewed. We will show how and why to develop short individual assignments for retiring board members, as well as the Pros/ cons of establishing a formal advisory board or past board council. This workshop includes one group exercise, a resource packet of information including articles, forms and a bibliography. Beginner level.

Strategic Planning for Small BIDs

Small Improvement Districts do not rely solely on tax revenue to fund their programs, and thus must engage a broader constancy to support and guide their program’s implementation and future plans.  This session will help small BIDs identify who should be part of their strategic planning process, why their involvement is essential to healthy growth and development, and how to use the strategic planning process to propel the organization to the next level.  We will discuss how to use focus groups and surveys of merchants, consumers and property owners to inform your strategic planning process.  We will discuss the typical parts of a strategic plan; how long your board should devote to its preparation, and how you should use the final document for public relations,  fundraising, and business and volunteer recruitment purposes. This session can be 90 minutes or 3.5 hours in length. A small packet of materials will be provided to help you begin your strategic planning process right away. Advanced level.

 

Surviving and Getting Ahead of a Financial Crisis

This half day workshop is organized in two parts. The first hour and a half discusses how downtown organizations facing funding cuts from 5 to 20% should approach the twin goals of cutting expenses and raising revenues to create a viable organizational budget. Our focus is getting the Board involved in decision making on cuts as well as revenue increases. We will discuss three philosophies for cutting expenses, and provide 25 likely strategies for downtown organizations facing this issue.  We will then go on to talk about 25 quick revenue generating ideas that can be instituted by another board team. Finally we will talk for 90 minutes about getting ahead of crisis but creating organizational reserves, boosting cash flow and instituting better financial controls.  We will do one group exercise during each part of this two part presentation. We have an extensive CD of information on both topics that will be shared with each participating organization. This CD contains articles, a bibliography, sample documents, and links to other resource materials.  Intermediate level.

Creating a Vision Statement

Visioning is a process to identify the preferred future for your revitalization organization.  Creating a vision statement does not happen during the first or even the second year of local revitalization programs because the program needs to learn what is possible with volunteer help before they can begin to dream large dreams.  This workshop is best when selected community stakeholders are invited to participate (we will provide advice about whom to ask). While the local program is responsible for implementing ideas, the future vision of the downtown needs to be a shared vision with merchants, property owners, elected officials and residents to be truly effective. This workshop starts with a fun group exercise that gets everyone thinking about the future--ten years from now.  From there the groups make reports and then go back into small groups again. This exercise takes about 3 hours. We provide a lively and concise statement within about a week of the workshop that describes in written form what the downtown should be like in ten years given the great work of the local Main Street program. Beginner level.

Creating a Mission Statement

Most revitalization programs develop a generic mission statement to satisfy their organizational documents--bylaws and incorporation papers--and then forget about this seminal statement about why the organization exists, who it serves and how it goes about its work.  Our workshop helps to take an old mission statement and give it life based on the current work of the organization.  This workshop can take about 2 hours and is best when it involves outside stakeholders, who buy into the work of the organization.  We use some fun group exercises to get to the heart of the matter and your group ends up with a short mission statement that sings. Beginner level.

Hosting an Effective Meeting

We all have them--meetings--but how can you make yours better?  This workshop is about an hour and we explore what makes meetings so awful and how you can shorten them, make board members more engaged, stop endless rehashing of committee work, and get the board to focus on POLICY not implementation which is the work of staff and committees.   Beginner level.

 

Dealing with Difficult Board Members

Based on the book by Katha Kissman this workshop helps you deal with difficult board members, whose personal relationships or habits create unpleasant or unproductive board meetings.  This workshop focuses on types of board members and their behaviors so you can understand fully the implications of these behaviors on others--including you the staff member.  This workshop is excellent for advanced manager training because it gives everyone at the meeting a forum to talk about their "problem" board member in a safe setting among peers without naming names.  We supply advance reading and do some role playing to help managers bring the message needed to the Board President, the one most empowered to make change at the board level.  Intermediate level.

 

Volunteers

A Dozen Alternatives to Volunteers

For the last 30 years, one of the Main Street Movement’s bedrock values has been the use of volunteers.  It is well known that volunteer activity has fundamentally changed nationwide and today’s volunteers are unlikely to commit to long term projects and seem to prefer “bite sized” or “done in a day” tasks.  Given this dilemma, many towns have begun to use alternatives to volunteers to implement traditional committee activities and events. We will discuss the pros/cons, costs, and tasks best suited for a dozen different volunteer alternatives including college and high school formal and informal programs as well as internship/coop programs, clubs and classes;  AmeriCorps/Vista, community service, and local service organizations. Finally, we will focus on the ever more pressing need for job descriptions, high quality supervision, feedback and timing to use these potential workers for Main Street.  This 90-minute session includes one short group exercise, articles for reference and a template for creating job descriptions. This is a basic level workshop.

Main Street Three “R’s”: Recruit, Retain & Recognize Volunteers

Volunteers are the lifeblood of any downtown revitalization organization. In this workshop learn about how to plan the organization's work using volunteers. Participants will learn how to create and sustain a strong volunteer corps to manage their Main Street programs. We will discuss why people volunteer, and the three basic recruitment techniques being used across the county in downtown organizations. Job descriptions for volunteer activities will be employed. Next we will focus on training techniques to assure that you retain your volunteers. Finally, we will talk about the most neglected part of the three Volunteer "R's" --Recognition--including why you must thank volunteers, three times, three ways. We will do three group activities to brainstorm ideas about how to implement aspects of a vibrant volunteer program for your Main Street program. The results from these exercises will be collected and compiled and sent to the manager. You will also receive a large packet of material with articles, forms and checklists that you can use tomorrow at home to build your volunteer corp. Beginner level.

Weak committees?  Try Task Forces Instead

Main Street managers engage in a never-ending struggle to maintain a vibrant committee structure—the very bedrock of the Main Street Committee system—for their local revitalization programs.  Some towns are experimenting with alternatives to committees. Learn about the benefits of devolving committee work into small, limited term task forces or short individual projects to help engage more people in your organization's work.  We will discuss how the role and activities of the Committee chair must evolve to permit these new task forces to thrive.  See why work plans are still critical to the success of these arrangements and how to create reliable reporting relationships. We will also recommend how the Committee chair can supervise this new army of task forces and how to recognize their work.  This 90-minute session contains one exercise and participants will receive a resource packet of materials including the presentation handout, job descriptions, sample Committee chair spreadsheet to chart task force/individual project work and a bibliography for further references.  This is an intermediate level workshop.

The 21st Century Volunteer

These volunteers are different, they want short assignments and done in a day activities. Learn who they are, what they want, what turns them off, and how to recruit them using traditional and new media. We will spend a great deal of time talking about volunteer job descriptions and give a neat template for you to use when you get home to create great job descriptions to help your recruitment efforts. This is a 90 minute workshop with plenty of interaction and one exercise. We will supply lots of great materials to take home on a CD. Beginner level.

 

An Introduction to Virtual Volunteers

There are so many ways to recruit both live and virtual volunteers to help with your downtown work. In this 90 minute workshop you will learn about some new tools for recruitment, and why job or task descriptions are still critical to attract skilled volunteers to the cause.  We will do two short exercises about how to recruit live as well as virtual volunteers. This workshop includes a CD with the presentation, templates, letters and articles to use to develop your online volunteer recruitment effort. Beginner level

 

Public Relations, Advocacy and Technology

 

50 Ways to Use the Web

There are a million ways to use websites, blogs, software programs, and social networking sites to advance your Main Street program. This workshop is organized around the four Committees and focuses on free and low-cost resources. This fast run-through of some of our favorite web tools will permit you—whether novice, geek, or seasoned web surfer—to hone in on the best tools we've found. We supply a packet of materials listing all of the web sites we like, so that you can use these when you get home. Beginner level.

 

 

An Ideal Main Street Web Site

This workshop is designed for downtown organizations that already have a web site, but believe improvements are necessary to communicate to residents and visitors. In our consulting we have seen literally hundreds of local web sites and have screen shots from organizations, large and small.  This workshop also stresses organizational transparency as a result of new requirements from the IRS 990 informational tax return requirements.  We will discuss what kinds of content you should have on your web site to meet these requirements. This workshop is not a primer in HTML or Content Management systems. Rather it is designed to explain the content, pages and navigation that is important for visitors and residents.  At the end of the workshop you will be able to visit with your web designer to create a more effective site. Beginner level.

 

Effective Public Relations for Downtown Organizations

This workshop focuses on using public relations to build a positive public image and garner resources for downtown organizations. Put your organization in a positive public spotlight by using a variety of effective P.R. methods and tools including traditional and new media to get the word out about your organization. Go beyond a haphazard PR effort and leave with a "quick-and-dirty" P.R. plan to use immediately. This session can be 90 minutes or 3.5 hours in length. We will do one exercise to promote concepts taught during the workshop, and provide a resource packet (CD) of the PowerPoint, bibliography and articles. Intermediate level

 

Working With Elected Officials: Advocacy for Local Main Street Organizations

Despite dwindling government budgets and little programmatic support for Main Street revitalization at the federal and state levels, local Main Street organizations must continue to cultivate and advocate to our elected officials at the local, county, state, and federal levels.  Whether you are new to advocacy or an old hand, you’ll leave this session understanding the importance of advocacy, how to cultivate long-term relationships with elected officials, how your organization can make a specific request, and tools to reach your elected officials at all levels. Intermediate level.

 

Crisis Communication:  Know What To do BEFORE There is One!

Despite dwindling government budgets and little programmatic support for Main Street revitalization at the federal and state levels, local Main Street organizations must continue to cultivate and advocate to our elected officials at the local, county, state, and federal levels.  Whether you are new to advocacy or an old hand, you’ll leave this session understanding the importance of advocacy, how to cultivate long-term relationships with elected officials, how your organization can make a specific request, and tools to reach your elected officials at all levels. Intermediate level.

Promotion

Power of Analysis: Event Lifecycles

All Main Street organizations host special events and fundraising events as part of their efforts to raise funds to support the organization and to provide events to draw people downtown. These events all have predictable lifecycles that can be charted and easily analyzed to determine where they are in the traditional marketing product lifecycle. This session will teach you about product lifecycles as they apply to the Main Street events. We will provide you with charts and assessment tools you can use tomorrow to assess how your events are doing, and actions to take if an event is starting to slip in its revenue generation. We will do two short exercises during the session to reinforce learned concepts that you can complete when you get home. Intermediate level.

 

Design

History of Storefront Design

Pedestrian oriented downtowns have certain common buildings, spaces, sidewalks, parking, and other amenities common throughout the country. This 90-minute session focuses first on the downtown building, with a discussion of names and typical parts of a downtown commercial building. Next we talk about the evolution of styles on Main Street and how these buildings evolved over time. Finally we will talk about how historic buildings can be maintained. Beginner level

 

Practical Preservation:  Carrots and Sticks Tool Box

This overview is of the variety of incentives and regulations that affect historic buildings in a downtown setting.  Half of the workshop is on the existing federal and state incentives available for each state, how the National Register and Certified Local Government programs work in concert with local preservation efforts. More emphasis is placed however on creating local funding, incentives and good advice for property owners who wish to undertake small or medium sized improvements.  This session can be custom designed for your state, and can be 3.5 hours or a whole day and includes two group exercises. Participants will receive a resource packet of materials including the PowerPoint, and other materials on a CD.  Intermediate level.

 

Creating Carrots for Preservation in Your Town

This overview is of the variety of incentives and regulations that affect historic buildings in a downtown setting.  Half of the workshop is on the existing federal and state incentives available for each state, how the National Register and Certified Local Government programs work in concert with local preservation efforts. More emphasis is placed however on creating local funding, incentives and good advice for property owners who wish to undertake small or medium sized improvements.  This session can be custom designed for your state, and can be 3.5 hours or a whole day and includes two group exercises. Participants will receive a resource packet of materials including the PowerPoint, and other materials on a CD.  Intermediate level.

 

 

 

Curating an Authentic Downtown Experience

As the downtown-revitalization movement matures, we frequently find ourselves striving to nurture and maintain that which is authentic, quirky and inherently local about our districts. Inadvertently, we have become "curators" of buildings, spaces, and businesses as we seek to establish a compelling sense of place. This session examines the idea of commercial-district curation and helps identify the authentic in your town that must be preserved and enhanced. This session can be 90 minutes or 3.5 hours in length and we work with another speaker Anthony Rubano to present this workshop. Intermediate level.

 

Main Street Basic Training

 

Basic Training: Organization Committee

This 3.5 hour training is for novices and those new to the Main Street Four Point Approach™. It touches on the origin of the Main Street movement, the eight principles of Main Street, and what the four committees do. We will discuss how to start a local nonprofit organization to organize the work of the downtown effort, and who should be invited to serve. Time will be spent discussing the roles of each of the committees and the typical first year projects they undertake. Building an initial budget and the pledge campaign will complete the session. We will do three group activities during the session to help you learn more about how Main Street operates. Beginner level.

 

Basic Training: Design Committee

This training on the role and activities of the Design Committee discusses why downtowns declined and a brief history of storefront architecture in America in an effort to introduce the committee's work. This session touches on the bedrock and importance of historic preservation in the development of the Main Street Four Point Approach™ and how it colors the way we see and think about downtown commercial architecture. The Design Committee focuses on the physical realm of downtown, including both public and private buildings, landscapes, streets, parking, sidewalks and parks in the downtown district. We'll discuss how to make downtown clean, safe and attractive using incremental progress and the methodology of the Main Street Four Point Approach™. Typical first year activities for this committee will be discussed as well as who should serve on the Design Committee. Beginner level

Basic Training: Promotion Committee

The Promotion Committee helps bring people back downtown as a shopping and social environment for residents and shoppers from outside the community. We will discuss the role of this key committee and why it is often called the "fun" committee of Main Street. We will discuss typical projects and events that the Promotion Committee members undertake, the types of people that should be recruited to serve, and how to grow the capacity of the Committee members to take on more sophisticated projects over time. You will come away with a good understanding about the difference between a special event, a retail event and an image activity so that you can begin to develop these key activities right away. A resource packet will be distributed with lots of sample events and activities, and a bibliography. Beginner level.

History of Storefront Design

Pedestrian oriented downtowns have certain common buildings, spaces, sidewalks, parking, and other amenities common throughout the country. This 90-minute session focuses first on the downtown building, with a discussion of names and typical parts of a downtown commercial building. Next we talk about the evolution of styles on Main Street and how these buildings evolved over time. Finally we will talk about how historic buildings can be maintained.

Advanced Basic Training: Organization Committee

This workshop at 3.5 hours is meant for those involved in Main Street for more than three years and gives more in depth coverage of fundraising, volunteer development, communication tools, and board roles and responsibilities. The session can be custom designed to meet your training needs. Intermediate level.

Committee Training

Committee Training: Organization 101

This 3.5 hour training is for novices and those new to the Main Street Four Point Approach™. It touches on the origin of the Main Street movement, the eight principles of Main Street, and what the four committees do. We will discuss how to start a local nonprofit organization to organize the work of the downtown effort, and who should be invited to serve. Time will be spent discussing the roles of each of the committees and the typical first year projects they undertake. Building an initial budget and the pledge campaign will complete the session. We will do three group activities during the session to help you learn more about how Main Street operates. Beginner level.

 

Committee Training:  Design 101

This training on the role and activities of the Design Committee discusses why downtowns declined and a brief history of storefront architecture in America in an effort to introduce the committee's work. This session touches on the bedrock and importance of historic preservation in the development of the Main Street Four Point Approach™ and how it colors the way we see and think about downtown commercial architecture. The Design Committee focuses on the physical realm of downtown, including both public and private buildings, landscapes, streets, parking, sidewalks and parks in the downtown district. We'll discuss how to make downtown clean, safe and attractive using incremental progress and the methodology of the Main Street Four Point Approach™. Typical first year activities for this committee will be discussed as well as who should serve on the Design Committee. Beginner level.

 

Committee Training: Promotion 101

The Promotion Committee helps bring people back downtown as a shopping and social environment for residents and shoppers from outside the community. We will discuss the role of this key committee and why it is often called the "fun" committee of Main Street. We will discuss typical projects and events that the Promotion Committee members undertake, the types of people that should be recruited to serve, and how to grow the capacity of the committee members to take on more sophisticated projects over time. You will come away with a good understanding about the difference between a special event, a retail event and an image activity so that you can begin to develop these key activities right away. A resource packet includes a bibliography, articles and other materials useful for the Promotion Committee. Beginner level

 

 

Main Street Manager Training

New Main Street managers need to know their role relative to the Board of Directors, since they are the managers, not the leaders of the organization. This fast paced session discusses the subtle difference between being a manager that gets volunteers to undertake the work of the organization, and doing the work yourself. We will discuss the board's role relative to fundraising, so that the manager does not take on the Board's responsibilities. This session discusses how to organize your time during the first 90 days on the job; whom to visit first; establishing relationships with merchants, property owners, elected officials and city staff. This session can be 90 minutes or 3.5 hours in length.  A brief handbook of materials will be available in a CD format. Beginner level.

 

Work Plan Training

New revitalization programs need to understand the central role of the work plan in any downtown effort. This two hour workshop describes the component parts of the Main Street work plan, its key role in budgeting, volunteer recruitment, scheduling and evaluating committee work for the Board, staff and volunteers. Beginner level.

Consultations

 

In the past six years Ms. Harris has been asked to provide a variety of consulting services to downtown organizations to help them grow and prosper. Consulting assignments are custom designed to your circumstances. Some recent assignments include:

Assessments of fundraising events, membership retention, volunteer or PR programs

Often these consultations occur to solve problems at the committee level. We gather materials in advance from staff about the current issue facing the local Main Street program. We meet with the committee responsible and with staff to assess the needs and offer new ideas and samples from other organizations to be used to help improve the performance of the local program. Sample documents are shared from other programs to help launch or improve current program efforts.

 

Board Retreats

These half or whole day visits are designed to assist boards to understand current conditions and to reach agreement on new directions or long term goals. Advance work by the Board is necessary to organize a useful retreat. Heritage Consulting works closely with staff to craft an event that includes exercises or other small group projects during the event to make the retreat memorable and useful. A written report is completed at the end of the retreat.

 

Mission and Vision Statement Development or Review of Existing

These basic documents need to be developed at the start of any local Main Street program. We work with local  program volunteers to help them understand what these documents mean, and how they shape the future of the organization. We are also often called in to help organizations revise old mission or vision statements after about five years of work, because the organization has succeeded in its original goals and needs a more expansive vision. We work with staff to create a workshop and exercises that will be useful to chart a new future course. A short report is submitted at the end of the consultation.

 

Board Effectiveness and Evaluations

Heritage Consulting has conducted these evaluations throughout our career in Main Street work. We visit with the Board and Executive Committee to identify the specific issue(s) about which they are struggling.  We identify the issue(s) and offer our observations and recommendations to improve performance. Many times the intervention revolves around poor policies or the need for training in roles and responsibilities to clear up misunderstandings and we conduct trainings if needed.

 

By law Review and Update

Heritage Consulting Inc. has written bylaws for countless Main Street organizations and trained board and staff about their importance. More recently we have helped mature organizations to review and refashion their bylaws to more  accurately reflect current organizational practices.  We often prepare new bylaws for adoption and conduct a training session with the board to explain the new version.

 

Organizational Crisis and Intervention

Heritage Consulting Inc. has offered this service since the start of our work in Main Street. We have inter