Two Sessions at Destination Downtown Conference In Louisana
Louisana Main Street
In mid-September 2019 we made two presentations on fundraising topics at the 2019 Destination Downtown Conference in Hammond LA, a tri-state Main Street conference for local Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi Main Street programs.
We have been presenting our Diversify Your Revenue Sources workshop for close to 20 years, but it still has relevance for any downtown organization. All downtown organizations need regular and predictable income to sustain their organizations and ensure a viable future. Our fast-paced workshop explains the board’s role in fundraising and how it delegates responsibilities to the four committees and staff. We cover the seven traditional sources of revenue for downtown organizations and put emphasis on three sources of revenue where the organization controls both the output and the outcome: residential membership/investor campaigns, sponsorship, and fundraising events. We will offer ideas about how to grow these three revenue sources so that they constitute 50% of the operating budget. We wrap up with our top 10 tips.
Our Year-Long Sponsorship Program workshop discusses why you should gather all your sponsorship opportunities into one package to solicit sponsors on a yearly basis, rather than a scattershot approach one event at a time. We review a half dozen 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.
Updated 1-2022