Coordinated Main Street Fundraising--Another First from Boston

Boston is the site of the first city-wide Main Street program. One of the advantages of city-wide programs is critical mass and the ability to develop a local training infrastructure cost-effectively. A major disadvantage is that you have fundraising competition and cacophony as all the programs (Boston has 19; DC has 12) approach the same potential funders year after year.

According to this editorial, "Main attraction", from last Saturday's Boston Globe, June 11, 2005, The Boston Main Streets program has addressed this by creating a foundation "tasked" with coordinating proposals and raising funds for all the Main Street programs.

From the editorial:

SOME OF the city-sponsored groups responsible for revitalizing neighborhood business districts are starting to look a little rickety themselves, due to tight municipal budgets and weak fundraising. But the fortunes of the Boston Main Streets programs should improve with the recent creation of a nonprofit foundation dedicated to raising funds for the 19 Main Streets districts extending from Maverick Square in East Boston to West Roxbury's Centre Street. Last week, 38 restaurateurs from Boston's Main Street districts ringed the hall of the Cyclorama building in the South End and served signature dishes to hundreds of Boston's downtown business leaders who had gathered to support the foundation. The event raised more than $325,000 for storefront improvements and beautification of local commercial districts. It was harder to calculate the value of the exchange of business cards between the food vendors -- among them many new immigrants -- and downtown movers and shakers.

That's serious money!