Coordinated Main Street Fundraising

(Cropped) Photo from www.nwlink.com/ ~mikeblas/pix/

One of the big problems in DC with all the Main Street programs is the lack of coordinated fundraising. This is especially difficult because the funder community here is relatively small, and certain organizations like the Meyer, Cafritz, and Fannie Mae Foundations, are some of the biggest hitters, that every organization pursuing a community development agenda is likely to approach them sooner rather than later. Imagine having 12 different DC Main Streets programs all clamoring for funding every year...

In May I wrote about how Boston has initiated the Boston Main Streets Foundation to help push coordinated fundraising efforts (which they were already doing, e.g., Verizon provides a set amount of money to Boston Main Streets, which individual programs use on telecommunications-computing related efforts, and BMS programs are initiating public Wi-Fi efforts that aren't fully free, but if you are a member of the local MS program, you can access the network for "free" as part of your membership benefits).

From Illinois comes another idea--

From Wendy Bell, Program Coordinator, Illinois Main Street, Office of Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn:

You may remember that I sent a message/press release about our Main Street Cyber Sale several weeks ago but I just wanted to remind everyone that it launches tonight at 9 pm central. Final bidding takes place at 9 pm Wednesday, October 12th. The sale includes over 1,000 unique items and experiences. Proceeds will go to support projects in the 19 participating Illinois Main Street communities.

In addition, the Illinois Main Street and Lieutenant Governor's Staff have donated about 2 dozen items, with proceeds split between the Louisiana and Mississippi Main Street programs to support hurricane relief in our sister Main Streets.

To find the Main Street Cyber Sale, log on to: www.IllinoisMainStreet.org and click on the link OR just log on to e-bay and utilizing the advanced search options, look for mainstreetcybersale (no Caps or Spaces).

Although a number of not for profit organizations have utilized e-bay as a fundraiser in the past, as far as we know there has not been an attempt to do so as a unified entity of different groups. I can tell you from our perspective that overall this has been great, and we're anxious to see the results. We hope everyone will log on AND BID on the Main Street Cyber Sale!
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This is a good idea, and could be done in conjunction with local cultural heritage efforts.