Recently, a new Chamber member opened its doors in Holly Springs. Thankfully that happens a lot around here. As part of their opening, they wanted to help raise money for a local non-profit, so they called the Chamber and asked for some guidance. After presenting them with background on our non-profit members, they selected one to partner with and helped raise over $3,500 for that organization. This is indicative of a thriving economic ecosystem. One where for-profits and non-profits partner together for the betterment of their respective organizations and the community at large.
In order to facilitate more of the above, the Chamber formed the Committee for Community Engagement. Not only does this initiative set the groundwork for increased partnership between the for-profit and non-profit communities, it allows for cross pollination of ideas and advice between our non-profit members. This last point is critical because many, if not all, non-profits are born out of someone seeing a need in the community and trying to have a positive effect on that area of need, whether or not they have experience leading an organization or running a business. Truthfully, most for-profit businesses start that way too, but where non-profits sometimes struggle is when they forget that they need to run their organization like a business. Entrepreneurs and business owners know that in order to be successful they need a healthy referral network, opportunities to promote their business, and a trusted source(s) for advice, among other things. Luckily, the Chamber is experienced in providing opportunities for networking and helping businesses promote their brand, however, when it comes to being a trusted source for advice, we believe the Chamber’s role is to facilitate those interactions and not necessarily be THE source for advice. So it’s this philosophy that helped create the Committee for Community Engagement as well as our Retail Focus Group, which, as the name implies, brings together our retail members in a similar format.
Taking it a step further, we’re also making a concentrated effort to provide opportunities – usually at no cost – for our non-profit members to get their organization in front of more people in our community, because we understand that for most non-profits, resources are scarce and advertising and promotional budgets are some of the last line items to be funded, if at all. We introduced the Holly Springs community to Friday Flicks on the Field this past fall and part of the initiative allowed a few non-profits each night the opportunity to set-up and showcase their organization and fundraise before the start of each movie. By doing so, we created a non-threatening approach to allow both residents and organizations to interact with each other outside of typical channels. It accomplished the goal of exposing movie goers to the many great community organizations in Holly Springs and allowed those organizations a no-cost way to spread their message.
The Chamber is excited to see where our non-profits take the Committee for Community Engagement this year and we look forward to continuing to help them grow and prosper. If you know of a non-profit or run one yourself, we would love to welcome you to our family, so please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly and learn more about these initiatives and how your non-profit can get involved.
Scott is the Director for the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce
