Fundraising with Amy Hoyes

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability and to correct obvious transcription errors while preserving the meaning of the original conversation.

Episode 87 — Fundraising with Amy Hoyes
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Amy Hoyes
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.842 Brandon Burton
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.
00:18.464 Brandon Burton
Is back. He's my dad, Brandon Burton. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is your host, Brandon Burton, and you're joining us today for episode 87 of Chamber Chat Podcast, where it is my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to help you better serve your chamber members and your community. Our guest today is Amy Hoyes, who's the president and CEO of the Grand Ledge Chamber of Commerce and has been since April of 2018.
00:48.504 Brandon Burton
Prior to the chamber, her career spanned from journalism to advertising sales before entering the nonprofit world. In the past two years, she's taken the chamber from barely breaking even at commu at a community event to posting a profit at all ten community wide events that the chamber hosts. Amy has been in fundraising since two thousand seven and believes the strategic this and believes the strategy sounded like President Bush there's strategic is to create a win-win for all parties rather than just writing a check. Community engagement is a mission match, are the heart of all fundraising campaigns. In her career, she's led a team to raise more than one million dollars in federal and state grants to local and corporate sponsorships. During her tenure with the Grand Ledge Chamber of Commerce, the fundraising has more than tripled in the past two years. So given Amy's background, you may guess that our topic for discussion today is going to be around fundraising, which is so important right now as chambers are trying to find ways to make up lost revenue with certain events being canceled or postponed indefinitely since we can't gather in groups of more than 10 or six or twenty, depending on where we are in the recovery. But we will get into this discussion with Amy as soon as we hear from our sponsor. Every chamber is looking for new ways to increase their non-dues revenue. Has your chamber found a good affinity program? I have a great affinity program to offer your chamber that will continue to increase in revenue year after year. I want to introduce you to Swypit for all of your credit card processing needs. Swypit has a unique affinity program that 1.2 Helps your chamber members be more profitable, and three, provides recurring nondues revenue to your chamber. To learn more, please visit chamberchatpodcast.com slash CC for credit card. Again ChamberChatPodcast dot com slash C C and get swiping with Swypit.
02:59.414 Brandon Burton
All right, Amy, we are back. Please take a moment to say hello to the chamber champions out there and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you little bit better.
03:09.62 Amy Hoyes
Hello, chamber champions. And Brandon, thank you so much for having me today and inviting me on your show. So something interesting about me, people seem to think it's interesting that I was a newspaper reporter during the Olympics in Atlanta. That was kind of a fun and unique time for me. I also wrote two children's books when my kids were little. So that's kind of something different. I've been married for 18 years to my husband. We have two daughters, two dogs, and a bunny rabbit. I love outdoors and usually up for kind of any adventure that my husband and kids want to go on. And during our social distancing summer, if you will, we've been kayaking a lot. We live along a river, so we've been doing that a lot. So that's been a lot of fun for us.
03:52.95 Brandon Burton
That is that is really cool. You you shared a few interesting facts. So as a newspaper reporter, did you get to interview any of the of the athletes that we would know or you see if we remember their name from the Atlanta Olympics?
04:05.58 Amy Hoyes
did the track and field. I did the bunch of the trials. I lived in Cobb County. So I covered the the effects on Cobb County and we did a lot of track and field up there. So I don't really honestly remember I didn't like Mary Ann Jones. I didn't interview her, but there was a couple, you know, different track stars that I got to meet and I got to go to a lot of the different I guess competitions, if you will. I I went to quite a few of those. So it was a fun time. I mean I was in my twenties and it was a fun time in Atlanta to be to be at the Olympics and be sort of in that rush of it. So yeah.
04:39.682 Brandon Burton
Yeah. So I think was I think Carl Lewis is probably still running at that time, right? I mean it was while ago. I'm I'm trying to go way back in my memory bank here.
04:49.262 Amy Hoyes
I can't I know I've I kept all my newspaper articles and from that that time but I honestly haven't looked at them in so long and it was and I left after I was done there I went and became a producer at CNN. So that that it was a fun, fun time. Yeah, it was a it was a good time. So life has kind of evolved and W when you have children you end up doing, you know, your career changes too as far as
04:58.058 Brandon Burton
That was a while back.
05:07.65 Brandon Burton
That is neat.
05:18.658 Amy Hoyes
things that you can do as, you know, be a mom and still have a career. So that's why I'm I'm blessed now for what I do.
05:24.386 Brandon Burton
Do absolutely. Absolutely. So share with us a little bit about the Grand Ledge Chamber of Commerce and help us give give a little more perspective where you're coming from, maybe the size of your chamber, budget, where you're located, things like that.
05:37.858 Amy Hoyes
Yeah, sure. Well, Grand Ledge, if you're not familiar, Grand Ledge is a town of about eight thousand people. we are about ten miles, I guess, west of Lansing. Grand Ledge is a long a little perspective of the town. Grand Ledge is along the Grand River, which the Grand River is, I think it's the state's longest river. Yes, yes, we kayak on that.
05:56.686 Brandon Burton
Yeah, great kayaking, that's what I hear.
06:00.93 Amy Hoyes
But Grand Ledge, the kind of a history of it, Grand Ledge got its name because of the river, but there's also these beautiful old sandstone ledges that hover over the river and the river trail. So the big claim to fame for Grand Ledge is the ledges and the parks around them. But for the chamber and for the city are they like to joke that we're a parade town because we do we do five parades every year and three of them actually the chamber hosts. So that's kind of the big the ledges. They they joke about that. But as far as the chamber, our chamber's been around for 50 years. our motto is to make Grand Ledge a great place to live and do business. And even though our city we have about 8,000 residents, our the chambers district is the Grand Ledge Public School District. So there's about 30,000 residents in that area. we've got about 250 members, so we're small, but we're mighty and we're really involved. and prior to the virus, we had hosted one event every four days. So we do quite a yeah, we do quite a quite a lot. We do free concerts in our park, along the river. We do movies in the baseball field. We do a three-day summer festival, which had to be canceled. We do a fall festival and river cruise, a beer festival, golf outing. The things that we're able to consistently still do is we do have monthly chamber breakfasts. We do different breakfasts and mix and mingles. and we do a business expo for our members and we also have an annual awards center. So we do a lot of different types of things just to reach our community and and connect our businesses and just, you know, provide some fun stuff for the community to do.
07:44.342 Brandon Burton
Yeah. So what does your your staff look like there and and membership look like?
07:50.286 Amy Hoyes
So we have, you know, like two hundred and fifty members. on staff, paid staff is just me. It's just me. And then we have yeah, it's just me. but I have twelve amazing board members. We really have a working board that really has involved in all of our event committees. So we have very active event committees for each event. So so yeah, it's just me. I I have an intern. roving interns once a week, when school was in session. But other than that it's just me and I've got great community partners. so that's kind of the structure of of what we do. But yeah.
08:30.751 Brandon Burton
So you've got some great partners, great volunteers, and a lot of energy to be able to pull off an event every four days by your s like on your own. That's amazing.
08:40.909 Amy Hoyes
Yeah, we well, and I think some of it is some of our stuff is is repeat events. So like our music in the park that we do every summer, Brandon, is we do thirteen weeks of free concerts. So it's like me and three other guys and we c we have it down. Like we know what we're doing, like I have my stuff, they have their stuff. We we we have the groove down with it, if you will. and then, you know, our breakfasts are pretty simple. You know, we just invite people, we bring breakfast and it's pretty easy to pull those off. So so yeah, it hasn't been I mean, yeah, it's every job I guess has its aspects of it's difficult to to do that, but you know, you just kinda jump in and do it and it works. So
09:22.318 Brandon Burton
That's right. Wow. Yeah. So I'm curious, you'd mentioned, and this is not really going down the topic of of our discussion, but you'd mentioned that the chamber hosts three parades. And I know a lot of chambers will talk about trying to get away from the parties, pageants, and parades. And you obviously see some value in in doing these three. So what do you what do you see from them? And and maybe it does come into our discussion today, but what what are you holding on to for?
09:49.666 Amy Hoyes
Well, our community loves them. This town loves the parades. So we do a St. Patrick's Day one in March. That one was canceled this year, but we do a St. Patrick's Day one that's huge. we work in partners with we have an opera house in town and we do a big Irish festival. You know, we've got a lot of pubs on our on our main street. So it's just it's a big old party all day that Saturday. So the community loves it. you know, a lot of the parades, you know, people use it for outreach. They use it to get the word out. it really brings the community together. it's just a it's a fun day. The St. Patrick's Day one is fun. Then we do one over the summer, it's called Yankee Doodle Days, and that's really kind of our Fourth of July celebration. and it's in conjunction with a whole day long of a kids' festival and music and it's a beer tent and food. So the parade kind of kicks it off where it's just it's very patriotic, obviously. and that one's That one's probably small. That one's probably a little smaller just because sometimes we don't have as many people in the parade because they're down kind of in the the park already with the kids' day stuff. But we do that one and people love it. and then the biggest one that we have is at Christmas. We do a night lights Christmas parade. And this one almost lasts it's about an hour and half long. it's a huge parade. We do a Christmas tree lighting. last year we introduced like we roasted marshmallows and sang Christmas Carols kind of thing in the plaza. But it's a huge night and like, you know, you've got the marching the school marching band, you've got, you know, dancers and all these trucks decorated in lights and it's fun. People really look forward to it. you know, you got the school bus decorated, the big semi trucks decorated. So people love People love the parades. We probably have close to three thousand people that come. So they're big, they're big for us. So There's two other ones. There's a Memorial Day one, and a home there's a Memorial Day one that the American Legion puts on and then there's also a homecoming parade that the high school puts on. So but the three that we do, yeah, I mean we have no time of canceling them. I mean that's something that we will continue doing. People really like the parades, so
12:02.6 Brandon Burton
But it seems like it aligns well with your community too. So I mean it does. Point taken, just because somebody says you shouldn't do parades, pageants and parties like doesn't mean that you you need to stop him. If it works for your community, by all means do it and and make it be something worthwhile.
12:18.872 Amy Hoyes
Yeah, they've definitely been something our community backs and and likes to likes to be involved in. So
12:23.768 Brandon Burton
That's awesome. Yeah. Well, let's we'll move on more onto our focus for discussion today around fundraising. So you've got some some background in that from you know, different sources of fundraising. And as I mentioned kind of in the introduction, we all know right now a lot of chambers are stressed. And hopefully as this episode comes out, we're recording this at you know, mid July of twenty twenty. Hopefully by the time it comes out that You know, chambers are starting to to get some answers and and seeing their way through some of the recovery and and helping their businesses at the same time. But budgets are stressed and chambers are looking for ways to replace some of their funding. And whether it means you know, looking at at more offerings in a tiered membership model or or different kind of events, we've seen these Zoom events, which I know Some chambers have had a hard time figuring out how do you charge for something like that, how do you make money on it. Right. so what are some some options that you see as being viable, especially in our current climate, that would help a chamber to to raise funds for their organization?
13:38.008 Amy Hoyes
Sure. Well, I think Brandon, budgets to me are always a concern. It's not just right now. I'm a big budget forecasting planning ahead. I think the biggest thing with any budget is having a realistic one. You've got to be able to plan ahead and forecast based on prior years. So kind of what happened last year, obviously this year is a different year for everybody to kind of look and see trends. But I also think with your budget, no matter where you are, is you have to have flexibility of several plans. You've got Things evolve, things change, especially now. I think everyone's got to be very flexible in their budget. so for us, you know, right now with what's going on in the world, you know, most of our revenue was from events. But also on the flip side, most of our expenses were from those events. So when our shutdown started in March, the first thing I really did, you know, first I had to my office was in City Hall, so I they shut City Hall down, so I had to move everything home. So the first thing I really did was sit down and go, okay, where are we? Like what's in the bank? What's in our budget? What what do we think might happen? You know, forecasting what our expenses just to operate for the rest of the year, to kind of see where we are. So, you know, subsequently we had to cancel about seventy five percent of our events for this year. So the only gener you know, revenue generator we have right now is our farmers market that we do on Saturday mornings. so we've really had to reinvent ourselves. You know, you were talking about the Zoom and different things. So we did different things like we partnered with the city and sold signs throughout the community, the little yard signs to sh to share positivity in the community. We did some different social media campaigns about telling why you like Grand Ledge. and that, you know, enhanced. I mean, I think we probably gained, you know Two or three Facebook followers every day just by constantly being out there. we also sold, I had kind of created and worked with a a chamber member business. we sold t-shirts. You've probably heard of other communities doing this too, but we sold t-shirts to support our businesses. we did that just to get like different things to get out there. as far as capital needs, you know, there's some grants out there that we were able to
15:57.204 Amy Hoyes
that we were eligible for for capital needs. And I think that's what some people are really gonna have to look for because if you were supported by events or supported by local businesses, you're not gonna have that revenue for a while. So the other key thing that I really recommend for anybody, I'm a real big community collaboration person. I think people really need a partner. so I think making sure your relationships are strong in a climate like this to support each other. there's ways you can partner, whether it's your local school system or your city or whoever. I think thinking about, especially in this climate and any other climate, how can you work together? You know, if you're all struggling, how can we brainstorm and work together? So there's been a lot of of that going on the past couple of months of just trying to work with other entities to to support each other. and and in turn that generates more members. That, you know, generates people caring about your cause and and they want to give to you just because they care that you care. So, so that's kind of what we've been looking at right now, if you will.
17:01.932 Brandon Burton
Yeah. So a lot of the events, normal events you'd have going on have been cancelled. So the farmers market is still a viable thing. the grants are though were those state or federal or combination that you were looking to?
17:15.917 Amy Hoyes
Pretty much state. there's some state ones that we were able to get into. There's also, you know, I've got good relationships with several of our businesses and there's some grants with foundations through like banks and insurance companies and that type of stuff. So it depends on where you live and what, you know, what businesses that you have. But I think when you have those relationships with people, they will let you know. You know, people would literally e email me and say, Hey Amy, this is available. So I think People, if you have these strong relationships, when a climate like this hits or something, you know, disastrous hits, people will reach out to you and let you know, like, hey, this company can help you, or we're willing to help you. So that's that's kind of what we saw come to us in this climate. So as far as the federal dollars know, I haven't really tapped into anything federal right now specifically for the chamber. that's all
18:11.31 Brandon Burton
been a hot topic with the PPP loans and yeah, not being able to get access.
18:16.736 Amy Hoyes
Yeah, we worked with a lot of our local businesses to help them get the PPP and we we could have, but we didn't need it at the time. So I didn't tap into that. But so many of our businesses tapped into the PPP. And then there was some local funders, some local community funders, and we helped them, you know, even if it was like a ten or twenty thousand dollar grant, they were able to get. There's several of our chamber members that were able to apply for some local stuff. So s a lot of it's some local dollars, some economic development dollars that people were able to to grasp.
18:48.46 Brandon Burton
Yeah. So are there certain fundraising sources that maybe not as plentiful right now, given the the immediate time frame and kind of the climate we're working through?
18:59.82 Amy Hoyes
Yeah, so I was on a webinar, actually a state chamber webinar, I don't know, a few weeks ago, and one of the key things I really took away from it, Brandon, was our recovery is not gonna look like a V, it's not gonna look like a U. It's gonna look like a bathtub. And that really hits home for me because I am a long term forecaster of, you know, financial aspects of it, is that it's gonna take a while for these local businesses to recover and to bounce back. So us being a local small chamber, we relied on our local support for our local events. So that's really gonna hurt us for 2021. And kind of what we did was we had a lot of sponsors who had already committed for 2020 with the checks in the bank. So we're really able to give them credit next year for their the events we can have in 2021. We'll give the people that actually wrote a check in 2020, we'll give them that marketing credit next year to help promote them. But I think I think it's gonna take at least, in my opinion, I mean I'm no expert, but I think in the next few years, you know, it's gonna be twenty twenty-three, you know, probably we're before we really see the turnaround for local dollars. But I think in the next couple of years, you're gonna see a lot more grants and foundations. You're gonna see the bigger banks, the big insurance, the utility companies, the grocery store chains. Those are the companies that, you know, were I guess the quote unquote essential businesses that stayed open. I think you're gonna see a lot more dollars coming out of those types of businesses that they will invest back in the community to support the local community. That's that's what I envision and see. that's what I'm looking forward to in twenty twenty one. Like I'm already kind of planning for that in twenty twenty one now, that those are the types of businesses they're gonna be able support us.
20:52.214 Brandon Burton
Yeah, absolutely. And I think yeah th there's oftentimes we want to make the assumption that all the businesses are struggling or right. Nobody can afford, you know, sponsorship for whatever the event is or or whatever you're doing. And and that's dangerous. Yeah, once you start assuming, because the whole idea of asking for a sponsorship is they're gonna receive value out of it. And if the business is struggling If they have some budget set aside for marketing, which they should if they want to survive, hopefully they're recognizing the value that they get by sponsoring different chamber events and will still hold to that to be able to help bring the business back. So we can't make that decision for these businesses. We need to present it to them, give them the opportunity, let them say no if they can't do it. And if it makes sense to to help them do it in a creative way, I think there's opportunities for that too. But it it the key word is being pivot, right? That's what everyone's doing right has pivoting.
21:48.755 Amy Hoyes
And
21:53.198 Amy Hoyes
It's constantly and well and see one of the things I was thinking about was okay, so next year for 2021, if if a company has already, you know, sponsored this year, we couldn't do the event. We like to offer outreach at our events to really I don't like people just to write a check. I want them to connect with customers. So at all these community events we do, we give them outreach. So this way next year they're not actually having to put the money out, but we're helping to market their business and we're helping to get their name out there. And so hopefully we will see that, you know, benefit both parties and really they can benefit it, you know, immediately and then then the following year that they'll be able to financially support what we do again. So you know, we want the community to suc to succeed. So whatever we can do to help make that happen, we we want to do that. So
22:41.482 Brandon Burton
So maybe shifting gears just a little bit, as you try to evaluate a new fundraising campaign, what kind of considerations do you put into it or what kind of thought as to what the that event or what that fundraising promotion is gonna be?
22:58.862 Amy Hoyes
Sure, sure. well, I don't consider myself an expert by any means in fundraising, but I ha I have been raising funds for thirteen years. And, you know, I don't have any idea how many events I've hosted or planned or whatever, but I know I've never lost money on an event. I can tell you that. And then that's not to toot my own horn, but I think just I'm so budget conscious of not spending beyond our means that we make a profit on each event. I don't want to do an event just to do an event. We have you know, a cost involved too to run the event. So the biggest thing I always do is plan. And people have asked me this before, like, how do I do this? And so to me it's when you embark on any campaign or you want to plan an event, you have to sit down and plan out what is it going to cost you to do it. Sit down and go on the budget of your expenses first and say, okay, how much is this going to cost us to do the event? You know, looking at everything, whether it's the facility, the The banners, the the print materials, the insurance, everything. You need to include everything in there that is is gonna be involved, every expense that's gonna be involved in having this event. And then look at, okay, based on what I'm gonna it's gonna cost me to do it, I need to at least, you know, make X amount of dollars. If you want to make 10% or whatever you wanna make, you need to figure that out. And then start building sponsorships around that. you know, start looking at your revenue streams. Am I gonna have ticket sales? Am I gonna have, you know, sponsorships or, you know, revenue from selling beer or bags or whatever you plan on selling and look at where your revenue is gonna come from. and then build your packages really on that. So that's that's something that I've really tried to do with every event, you know, in my in my career. and just make sure you're gonna deliver on your promises. Don't don't say I can offer billboard exposure if you can't really offer billboard exposure. So I I plan in the fall for the following year. So I write up sponsor packages that I actually start getting out before the end of the calendar year. And then so really by the beginning of January, we start getting the money in. So, you know, people are there's some people that want to write that check December 30th for the next year already. And it's really looking at cash flow and
25:19.192 Amy Hoyes
For us, you know, usually by the end of the first quarter, we've got a lot of our stuff funded. that really when you have the actual event, then you can generate the revenue the day of, if that makes sense. So like if you say the event costs you five thousand dollars to do, you want to have at least, you know, six to seven thousand dollars that you've made already before you have the event, if that makes sense. I just I like to make sure that we're going into the event, already have the money, then counting on having that event to actually even break even. So that's that's what I and and the other thing that I've really tried to do, Brandon, when I first took over the chamber and I did this in my past life too, is I get in people's budgets. So if you have a sponsor that's gonna give to you, you know, nine or ten thousand dollars every year, get in their budget and get that money every single year. You know, we're in our city's budget. We're in, you know, we try to really have these partnerships that We do what we say we're gonna do and we deliver on what we've promised. And then therefore every single year, they're giving us, you know, we're a line item for them. So they're really able to give that money to us every year because they see value in it.
26:31.614 Brandon Burton
so y you've hit on some really good things here. So I I've got a couple follow-up questions. Sure, sure. so first of all, I think it's a a very smart strategy to put together your sponsorship opportunity package in the fall and get that word out because there's people that are on, you know, their fiscal year follows the calendar year. And if they've got money left over in December from, you know, the previous year and They can spend it and it may be a new spend for them because they have the extra money and then you can become a budget item for them for the next year. So super smart doing that, but they also have the understanding they don't have to pay till the following year. So awesome. So not a question there, but how do you decide what percentage profit you want to make on each event?
27:23.128 Amy Hoyes
So what I it depends on the event, because some like we have one event that costs us like $20,000 just to do it. So we we usually net like $10,000 on it. what I do honestly is I make sure that we generate enough revenue on all of our events that we that's kind of rollover money. So how do I how do I explain this? So It's not an exact science of okay, ten percent or whatever. I'd like to at least have ten percent of of whatever it is, you know, whatever the the the expenses are, we go above and beyond that to to make to net a profit. what I look at is I look at our overall entire budget for the entire year. So I look at what do we cost what does it cost to run the chamber as a whole, and where is that money gonna come from to run the chamber? So whether your memberships are a given, I need to make X amount of dollars on all my events so that I meet my budgetary goals. So it's really not just case by case. It's really an overall arching plan for the entire budget for the chamber. That's how I do it.
28:31.662 Brandon Burton
How do you plan for like reserves? So you're looking at how much your your chamber costs to operate and then we're seeing the importance of having reserves set aside. So how do you I don't know if there's a a calculation or formula you work with?
28:47.532 Amy Hoyes
Well, I make sure that 'cause like when I do my budget, I also have a it's a budget to actual and I make sure where we are, like every two weeks I look at where we are budget wise, and then at the end of the month I really do a recap. But Brandon, I make sure at December thirtieth we have enough money in the bank for six months. Because so whatever our operating costs are for six months, by December thirtieth, I wanna make sure that we have enough money for January through June. So that we have that. Because you don't know how quickly people are gonna write checks and it's a constant it's a constant ebb and flow. So you wanna make sure you have enough money in the bank to cover you for six months. And that's just a general rule that I like to follow. I don't know that it's written anywhere. It's just something that I like to have.
29:32.295 Brandon Burton
I think it's smart. And I think now, I mean, some chambers may see the need to extend that, you know, eight, ten, or twelve months in
29:38.862 Amy Hoyes
Yeah, we had we had over a year when everything happened, we had enough for a year. So I was pleased about that. The other thing that we do, and I don't know, it's just how we're set up. You know, when people can pay online for memberships for different things, we have like a credit card holding account that we're able to actually have like a savings and investment. So we're able that's the other thing, you gotta have your rainy day fund. So I mean it takes time. I mean, I think the biggest thing is just, you know, I hate to see people have an event that doesn't make or they lose I'm like, well then what's the point of doing it, you know? And so much of it is you've got to plan in the beginning for what is it you gotta know how much this event costs you. I mean, I literally if an event ends on Sunday, by Monday morning I can tell my board what we made. Like I there's not a lag time in that because I know where we were before we went in and I know what we need to make. And I think it it helps drive your marketing too, if you know you have to sell three hundred tickets or you've gotta sell it helps you push too to know, you know, how much money you need to make. So, but yeah, those are just my suggestions. Like I said, it's not like, you know, a hard fast rule somewhere. It's just I like to have at least a certain amount and I and I I always make sure that we're netting something to really carry us through and and every chamber has a different budget, obviously. so I just like to make sure that we can hold our own, really, and and and get through.
31:01.422 Brandon Burton
So how do you do you have strategies you use to become a line item on somebody's budget?
31:08.802 Amy Hoyes
Yes. a lot of it's relationship, willing to work together. you know, I I really believe in community engagement and collaboration. So I really believe in I don't want you just to write a check. I want you to come to the event and I want you to meet customers, meet your potential customers. I you know, I try to have a relationship with my sponsors, you know, like get to know them, get to know where what types of of clients are looking for, how can I connect them with their customers and working with that business on what they need because if they if they see that I care about their business, they're gonna care about me. If they see that what I'm doing, you know, helps their business, they're gonna more likely give, you know, every year. as far as, you know, some other bigger businesses or municipalities giving to you, to me it's just relationship building. It's To me, it's you know taking people out to lunch. It's it's reaching out to them, it's hey, let's meet once a quarter, or you know, let's touch base with each other on how we can work together. To me, it's being flexible to work together and know that you're all in it for the common goal. You're all in it to help each other, to make your city look good, to make your community look good. So if you're all on the same page in that, you know, public relations and marketing kind of realm, I think that you'll see the benefit from that and people are willing to give to you because you care about them just as much as they care about their business, if that makes sense.
32:36.14 Brandon Burton
Yeah. Yeah, it makes perfect sense. So, Amy, as we start to wrap up here, I think you've provided some some great insight and some ideas. Hopefully you're sparking some thoughts of the people listening. But what would be one action item that you could suggest to a chamber champion that's listening that they can do to help take their chamber up to the next level?
32:58.982 Amy Hoyes
I would say look ahead. You have like we're, you know, it's July 2020. Where are you gonna be in July 2021? You can't just plan for the right now. You've got to plan a year in advance. you gotta look at where you are. how do you prepare for that? Are there grants out there you qualify for? Or is there a program or event you can start now that will generate money for you next year? so to me, the key action item is looking ahead at least a year, sometimes 18 months. But you gotta you've gotta look ahead. It would be the biggest action item I would say for people.
33:33.068 Brandon Burton
I love the quote of and and I'm horrible at attributing who says things, but the quote of the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago and the next best time is today. You know, so plant that tree today so you have that that revenue source in the future. Right. So talking about looking ahead, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see their purpose going f going forward?
33:49.726 Amy Hoyes
Right. Agreed. Absolutely.
34:00.622 Amy Hoyes
So I I really like to think of Chambers as a one-stop shop to really promote a town or a city. So I see us really as the public relations and marketing arm for businesses and even tourism in some cases. So we really want to be that marketing arm for everybody to help build everybody up. So and a lot of small towns don't have a department really solely designated for that. So I see chambers need to be more involved in economic development to promote their city, support their city, help expand the city. and whether that's through community collaboration, leadership programs, outreach programs. So to me, the key is really working with partners for common goal. I also really urge chambers to ask their members what they need. What do you need from us? You know, do you need to fill employment gaps? Do you need an advocate? What do you need from us? So before all those shutdowns happened, we were actually working with our members. And the local school school system on an employment pathways program to help get students into trade jobs and make those connections with our members. So we were I'm hoping by 20, the 2021, 22 school year that we can kind of revisit that. But the bit I I see our potential students getting jobs with our local chamber member businesses in the trade fields and it therefore invests long term in the community because they are investing back in the community and it and it further enhances that economic development for our city. So to me it's just investing back in that community. You know, if you're the head of a chamber or involved in a chamber, to me it's just, you know, collaborate with each other, whether it's the school system, the the city, how can you work together and advance each other? you know, whether it's employment for you know, you've got company that needs needs workers, how can you connect them with those workers? How can you partner and connect together? Cause think that keeps everybody relevant. So that that that to me is what I see happening in the future is just really that that portal for PR marketing and collaborating together.
36:06.22 Brandon Burton
That's very good. Yeah. So what would be a a good way for somebody listening to be able to reach out and connect with you if they have any questions about how you're doing things at the Grand Ledge Chamber or anything that we discussed today in this episode, what would be the best ways for them to reach out?
36:22.606 Amy Hoyes
Sure. Well, the the easiest way obviously right now too is just to email me. My email address is Amy. It's A M Y at Grand Ledge Chamber dot com. You also, if there's something you want to share with me or mail me or whatever, my office is in City Hall. the address, if I can share it, it's three ten Greenwood Street in Grand Ledge, Michigan. it's actually closed to the public right now as far as kind of where my office is, but I do go into my office on Mondays. I work from home the other days of the week. But you can call my office. The office number is five one seven six two seven twenty three eighty three and I'll call you back when I go in there on Mondays. Otherwise just email me throughout the week is the best way to reach me.
37:04.29 Brandon Burton
That is perfect. And I will update all your the ways to connect with you on our show notes page, which will be found at at ChamberChatPodcast.com slash episode eighty seven. But again, Amy, thank you for joining us today. I think this is valuable information, both intellectually but also i in reality when it comes to dollars and cents. And I I hope everybody listening got some value out of this and can turn it around and and take some action at at your chamber to to help raise more funds and and make up some of that lost revenue where you need.
37:36.756 Amy Hoyes
Right, right. Well thank you. I and Brandon, I want to say thank you too, because I think this pod your podcast is advocating for businesses as well. You're you're advocating for us. So I think it's a great service that you're providing chambers as well. So thank you.
37:50.112 Brandon Burton
You bet. In fact, I have this vision that I I'm going to affect millions of businesses as I as I work with chambers and and you know getting the word out, millions of businesses and even more people will be affected. So thank you for saying that and recognizing. I appreciate it. If you are a Chamber Professional, please subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify. When you subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast, new episodes will show up in your podcast app each week as they are released. If you're finding value in this podcast, please leave us a rating and a review in iTunes. But most importantly, please share Chamber Chat Podcast with your colleagues that are in the industry.