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Brandon Burton 0:00
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.
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.
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Becki Womble 1:03
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Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Dan Culhane. Dan is the President and CEO of the Ames Chamber of Commerce in Iowa. In his current role, he’s led several initiatives including the modern modernization of the Ames Municipal Airport, the annexation of 13 of over 1300 acres for the creation of Prairie View industrial center, and the recruitment and expansion of over 75 companies to the Iowa State University Research Park and the Ames metropolitan statistical areas supporting the creation of 1000s of jobs. He is a 1993 graduate of Iowa State University with a BS degree in Community and Regional Planning and a 1998 graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute. He earned his CCD in 2000. And the chamber industry’s highest designation, its CCE in 2011. Dan has served on numerous boards and is currently a member of the Wi SS Foundation Board. He’s also served on the board of the United Way of storey County and chaired the 2017 campaign, which is the largest campaign in history and remains today. He co chaired Reggie sleep that out Reggie’s sleep out in aims to promote the needs of homeless youth as well. He’s served as chairman to several organizations over the years including the Iowa state university’s athletic letterwinners Club and the Iowa chamber Alliance, a coalition of Iowa’s largest community communities Chambers of Commerce, the professional developers of Iowa and the Mid America Economic Development Council multistate peer group from Iowa to the Dakotas. And Dan was honored in June of 2023, with the Iowa Association of Business and industries leadership for Iowa award given annually to deserving leader in Iowa, who’s an alumni of leadership, Iowa. Dan, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.
Dan Culhane 4:09
Well, thank you, Brandon. It’s great to be here. I certainly appreciate the invitation. So I’ve been in the chamber in the economic development business for nearly 30 years. And I’ve seen it change a lot, but I still get up every day greatly enjoying the work that I get to do. Our chamber here in Ames, Iowa was about 750 members. We’ve got about a $3.6 million budget. I’ve got 17 people that do a lot of good work every day in to county area that encompasses the Ames MSA, which is about 125,000 people. You know, I’ve often heard and I’ve since repeated that if you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber. I think they’re all different. I think they reflect the needs of the board members and the communities in which they serve. And we’re certainly no different. Ames is a vibrant university community, home of Iowa State University with 32,000 students. And so that creates a level of dynamic that’s really powerful for chamber work and economic development work and community development. And so we do a lot of community development work along with the very traditional chamber work that most Chambers of Commerce to do that I’m pretty excited about. You know, in terms of something that unique or that most of you may not know about me is they often quipped that the reason I came to Ames, Iowa in the first place, was to play baseball at Iowa State and I got to stay and play baseball at Iowa State because I get hit a curveball. And so I played three years at Iowa State, they’re on their baseball team had a great experience, ripped up a knee pretty good my junior year, and then I was done. And but nonetheless, it was it was a rich experience. And it’s even a neater opportunity for me now to be back where I went to school, leaving the Chamber of Commerce and the economic development organization here in this region. I’m
Brandon Burton 6:01
sure you still get a few curveballs thrown your way, as a chamber exec
Dan Culhane 6:05
every day.
Brandon Burton 6:08
You’re the right guy for the job, you can hit those curveballs. So very good. Sam, thank you for for touching on that. The Ames chamber itself, just the the size, you mentioned the the number of members and your staff and what kind of scope of work as you mentioned, one, if you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber. What areas are you guys involved with, as far as the work goes at the chamber?
Dan Culhane 6:32
You know, Brandon, it’s incredible. When I got here, there, there I was the I was there was five of us at that time. And so we’ve grown immensely. And we’ve grown as as a staff, as the work has, has come to come to our table. And so we do the most traditional of chamber programming, leadership development, public policy, a wide variety of events, we do over 100 events every year. So we’re in that’s in that from that standpoint, we’re a very traditional Chamber of Commerce. Beyond that, we’ve also got an economic development organization. We do a lot of workforce development, workforce programming, career fairs, things of that nature, internship programs. And so we’ve got our hands on a lot of things that maybe some traditional chambers may or may not do. But we’re also doing community development work in the smallest of communities in our two county area, where we’re helping communities of 700 people with infrastructure grants and other other grants and opportunities for new housing starts. And so we’re, we’re engaged in housing more today than we were probably two years ago. Housing is certainly a need across our country. We all know that, but it’s certainly needed in our region. We’re also engaged in childcare, in helping with childcare grants and a variety of programs to enhance the childcare slots that we have in our region, for our for our workforce, you know, workforce is such a big piece of of all that we do. We have to support childcare, housing, and things of that nature, to support people that are going to work in our companies.
Brandon Burton 8:18
So I’m hearing more and more chambers getting involved with paying attention to childcare and helping that out as far as the workforce needs go. And for those listening is you hear certain trends being repeated over and over, it might be worth looking into and seeing what your community needs in these areas of work, specifically in childcare and workforce. And then in education, I mean that it just snowballs right and all these different areas. But childcare specifically I’ve seen as more of a newer area of interest in the last couple of years of chambers get really getting involved. And my ears are kind of perking up every time I hear it now because I think more chambers are seeing the vision of the value that comes to their community by paying attention to childcare. So for our topic of conversation today, we’ve kind of narrowed down our options and things that could discuss today we could we could probably talk for hours and hours. But we’ll we’ll talk about fundraising for quality of place projects. And we’ll dive into that and much more detail since we get back from this quick break.
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Siobhan Kenney 11:32
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Brandon Burton 12:16
All right, Dan, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re we’re highlighting the fundraising for quality of place projects in your community. First of all, I think just to maybe the light level, the field for everybody listening, so to speak. In some communities, it may be the initial reaction is, well, maybe we’re not a quality of place, maybe we don’t have anything that draws people in or, you know, really attracts people. I think we need to maybe attack that thought or maybe that misnomer. First, before we go on with the rest of the discussion. What What would you have to say, with that initial thought that some people may perceive about their community?
Dan Culhane 12:58
You know, I think that no matter what size community you’re in, you’re always trying to do something to make your community better. And so I I don’t think we’re any different than anybody bigger than our community or smaller. There’s always those quality of place enhancement, those amenities, those livability amenities that are important, because you want to make yourself as a community as attractive as you can for that next company, that next employee that has come that’s going to work at your hospital or, or your next superintendent of schools, whatever it might be, you want to you want to check all those boxes, so people choose you. And so that’s where I think we focus in our region on those quality of life assets, and how do we help support communities in accomplishing those things. So that ultimately, we are more attractive to an external audience that’s contemplating either an investment or a life change, job change, by coming to our region.
Brandon Burton 14:01
I think that’s a good point. Because whoever it is, you’re trying to attract whether it’s a new superintendent for the schools or somebody at the hospital or whatever it may be. Your community may be exactly what they’re looking for. Maybe they don’t need the huge community or the super smaller, you know, whatever you feel like might be attractive to other people. Your community does have something to offer to the right person for what you’re trying to fill for. So keep that in mind and look at those assets that you have to promote. So I love that perspective. You said having those check boxes for people that choose you so love that. So when you think of aims, think of quality of place, what what sort of projects are you guys working on around the quality of place, and then we can get into the fundraising aspect here in just a moment.
Dan Culhane 14:50
You know, while Ames is a pretty vibrant university town we still have needs and the biggest project in most recent memory that that Our organizations worked on was an indoor Aquatic Center, a public indoor swimming pool, if you will. And the community had voted down a very, very large Wellness Center, I think it was called a healthy life center. Here in our community, it ended up being close to $50 million. It just blown up to everybody had something in it. And as a result that it just didn’t garner any attention when it came to the voters. And so when that failed, the the need for an indoor Aquatic Center and market this size, it didn’t change we didn’t have we never did better with that the high school and high school have been torn down, they built a new high school, they built the new a new facility, a new swing swing facility, the AIMS is that a lot of state state championship teams swimming, but that new pool was dedicated to the student population. Now there’s a number of indoor water basins in our community because of the university, but in terms of rank and file citizens in our community that they wouldn’t necessarily have access, they needed something. And so we went to the city and said, Hey, we’ve got to figure this out. And we broke it into really three pieces, there was a state program called the Iowa reinvestment district program that we applied for the city put in a percentage of the money. And then we promised to raise the other third. And you know, that was a awesome task, but we did it. And the fact of the matter is a lot of chamber professionals like myself may think, well, that’s not our role. But again, it goes back to what what the needs are of your community. And I saw that as a need for our community. And so we pushed hard to get that done. And they’re breaking ground next spring out of $32 million indoor aquatic facility near our downtown, which will also be catalytic for the downtown portion of our community as well. And so that’s certainly a community asset or an amenity that we identified as a real need, and at the same time, will also support other things in our community.
Brandon Burton 17:10
Absolutely. I love that and being able to attack it from you know, the three different arms, as you talked about with the state program, the city, and then the chamber picking up that, that remaining third. I’m always curious, you know, with whether it’s fundraising or messaging of any sort, as a chamber tries to push out messaging or attract donors in this case, what is the messaging look like as you go about the fundraising? Did you have kind of a list of people that you wanted to target? Or was it just kind of broadcast to everybody? Or how kind of the what’s the methods behind it about the approach? So good, great
Dan Culhane 17:48
question. So in this instance, what I really focused on was our companies making an investment in this facility, and talking about how this would be impactful for them, in retaining people, their workers, and attracting workers. You know, we routinely are one of the lowest MSA is in the country for unemployment, pre pandemic, we were at 1.2%. And usually number one in the country for unemployment, which that’s great, but because you got to be known for something. But at the end of the day, you still need to attract new industry. And so for a variety of reasons, we continue to do attract industry while our unemployment rate was that low. But Consequently, there was still a need for for more workers. And so that was the that was kind of the the angle I took with a lot of our funders was I said, this is an opportunity for one more arrow in your quiver to attract that next worker, that next engineer, that next software engineer, that programmer, or that production worker at 3am. That’s got a large facility in our community. And that resonated with people because they knew that they needed more assets and amenities outside of work to attract those people. And that worked really well for us in raising the dollars for this for the 1/3 of the project. I
Brandon Burton 19:12
like that and that kind of answers. My the next question that I had is going to be how did you help these employers catch that vision that this project, this aquatic center is going to help to attract and retain employees and really see it as a workforce issue rather than a, you know, a new amenity center or a new asset to the community but really, it became a workforce issue? Was it was a well received? Did you get any pushback on it? Did you learn anything along the way about maybe how to change the approach at the next business that that you guys talked to?
Dan Culhane 19:48
You know, I, I learned, I guess what this process did was reinforced, something I might have already known. And that is the big national or international companies that are in your community. Knee. They’re not as though they’re not always as quick to support things like this their processes harder. Our best supporters were locally owned companies, locally owned small businesses and large, that really understand greater good. One of our core values here at the US Chamber of Commerce is actually the term greater good. Because there’s so many things that come across my desk, where if you really looked at a very traditional chamber organization and say, well, that’s probably not our fundraising for a public project like this, in most places probably wouldn’t be there. I raised money with another person in our community, a business leader for our airport a number of years ago. And again, making sure the airport has adequate hangar storage and things like in a new new terminal, we’re gonna have partial service here, but a small terminal building that better represents the community. That was something else, we raised the money. And again, so it was a need for our community. And we said, well, if not us, then who? And so often, I think chambers are faced with that decision, if not us, then who. And so a lot of times chambers step up, it can be for the smallest of projects, new banners for the downtown, somebody putting on the Fourth of July parade, or raising $10 million to build a new aquatic center, it runs the whole gamut. And I think that’s, that’s why chambers are powerful and effective. And every community, it’s because they step up and say, well, we’ll take care of that we’ll help we’ll support that. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 21:36
I love that. And then the example the the airport as well. And I’m sure you’ve got other examples you can point to of really creating more of a quality of place their names. As you go through the process of evaluating because I know as a chamber, you know, all the projects cross your desk, right? And you kind of have to have a filter of, yes, this is worth our time. And this aligns with our mission and purpose as a chamber, versus those that other people just don’t want to do. And they push to the chambers think I know what the chamber should do this, right. So when you look at that, because I can see where some people would say, well, this doesn’t necessarily fit directly with our mission. But how do you apply that filter as to what what is worth the attention, especially when it comes to quality of place improvements in your community?
Dan Culhane 22:24
Well, that’s that’s a tough process, because almost everything can be applied to that makes our community better. And so that’s where a board of directors really comes in and can help someone like me helped make that decision. Because oftentimes, if you ask my staff that’s sitting outside my door right now, they, they would probably all say Dan says yes to everything. And I really don’t but we say yes to a lot of things. Because we again, understand greater good. We’ve got a nonprofit radio station here in our community. We’re a sponsor. I don’t listen to it very often. But I know people do and it creates community. And so we support that. There’s a thing called the Ames tuba Christmas that happened two weeks ago, it’s a professor of music at Iowa State who puts this thing on and they they fill a 17 seat 700 seat auditorium on the I was a campus for this three times over the course of a weekend. And we provide some dollars to that to support that, again, because it’s about greater good. And so that’s, that’s probably the litmus that I put on a lot of things is, does this does this enhance our communities as our make our community better and stronger? Certainly the volunteer, nonprofit radio station, there’s, there’s, there’s community there. And so anywhere, we can help build community or support building community, there’s a good chance we’re going to try and participate at some level. It’s like a lot of things in our community. We’ve done a diversity, equity and inclusion program here at the chamber. It’s not the biggest one of chambers. It’s certainly not the leading one in our community. We’ve got a very strong city, and a very powerful university. But we’re at the table too. And so I look at a lot of things like that, and others, where if if we’re not at the table, we’re conspicuously absent. And so we try to be participant be a participant in supportive of a wide variety of things in our community. Because as a chamber of commerce as the voice of the business community in our region, we should be able to Yeah, and
Brandon Burton 24:33
you don’t need to be the driver of all the things but being at the table is important. Yeah. So I’m curious on the fundraising aspect. Do you typically when you fundraise for these quality of place projects, are you doing it internally and just having staff dial for dollars and go out and meet with members? Are you using a third party or what how do you make the approach to these come On the capital campaign?
Dan Culhane 25:02
Well, in the in the instance of the aquatic center, you’re looking at the fundraiser right now, I raised the money for that. And I don’t like to say I, but that’s really what happened. It was, it was, I was probably the best equipped to do that, you know, I’ve also been in the community long enough now that I can I can get the appointment and, and maybe lean in a little bit on some of our business leaders to say, hey, this really is the right thing to do. You know, and so I think that my tenure here, made that probably an easier process than if I was brand new in the community. And I was knocking on doors, introducing myself as the new leader of the chamber. Oh, by the way, I’d like $100,000 for this aquatic center. So more often than not even even our even our capital campaigns for our organization. Usually, I do most of that. And now there’s a rule in the in the chamber and economic realm world that says, the staff should never be asking for money, because they’re asking for money for their salaries. And I understand that, but at the same time, I do think more often than not staff and the president and CEO of the organization, typically know the numbers better than anybody. And so they can articulate the best. And that’s why I won’t argue with anybody about what’s, what’s the right way, the wrong way. But I would just say that, in our instance, my senior leadership team and myself are probably best equipped to talk about the finances of the organization, far better than anybody on my board of directors. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 26:35
I would agree. And I think as you’re out making those asks and visiting with the businesses, they see the passion, they see your commitment to building the community. There’s no question about what does Dan do for us anyway, right, like you’re out there working it and, and building on those connections, and really seeing names grow and develop, and that, you know, match the vision that you would see and hope for?
Dan Culhane 26:58
Well, you know, as we were talking before we started the day, Brandon, you know, you can’t, you can’t fake it in any business really, right. You either you either are well set well suited and match to it, and have a passion and a really a real desire to see. In this case, a community to get better, or your business community get better. It just can’t fake it. And if you’re faking it, people will know right away. So passion is pretty important in any any job, but certainly in the chamber business.
Brandon Burton 27:27
I love that. Is there anything else is in regards to fundraising and quality of place projects that we might want to consider going forward? If I’m just picturing the Chamber’s listening that have projects kind of crossing their desk or maybe floating in their mind? What are some of those things to consider before moving forward or as you move forward with some of these projects?
Dan Culhane 27:52
Well, you know, you can, you can talk about raising a lot of money, like for an aquatic center, or you can talk about raising money for a new program and site or chamber. I think you’ve got to develop a plan. And you’ve got to articulate why it’s important, why your community needs a why your chamber needs it, why your chamber needs a Workforce Program, or why your chamber should do it in our city leadership, business, whatever it is, why you should add another employee, you have to be able to lay out a plan for how that will positively impact the chain your chamber, but also your your community, and your business community and your members. And so I think that that’s the key to doing anything related to trying something new, is Think it through a similar plan and doesn’t have doesn’t have to be a 20 page document. It can be I’m kind of an executive summary kind of person. It can be a one page that says here’s why this is important. And then really understanding what the what the what the the problem is you’re trying to solve, or the opportunity you’re trying to capture, and are being able to clearly articulate why that’s important, whether it’s to your board, or to local elected officials or the broader community. I think that’s the key to doing anything related to fundraising or starting new programs is being able to, frankly sell it in a manner that shows the true value of moving forward.
Brandon Burton 29:19
Yeah, I don’t know that I necessarily like this. This example, but when you think in politics, you know, there’s a new piece of legislation that’s being discussed or something’s being presented there. Politicians are really good at getting their talking points in order. And their staff talks about it’s almost word for word, you know, they’re just last step and barrel you know that exactly what they’re gonna say. And I see that being very similar to if you’ve got a program or initiative that you’re trying to raise funds for. Your whole staff needs to understand this is the why this is how it’s going to enhance our community. Here’s the main points about it. So if anyone if anyone gets a call And when they’re standing in the line at the coffee shop, or, you know, taking their kids to soccer practice and somebody asks him that it, boom, they’ve got the answers, they’ve got those talking points, you can go right to it, and being able to do it with a passion. So the pizza recipient hears that and thinks this really is something of importance, and then need to give some give some attention to this.
Dan Culhane 30:21
That’s exactly right. Yeah.
Brandon Burton 30:24
But I think that’s, you know, some great points, a lot of value there for listeners to, especially as they tried to level up the quality of place in their own communities and going about fundraising for it. As we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to see if you had any maybe tip or action item for listener who is looking to take their chamber up to the next level, what might you suggest for them?
Dan Culhane 30:52
I would suggest that people lean in lean, and other volunteers, and probably more importantly, lean in on your peers, you know, I, I still have people that I lean on, and say, Hey, I’m not sure if I should do this. And so I’ve gotten mentors out there even for being as in this business, as long as I’ve been in it, I’ve still got peers that are older than me, they’ve been in this business longer than me. And there’s value in that, you know, we want to put a smile on someone’s face, ask ask for their advice. And when someone want to appear, calls me whether I know them or not, I’ll always take that call. And because people have always taken like, and I think the chamber business can be a lonely place, you know, there, you don’t have three, three counterparts in your community, you can go talk to, you need to reach out across across the geography to be supported by others. And so I think that’s where I think I’ve been successful is I’ve never been afraid to ask for advice, or ask for help. And on the flip side, I’ve also been quick to help others, because I truly want people to be successful in this industry, because I kind of stumbled into it. And it’s a it’s a wonderful industry. And it’s it’s a lot of fun. My days are different. Always. And as we talked earlier that yes, there are curveballs. But you know, at the end of the day, then they’re not insurmountable. And I think business leaders, members, local elected officials and people like that, they understand the importance of the work that chambers do. And they want you to be successful too. And it’s a lot easier for, for them to understand what you’re doing if you’ve got an open line of communication. And you’re also, you’ve got a level of humility, where you say, we don’t really I don’t know about that today, but we’re gonna figure that out. And you call your peers.
Brandon Burton 32:59
And I love that. That’s a great piece of advice. And we’ll we’ll give you a chance here in just a moment to share your contact information. So people can call them put a smile on Dan’s face and kind of learn more about how he’s doing things, their names, but I wanted to ask is we look forward to the future of chambers? How do you see the future chambers and their purpose going forward?
Dan Culhane 33:24
So I think that chambers will continue to have to find new new sources of revenue. That’s probably the biggest, biggest key, we’ve certainly seen a bit of consolidation. We’ve we’ve picked up some smaller communities, economic development and chambers here in the last few years, primarily because there was a time where one person could do everything. And that’s just not, that’s just not practical now, you know, and so I think continuing to look for ways to partner regionally, but also continuing to diversify your revenue streams. And that’s going to be an ongoing challenge. Like in any business, and I think that’s what a lot of chambers don’t always think about is that they are a business just like your your local manufacturer, the shoe store down the street of the flower shop. We’re this is a business. And so how do we continue to diversify our revenue so that when one one source dries up, this new source takes care of that. And so I think chambers will always have a role because communities need leadership. And chambers are a great place for leaders to be born. You know, I, I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve actually seen my ability to help mentor my board chairs and my board members, who more often than not now are either my age or younger. And it’s might be their first our first entrance into a board leadership role. And so fostering that in In developing those leaders, it’s really important, not only for your chamber, but for your community. And so whether it’s diversifying your revenue, or building leaders in your community, I think chambers will always have a role. But we have to continue to evolve, just like our businesses do.
Brandon Burton 35:18
I love that. As you’re giving that vision of your future of chambers, we could have talked the whole episode about different revenue streams, for chambers and kind of ideas there could have talked about mentoring, you know, those future leaders in your community that’s so important, maybe a little uncomfortable, you know, the first couple times you do it, but as you catch the vision and see, and kind of, you know, help these people progress along their path to being a leader in your community. So important. You’d mentioned before there is a certain loneliness in leadership, but you help bring those along and help them kind of catch that vision you’ve got others to talk to, and then maybe they won’t be so lonely once they’re in your place down the road. I don’t know if I cut you off. It looks like you had something to say. Maybe, please. Okay. Okay. So, before I let you go, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and, and maybe learn from you as a mentor, just you know, learn more about how you guys are doing things, their names, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect, you
Dan Culhane 36:29
can connect me and connect with me in a variety of ways. Again, my email is dan@ameschamber.com. You can call my office at 515-232-2310. Or the best place to reach is my cell phone 515-290-0447. You can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, all those things. I’d love to talk to you. I might learn something, there’s a good chance I’ve learned something from you. And so this, this is a great business, I encourage people to engage. I’ve got a lot of young people that work for me, which is awesome. I’ve had four people leave after a few years of me and run from chambers of their own. And that’s really gratifying to because I think I’ve helped them see that this is a really good professional career path. And so please give me a call. I’d love to talk. And Brandon, I appreciate you and, and you give me the opportunity to be on your podcast today.
Brandon Burton 37:34
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