Tell Your Story - Share Statistics
The cumulative success of the Main Street Approach® and Main Street programs on the local level has earned Main Street the reputation as one of the most powerful economic revitalization tools in the nation.
— www.preservationnation.org
Reinvestment statistics help to share all the great things that are happening on Main Street, demonstrating how your efforts are making an impact on the bottom line.
Telling your story via the performance metrics makes your program more competitive for grants and local support as they provide a snapshot for funding agencies to evaluate progress that has been made on an annual basis. If you cannot show them the value of their investment, there are plenty of folks who can. Funders want to know that your program is well managed, and that their dollars will go further under your watchful eye.
Your statistics also help the state program justify continued support and any future requests for additional funding from the legislature. The statistics from each community are combined quarterly by Colorado Main Street to give a comprehensive picture of the value and impact of the statewide program and justify its annual funding.
The National Main Street Center® combines the reports from all of the statewide coordinating programs to illustrate the cumulative impact of the Main Street revitalization model.
Selling your success and telling your story requires thinking like a salesperson:
- share your quarterly reports with the community, particularly business owners and elected officials
- send a quarterly report formatted as a press release to the local media
- if you are publicly funded, present your statistics at least annually (if not quarterly) at municipal meetings, and definitely promote your program’s impact prior to budget discussions
- create an annual report that tells your program’s story for each calendar year and distribute this report throughout your community to show the impact of your local program
Be ready to link Main Street’s actions and programs to the statistics and actual stories.
As a board member, your help may be needed beyond sharing the story. Ask your program manager if you can help collect the required quarterly statistics — divide and conquer! Board members working in real estate agents know when buildings get filled or sold, while bankers often know about business expansions — pass it along!
For more information, see Best Practices: Colorado Main Street Quarterly Reports on the Colorado Main Street website.
What Your Reinvestment Statistics Demonstrate
Employment statistics show an increase in jobs within your district. Since one of the most common measures of economic development is job creation, this helps to establish Main Street as a real player impacting the economy.
Buildings renovated demonstrate increased property and sales tax generation, which benefits
local government.
New businesses are closely related to employment figures. The raw number of new businesses in active buildings can help illustrate vitality. Again, more businesses help generate more sales tax.
Event attendance helps tell the story of how your efforts bring people downtown. Pairing these numbers with a narrative from a local business on the increase in sales makes the story even more powerful.
Volunteer numbers and hours show community investment. Make the most of their value by including the number of volunteers, hours, and a total “wage” value.