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MONDAY Cary, Caroline, Mark – El Dorado (technical asst. with merchants & merchant meeting)
TUESDAY Caroline – West Memphis (business incubator meeting)
WEDNESDAY all staff – grant training & “Big Check” photo with Governor
THURSDAY Nancy – annual leave
FRIDAY Cary – ACE Nonprofit meeting, LR, afternoon; Nancy & Susan – annual leave
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IN THIS ISSUE:
Various Press from MS Programs
Demolition Wrong Answer For Imperiled Neighborhoods
Google Local Business Center
MP3 of Opening Plenary of International Markets Conference
3 Grant Opportunities
Hope VI Main Streets Allocation Coming Soon
Why Certain Cities Attract Generation Y
Free Press Release Analysis Tool
Students Work with Main Street Russellville
http://arkansastechnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1346:art&catid=1:university-news&Itemid=2
Main Street Texarkana Press:
http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/localnews/2009/06/10/main-street-texarkana-members-discuss-fu-56.php
Main Street El Dorado’s MusicFest Headliners Announced:
http://www.eldoradonews.com/news/localnews/2009/06/16/musicfest-headliners-announced-27.php
MS Hardy, Others, Participate in the Welcome to Arkansas Program
http://www.areawidenews.com/story/1548605.html
Demolition a Wrong Answer For Imperiled Neighborhoods
http://citiwire.net/post/1007/
Google Local Business Center
http://alwaysupward.com/blog/will-google-local-search-really-help-indie-brick-and-mortars/
- have businesses in your downtown signed up on Google Local Business Center? Visit www.google.com/lbc
MP3 of the Opening Plenary of the International Markets Conference
Click here to download audio for the Opening Plenary of the 7th International Public Markets Conference!
Listen to Sibella Kraus, Founder and President of Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE), David Smith, Director of Markets for the City of London, and Jordi Tolra i Mabilon, Director of Communications for the Barcelona Markets discuss the role of markets as a catalyst for stimulating regional food systems. Moderated by Michael Krasny, KQED Public Radio.
Grants Enhance Company Communities Worldwide
FedEx Social Responsibility Program
The mission of the FedEx Social Responsibility Program is to support the communities the company serves, including international locations, through charitable contributions, in-kind shipping services, and volunteer services of employees. The company's core giving areas include: Emergency and Disaster Relief, Pedestrian and Child Safety, Education, and Health and Human Services. FedEx is especially interested in supporting organizations that request 5% or less of the total project budget, contingency grants, or seed monies with the expectation that other sources will contribute matching amounts. Priority is also given to organizations where FedEx employees volunteer. Requests may be submitted at any time. Visit the company's website to review the grant criteria and the online application process.
Note – Pedestrian Safety category could be used for a number of downtown projects.
Bank of America Accepting Applications for Neighborhood Excellence Initiative
The Bank of America Charitable Foundation is accepting applications for the Neighborhood Builders and Local Heroes components of its Neighborhood Excellence Initiative. In 2009, the foundation will allocate a total of $20 million globally to the initiative, which is designed to recognize, nurture, and reward organizations, local heroes, and student leaders helping to strengthen and revitalize their communities in forty-five of the bank's major markets.
The Neighborhood Builders program provides $200,000 in unrestricted grant funding in addition to leadership training for two local nonprofit organizations working to promote vibrant neighborhoods.
The Local Heroes program provides recognition of five community heroes whose achievements and leadership on local issues contribute significantly to neighborhood vitality. Recipients direct a $5,000 contribution to an eligible nonprofit of their choice.
(The 2009 deadline for the Student Leaders program has passed.)
Program guidelines, list of eligible markets, and applications are available at the Bank of America Foundation Web site.
Link to Complete RFP
BICYCLE SAFETY Bikes Belong Coalition
Application Deadline: The Bikes Belong Coalition reviews applications on a quarterly cycle. Please see Web site for upcoming deadlines.
Description: The Bikes Belong Coalition is sponsored by members of the American Bicycle Industry. The coalition's mission is to encourage more people to use bicycles.
Funding Amount: Applicants can request up to $10,000. In very limited cases, Bikes Belong will consider amounts over $10,000. Requests of over $10,000 will generally be viewed unfavorably unless the applicant has an extremely compelling case with a proposal of unique or national importance.
Who May Apply: The coalition welcomes grant applications from organizations and agencies within the United States that are committed to putting more people on bicycles more often.
The Bikes Belong Grants Program funds projects in two categories: facility and advocacy. For the facility category, Bikes Belong will accept applications from nonprofit organizations and from public agencies and departments at the national, state, regional, and local levels. For the advocacy category, Bikes Belong will only fund organizations whose primary mission is bicycle advocacy.
For more information, go to:
http://www.bikesbelong.org/grants
HUD HOPE VI MAIN STREET GRANTS COMING SOON!
It is almost that time again—when HUD releases its application for Hope VI Main Street grant funds. This program makes grants to support the creation of affordable housing in Main Street settings. This year’s application (the Notice of Funding Availability, or NOFA) has not been released yet but if past years are any indication, it should be posted online around the first of July.
So now is a great time to get the process started. The first step for anyone interested in applying is to register or update/renew your registration with www.grants.gov, a process that can take approximately 2-4 weeks. This is a requirement for all applicants.
Wondering if you qualify for funding? The basic eligibility requirements for the program are:
• Must be an official unit of local government
• With a population of 50,000 or fewer, and
• Have 100 or fewer physical public housing units in its jurisdiction that are administered by a public housing agency for HUD.
We will send out an announcement as soon as the NOFA is released but in the meantime, visit http://www.hud.gov/mainstreet/ for guidance on the program (based on past NOFAs), especially the Main Street Program Summaries link.
Why Certain Cities Attract Generation Y
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jun2009/ca2009069_660226.htm?chan=careers_managing+index+page_top+stories
FREE PRESS RELEASE ANALYSIS TOOL
by Timothy Lee, Associate Extension Specialist, UALR Lead Center
HubSpot Internet Marketing Company has developed a free online analysis tool for grading press releases. HubSpot's Press Release Grader evaluates your press release and provides a marketing effectiveness score. This score is based upon basic factors from public relations experts including the language and content of the release, plus advanced factors from Internet marketing experts such as links and search engine optimization characteristics. Press Release Grader is part of Grader.com, a family of tools that helps measure all that matters in modern marketing.
The tools require that you cut and paste the content of your press release. (You can paste content from Microsoft Word or from a web page). Add your company name, website, and an email address and the toll will grade your press release and email you a detail analysis.
A free six-minute Overview Video of Press Release Grader is available on YouTube.com or on the tool submission form at:
http://www.pressreleasegrader.com
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