GREENVILLE — In a year in which the coronavirus pandemic has left the majority of small businesses struggling to survive, any form of relief is welcomed by employees and owners.
Members of the Montcalm Economic Alliance (MEA) came together last week via Zoom to discuss financials and listen to guests presentations during the MEA’s annual investor meeting. — DN Photo | Cory Smith
Rob Spohr, president of the Montcalm Economic Alliance (MEA), is hopeful the organization aimed at increasing economic growth can survive long enough to continue a mission it took on this year — pursuing and implementing relief for small businesses.
“It’s been a rough year, but that’s the reason the Montcalm Economic Alliance exists — for the rough times,” he said. “When businesses are being run and times are good, it’s not like there are no problems. That’s when The Right Place is out there helping with expansion of business and Montcalm Community College is looking to train employees for companies, but this virus has created a new dynamic in which I think people will find we’ve stepped up.”
According to Spohr, the MEA’s partnership with The Right Place Inc. has paid dividends this year.
Kathy Jo VanderLaan, who works as the business development coordinator for Montcalm County for The Right Place, took on the role of facilitating grants for numerous small businesses in the county, helping to provide thousands of dollars in relief.
“When I say ‘we’ve’ stepped up, Kathy Jo has stepped up,” Spohr said. “She has done some amazing things in the area to help our businesses.”
But that relationship doesn’t come free, as the MEA pays an annual fee of $135,000 for that partnership to be in place.
Those funds are secured through contributions by area municipalities, businesses and private donations, but in a time when door-to-door fundraising isn’t an option, Spohr said the future remains cloudy as to whether the partnership established in 2015 can continue.
With little funding “in the bank,” Spohr said the partnership has been held in place thanks to a recent increased contribution by the Greenville Area Community Foundation (GACF) — $60,000 — which will allow the partnership to continue through the end of the year.
GACF President and CEO Alison Barberi expressed the importance and significance of the GACF Board regularly choosing to allocate donor dollars toward the MEA.
“We are hopeful that because we’ve had the capacity to help out these past few years, this shows it’s important … that economic development happens — for all of us,” she said. “We all benefit. It may not be obvious day-to-day, but overall, it makes a big difference to our area.”
But now on the heels of the pandemic and its effects on the economy, Spohr said a continued focus will have to be placed on how to fund the MEA/The Right Place partnership going forward.
“When we talk about the future, that’s something we really need to discuss,” Spohr said. “We have to ask, ‘where do we go from here?’” Spohr said.
According to Josh Gibbs, fundraising chairperson for the MEA, the pandemic has had a negative effect on funding coming into the organization.
“This summer we were short on funding our contract, at least the last two quarters, with The Right Place,” he said. “Going out on an annual basis and asking for funding, that just isn’t sustainable anymore. We’re constantly looking at our expense budget … which supports economic development efforts, so it’s really necessary for us, in thinking forward, of how to keep this contract funded, sustainably.”
As of this year, 23 organizations and individuals contributed to the organization.
“We have people who have stuck with us the whole way through, and this year, and that money matters,” Gibbs said. “Between the expansion, retention and attraction projects, that money is making a difference. Even though an economic project might not land in someone’s backyard, the net benefits of what that economic development is — the scope of it and the scope of improvement to our local economy, our school districts, our tax base — all of those things spread out much larger than the city of Greenville.”
Going forward, however, Gibbs said that model of annual contributions won’t be enough.
“There’s a very thin margin and we are getting by the skin of our teeth and that can’t continue,” he said. “Economic development feels like competition to the manufacturers in our area, but it isn’t competition, it’s a way to make everybody better, to really improve technology, to improve the way things get done, so we are all in it together. In that vein, we’ll be reaching out to more service businesses throughout the year, but we also really need to change the current model of funding.”
One such new model, Gibbs said, is creating an endowment fund with the GACF. He said a total of $2.7 million would need to be placed in such a fund, in order for a 5% disbursement to fund $135,000 per year.
Currently, the MEA has $300 set aside for the fund.
“We’d like to make this permanent, we’d like to build this fund,” Gibbs said. “I know it seems scary … we’re looking for anybody who really wants to get behind this.”
Additionally, Gibbs said another goal is to better engage the city of Greenville, of which the partnership has been turbulent in recent years.
“Over the course of the past year there’s been a fair amount of press on our relationship with the city of Greenville,” he said. “We sincerely want to work together and for them to be an investor and stakeholder. As one of the communities with the most shovel-ready space for businesses to expand, it’s very important that we work together in the future.”
Additionally, Gibbs said he’s hopeful to accomplish the same with Montcalm County.
“We’re looking more at the idea of a millage or part of the budget of Montcalm County being able to try to kick into this effort a bit more,” he said. “They’ve been a very good partner all along. The investment, it may not be buildings, it’s not roads that we can look at and see improved, but it is something that’s very important we invest in going forward. This effort needs to be a constant investment.”
