Originally Published in the Monadnock Shopper News
On July 15, Monadnock Buy Local officially launched its Placemaker Local Rewards crowdfunding campaign with The Local Crowd Monadnock (our region’s locally based crowdfunding platform). We're thrilled to report that in the first 2 days of the campaign we reached over 30% of our fundraising goal! To see where we’re at today, please visit our crowdfunding campaign page.
On the surface, Placemaker is an online loyalty platform that tracks purchases made at locally owned businesses and offers gifts and discounts to community members who spend their dollars locally.
Join Us for a Stronger Community! from Katrina Scotto di Carlo on Vimeo.
Dig deeper and you’ll discover that Placemaker is a powerful tool to inspire more community members to shop at locally owned businesses. Placemaker can give us access to real data, while shoppers have fun. With this data, Monadnock Buy Local and other economic development organizations can monitor and demonstrate the true impact of our efforts on our local economy. Best of all, instead of independent businesses working to build customer loyalty on their own, they can band together through Placemaker and inspire more people to spend their dollars at locally owned businesses.
Bringing Placemaker to our community requires a three-year commitment -- a really big investment for an organization like Monadnock Buy Local. If we can raise $5,000 from you -- our neighbors, friends and family -- it demonstrates our community’s support for Placemaker. These dollars will also allow us to lower participation costs for participating businesses.
This program—started in Oregon by Katrina and Michael Scotto di Carlo—currently boasts a network of 150 independent businesses and 80,000 users who collectively shifted $8 million of their spending to locally owned businesses. Placemaker was the couple’s response to watching their town’s Main Street businesses close -- a solution that drives revenue to businesses and engages citizens.
“We moved here three years ago from a busy metro area with the belief that a smaller town with more individual personality would be a better place to raise our family,” shared one of our early Placemaker campaign supporters. “Placemaker will encourage a healthy local economy and ensure that the qualities we love about Keene will remain and hopefully strengthen. I love the idea of supporting my neighbors and friends in this way, and I'm not going to lie... I like rewards!”
When you shop at a Placemaker business that's new to you, you'd receive 20 Merits. Each time you come back to shop or get a service at that business, you’d earn 5 more Merits. You’d collect these Merits at each participating business by sharing your phone number or using the free Placemaker mobile app. Each participating business would then offer specific products or services that can be purchased with Placemaker Merits. You’d use your Merits to claim rewards on Placemaker's website or app. How much would it cost for community members to participate? Nothing. It's free! To make supporting our Placemaker campaign even sweeter, we’re offering special rewards to individuals who give at certain financial levels. For example, for $50 a campaign supporter can choose the "Buy Local Booster" and receive 5 gift certificates from Monadnock Buy Local members -- in surprise amounts from surprise members. Another great perk: A number of Monadnock Buy Local Members donated fantastic rewards to show their support for our Placemaker Crowdfunding campaign -- and to thank supporters for contributing to our campaign. Browse these sponsored rewards along the right hand side of our campaign page -- catered lunches, social media support, drone videos and more! Claim a reward by adding it to your cart and then following the steps to complete your contribution. These rewards are limited -- so be sure to check them out today.
Do you believe this is a good investment for our community? Then please support this program today.
Help Bring Placemaker to the Monadnock Region
Offline donations are also accepted. Checks should be made out to Monadnock Buy Local (with Placemaker in the memo line) and mailed to The Local Crowd Monadnock, c/o Monadnock Buy Local, 63 Emerald Street PMB #114, Keene, NH 03431. Placemaker can make connections between community and our locally owned businesses more visible, while making the benefits of shopping locally even sweeter!
We hoped to inspire at least 471 page views to our Placemaker Local Reward crowdfunding campaign by August 14... well, thanks to everyone's help spreading the word -- we had over 1,000 page views in our first week! Now, we need to re-engage those visitors over the next three weeks. Are you connected with a group interested in learning more about Placemaker? We'd love to share a short overview with your group -- just contact us today.
You might be as crazy about building the local economy as us -- so we wanted to share this short video connecting the dots between Placemaker and Community Economic Development efforts: Placemaker Overview for Local Economy Building Organizations
Two more Monadnock Buy Local Members added Sponsored Rewards to our Placemaker Campaign this week:
Learn more on our campaign page (along the right) -- and share these great rewards with your contacts today!
Placemaker Crowdfunding Campaign
We publicly launched our Placemaker Crowdfunding campaign on July 15th -- and we're thrilled to share we raised 29% of our fundraising goal.
“We moved here three years ago from a busy metro area with the belief that a smaller town, with more individual personality, would be a better place to raise our family. Placemaker will encourage a healthy local economy and ensure that the qualities we love about Keene will remain and hopefully strengthen. I love the idea of supporting my neighbors and friends in this way, and I'm not going to lie… I like rewards!” - JDG
A number of Monadnock Buy Local Members donated fantastic rewards to support our Placemaker Crowdfunding campaign -- and to thank supporters for contributing to our campaign. These rewards are limited -- so be sure to check them out today! Browse these sponsored rewards along the right hand side of our campaign page. Claim a reward by adding it to your cart and then following the steps to complete your contribution.
The Local Crowd (TLC) Monadnock will launch its third online crowdfunding campaign on Thursday, July 15, 2017 at noon focused on supporting independent retail: Monadnock Buy Local's "Placemaker Local Rewards" Program.
RSVP to our online launch!
This campaign, based in Keene, is an effort to raise $5,000 needed to purchase a one-year subscription to Placemaker, an innovative online platform that tracks purchases made at participating locally owned businesses and offers gifts and discounts to users who spend their dollars locally. Instead of independent businesses working to build customer loyalty on their own, they can band together through Placemaker and inspire more people to spend their dollars at locally owned businesses. Also, Placemaker can provide real-time data that Monadnock Buy Local and other economic development organizations can use to measure their impacts and refine their efforts. "For years, Monadnock Buy Local searched for ways to demonstrate our true impact on our local economy. Are our efforts really making a difference?" said Jen Risley, Monadnock Buy Local Executive Director. "Enter Placemaker -- technology that can give us access to real data, while shoppers have fun!" "How we work with other communities is that we have a local business association or Think Local campaign that we partner with -- and then they actually gain most of the revenue from the program," said Placemaker Cofounder, Katrina Scotto di Carlo. "We just facilitate a license of the technology, but it's really run locally wherever it goes. Most of the money stays local." This crowdfunding campaign will offer a limited number of rewards to individuals who give at certain financial levels. For example, for $50 a campaign supporter can choose the "Buy Local Booster" and receive 5 gift certificates from Monadnock Buy Local members -- in surprise amounts from surprise members. Individuals can contribute to this crowdfunding campaign regardless of where they live. Offline donations are also accepted. Checks should be made out to Monadnock Buy Local and mailed to The Local Crowd Monadnock, c/o Monadnock Buy Local, 63 Emerald Street PMB #114, Keene, NH 03431.
Stay tuned -- and RSVP to our launch online to get updates!
It's been quite a month since our Farm to Table on Wheels crowdfunding campaign closed. We found and acquired the perfect cart soon after the close and have been have been busy getting it ready for prime time. The past week we have been painstakingly scraping off old vinyl decals in preparation for an Archway Farm rebranding (and hanging some Christmas lights)!
We're excited to say we have two events lined up to kick off the summer season:
We've caught up with many of you delivering sausage and other campaign rewards. Our second round of sausage is here so we'll be sending out an update for that shortly, and look forward to our first of the scheduled farm tours coming up next weekend. If we have missed you for some reason please don't hesitate to reach out. Thanks again for all the support, we hope to see many of you at an event this summer!
~ Mark Florenz, Archway Farm
From Mark Florenz, Archway Farm
Our campaign closed on Saturday and we reached our goal! Prime Roast Coffee Company pushed us over the line by becoming a Campaign Hero hours before the deadline. We are truly grateful for all the support we have received from the community, family, and friends. Having Jen Risley and The Local Crowd Monadnock as well as Stonewall Farm as partners has been huge in helping us reach our goal.
We had a great event at the Monadnock Food Co-op last Friday, it was great to talk to everyone about our campaign, and share some samples. We'll be back at the Co-op this coming Saturday, April 22nd as part of their Earth Festival, stop by and say hello if you are there.
We will be reaching out this week to start fulfilling our campaign rewards. We are now in hot pursuit of a sausage cart, so that we can be up and operational for the spring sausage season. Stay tuned for more details.
By Caroline Tremblay, Orginally Posted in ELF Magazine
In just two weeks, the brand-new, local crowdfunding platform, The Local Crowd (TLC) Monadnock, helped raise more than $6,000 to support projects at two of Keene’s farms, Stonewall Farm and Archway Farm.
The Local Crowd Monadnock, a collaboration between several economic development organizations in the region, aims to inspire local people to invest in their communities with small contributions that add up to make big things happen.
The idea is one that’s gaining traction across the U.S., and Jen Risley, executive director of TLC Monadnock’s host organization, Monadnock Buy Local, is excited to roll it out here.
“It actually started about this time last year when Michael Shuman came to town, and he gave a talk about pollinator enterprises,” Risley explained. Shuman’s talk centered on developing businesses that support other businesses, an idea embedded in the mission behind TLC.
The day after Shuman’s talk, Risley received an email about a grant to pilot The Local Crowd program, and she felt it was a sign.
“I immediately sent it out to all my usual suspects who do economic development,” she said. Though the grant was due just two weeks later, a group of organizations jumped on board and put together a plan.
“We’re the only ones on the East Coast, and I think there’s only 25 sites happening,” Risley said. But she’s already been part of several conversations related to how the platform might benefit the rest of New Hampshire and beyond. Even after only a few weeks, TLC Monadnock has offered up great insights into what really works when it comes to crowdfunding on a local level.
On March 15, TLC Monadnock launched its first two campaigns, both of which focus on sustainable agriculture. One campaign supports Stonewall Farm’s plans to build a new animal barn for its educational and visitor services programs. The barn would create a safe, fun, interactive space for visitors to learn about animals such as sheep, alpacas, goats and chickens.
The second campaign, which is titled “Farm-to-Table on Wheels,” supports Archway Farm’s hopes to take their meats to the streets. Archway is a small family farm in Keene that raises heritage breed pigs. They sell most of their meat wholesale and would like to connect more with the community by purchasing a sausage cart. The cart would be used to serve food at The Farmers’ Market of Keene, as well as at private gatherings at people’s homes or businesses.
“I’m very excited to be able to bring locally produced meat to a wider audience,” said Mark Florenz, Archway’s owner. “I go to local fairs and festivals, and I’m always surprised at the lack of locally produced food options. I hope this can be one small step towards changing that.”
A relatively new farm, Archway is working to build up its network within the region.
“Having the local connection of Jen Risley and Monadnock Buy Local was what really attracted me to this funding option,” Florenz explained. He’s reached more than half his financial goal in just two weeks and is encouraged by the support received from family, friends, and the community, which he believes “recognizes the value of local sustainable agriculture.”
And be on the lookout for more TLC Monadnock campaigns coming soon.
“We’re really hoping to give preference to campaigns that are supporting a local, green and fair economy,” Risley noted. If the two-year pilot proves successful, she would love to see it expand, perhaps even incorporating the tri-state area of New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. She said the ultimate goal isn’t to detract from any existing fundraising efforts, but to “get more people contributing to really good community initiatives.”
For more information, visit monadnockbuylocal.wildapricot.org/tlc or follow TLC on Facebook at facebook.com/tlcmonadnock/ for updates.
Support Our Campaign Today!
Less than 2 weeks to go and we're well on track. We have 43 supporters and have raised almost 75% of our goal of $5,000. Thank you to everyone who has contributed. We're super excited to be at the Monadnock Food Co-op this Friday night for TLC Monadnock Night. Please join us if you can, there will of course be sausage samples.
We are working diligently on the next round of our Local Sausage. If you haven't noticed, there's not a lot of local produce being grown right now, but we were able to source some Picadilly Farm beets from the root cellar to create a brilliant Sweet Beet sausage. Pork, beets, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper. Our test batch was a nice beet red color and kid approved (ours anyways).
Our first four litters of 2017 are on the ground (and in the mud). Next two litters are due to come in early May. Everyone is hoping that the ground dries out and the temperatures warm up so we can get the pigs out on some green grass, and let the winter paddocks recover a little.
We're thrilled to share that Monadnock Buy Local recently received a $5,000 grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation's Elting E. Morison Fund to support outreach efforts for The Local Crowd (TLC) Monadnock Project in Keene, Swanzey, Chesterfield, Hinsdale and Winchester, NH.
TLC Monadnock is a locally based crowdfunding platform that empowers individuals to support the businesses, organizations and initiatives that grow wealthier and healthier communities in the region. This pilot project is a collaboration of regional economic development organizations including Southwest Region Planning Commission, Monadnock Buy Local, New Hampshire Small Business Development Center, Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce, Monadnock Economic Development Corporation and Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship. For more information, visit monadnocklocal.org/tlc or contact Monadnock Buy Local at 603-499-7950.
Monadnock Buy Local (monadnocklocal.org) is a regional network of citizens, businesses and organizations that promotes the positive economic and community benefits of spending dollars locally, while supporting programs and policies that forward a local, green and fair economy. For more information, contact monadnockbuylocal@gmail.com.
The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation was created in 1962 by and for the people of New Hampshire, and is dedicated to strengthening communities across the Granite State. The Foundation manages a growing collection of 1,700 philanthropic funds created by generous families, individuals and businesses, and awards more than $30 million in grants and scholarships every year. The Foundation invests charitable assets for today and tomorrow; works with generous and visionary citizens to maximize the power of their giving; supports critical work happening in New Hampshire communities and leads and collaborates on high-impact initiatives. For more information, please visit www.nhcf.org or call 603-225-6641.
The Local Crowd Monadnock - Keene, NH
