1909 and West Palm Seaside Downtown Development Authority Partner to Aid Small Corporations

Photo by Helloquence by means of Unsplash, courtesy of 1909.

The West Palm Seashore Downtown Growth Authority (DDA), the West Palm Beach Neighborhood Redevelopment Affiliation (CRA), and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fund of the Group Foundation for Palm Seaside and Martin Counties (Knight Foundation) extended the collaboration with area nonprofit business enterprise incubator and organization accelerator, 1909, to provide paid out skills from freelancers connected with 1909 for downtown West Palm Beach’s compact organizations. The 3 corporations and personal donors presented an extra $150,000 to Venture-1909 to get businesses the assistance they need to have to endure and thrive through the pandemic.

The initial iteration of Undertaking-1909 released in July of 2020 and assisted 13 firms with their creative demands by microgrants. The microgrants had been allocated to branding, custom made images, look for motor optimization (Web optimization), and layout services. Over-all, 22 freelance work opportunities have been developed for the 1909-centered expert services.

“We experienced a large amount of optimistic comments from corporations pursuing our to start with round of microgrant-funded projects,” claims Shana Ostrovitz, government eirector of 1909. “But we also learned a ton from this preliminary plan, letting us to retool and refocus ahead of this new spherical of funding to produce an even more major affect on organization restoration during this challenging time.”

Task-1909’s next round of grants will emphasis on two organizations that have been drastically impacted due to the duration of the pandemic: Palm Beach front Dramaworks and Salento Coffee Shop. 1909 business people will support Palm Seaside Dramaworks with advertising and videography for its annual gala, which will consider location nearly this calendar year. Salento Coffee Shop will receive enable with its system to activate a close by alleyway into an expanded support area with artwork and new music.

Money support will also be allotted to launching a new concept: the 1909 Downtown Co-Lab Weekend. Very similar to 1909’s once-a-year “hackathon,” the Co-Lab Weekend will assemble 4 groups of 1909 business owners to support four downtown corporations in need of help. The companies will provide their challenges to the 1909 members who will have the weekend to establish and existing a solution.

“The DDA is when once more happy to sign up for the Knight Foundation and the CRA in supporting Undertaking-1909,” suggests Raphael Clemente, govt director of the West Palm Beach front Downtown Enhancement Authority. “PROJECT-1909 provides the sort of guidance our downtown enterprises will need ideal now and provides nearby freelancers the opportunities to broaden their network of connections, too. This is a sensible and powerful way to increase our regional financial state.”

1909 and the DDA will be hosting a free, digital meeting for companies in the DDA District about Undertaking-1909 over Zoom on Wednesday, February 17 at 3 p.m. Firms are invited to sign up for the event in this article. Applications to participate will open pursuing the useful meeting. 

Group users are welcome to visit WeAre1909.org/Undertaking-1909 to master more or to donate to Undertaking-1909.