GO LOCAL second year of matching funds program for local business recovery

The impacts of the local and global crises of recent years have mobilized communities to strategize new ways to provide direct support to local businesses and organizations. Sonoma County GO LOCAL piloted a Local Business Recovery Fund in 2020, providing immediate benefit to its participants, and is excited to offer the fund again in 2021.

“An array of economic and community support is necessary to help offset losses from the many recent challenges that have hit Sonoma County businesses in recent years,” says GO LOCAL’s Executive Director, Janeen Murray. “Community-based financial relief programs can be tailored to the needs of local businesses and complement state and federal support. This modest matching-funds program is intended to be just one of many sources of support that the local business community can leverage.”

With these funds, participating locally owned Sonoma County businesses may double their GO LOCAL marketing and advertising investment, helping them to more affordably improve their marketing presence, reach customers and recover sales. Businesses who apply must be ready to commit either $500 or $1000 of their own to receive that same amount in matching funds to be spent on a diverse menu of GO LOCAL’s marketing and advertising options.

Kindred Fair Trade owner Julie Montgomery says, “The matching funds enabled us to double our reach and truly contributed to better sales in December. Thank you so much for supporting this program. It’s one of the reasons we are going to survive such a tough year.”

Olde Towne Jewelers’ Micah Kradin notes, “GO LOCAL made advertising and reaching our local community much easier and more affordable through their business recovery fund. We were able to get more exposure and response than we would have normally for the same advertising budget; that helped us experience a much better holiday season than anticipated. We really appreciate GO LOCAL and all of their support.”

Steffen Kuehr of Sonoma USA and TekTailor says, “The ads we were able to place thanks to the generous help of the marketing funds provided to match our ad spend were hands down the best advertising investment we made in 2020! After having to close down our small factory retail store in March, especially the ad in the Holiday Direct Mail Magazine …brought numerous new customers to our store when we reopened in November. Thanks again GO LOCAL for making things like this happen!”

GO LOCAL is seeking 2021 sponsorships of $75,000 through the end of July, followed by the business application period through the month of August, and business selection and delivery starting September 1st. The timeline is aimed to especially support businesses who rely on robust holiday sales, which some sectors depend on for as much as 50% of their annual sales revenue.

For more information about the 2021 Recovery Fund, to be a sponsor, or to read more local business testimonials from 2020 fund recipients, visit golocal.coop/recovery21.

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About GO LOCAL and Sustaining Technologies, LLC

Sonoma County GO LOCAL Co-op (golocal.coop) is a co-op marketing network providing economic development marketing for locally owned businesses throughout Sonoma County for 12 years running. Sustaining Technologies, LLC is the media management company that works hand in hand with GO LOCAL to deliver smart, locally targeted media services.

GO LOCAL has become THE source for all things local in Sonoma County by: promoting local businesses and organizations; educating consumers about the benefits of buying locally; helping hundreds of businesses annually increase local sales through marketing and advertising; and, ultimately, keeping more dollars recirculating in the local economy.