New Year, New Focus: What’s Ahead in 2025
A letter from: Hannah Brooks (Executive Director)Heart of Scottsville Strategic Priorities for 2025
As we launch a brand new year, the Heart Team is focused on our annual strategic planning workshop. This is the time when we deep dive into the data (think budget reports and impact analysis) and feedback to take an objective look at what worked (and what didn’t) in the year behind us. It’s an important tool in innovating effectively and aligning our work plan with the needs of our community.
It can be a humbling experience. Some of our pilot projects in 2024 did not quite go as we’d hoped they would. The Civic Pride Campaign, for example, didn’t gather armies of volunteers and end with us chanting “We Love Scottsville!” together at year’s end. It wasn’t a total loss, though. We learned a lot about why our neighbors are struggling to have pride in their community - in spite of having a deep and abiding love for their hometown. Far from feeling defeated, we wrapped that project with renewed determination.
There’s gold in this place after all. There’s this beautiful legacy of faith, of neighbor helping neighbor, of grit and entrepreneurship, and roots that run deep and wide. So we’ll look for ways to try again in 2025. We’ll keep telling and retelling your stories. We’ll keep inviting you to gather and join in. We’ll keep looking ahead and building brick by brick.
All that being said, here are the three strategic priorities that will shape our work plan for 2025.
Economic Development
Our commitment to stimulating economic growth remains unwavering.
In 2025, we’ll aim to foster an environment conducive to business innovation with an intentional focus on sustainability. While we’re proud to report new businesses are being planted downtown, and we’ve celebrated several that simply outgrew the available space downtown - we’ve also seen a few of our entrepreneur friends struggle. We want to pour into our new entrepreneurs and offer impactful support to our mature businesses. Here’s the basic idea:
Supporting local entrepreneurs through mentorship programs and resource-sharing initiatives.
This includes a new 10% strategy - our commitment that 10% of all fundraising revenue will go into a Giving Fund to be gifted to local entrepreneurs in the form of business grants, direct support, and necessary supplies. This is more than just handing out checks. This is ensuring our neighbors have access to education, coaching, and the professional services they need to thrive. It’s not about subsidizing businesses (a practice that has been proven ineffective) but it is about being able to help when there’s a crisis.
One of the highlights of 2024 was learning how our Women in Business Grant helped keep a young entrepreneur afloat during a particularly challenging time. We don’t always get to hear the details of how our support impacts the community. This testimony was a reminder that even a $500 gift can plant a seed. That young entrepreneur was awarded the grant for being among our brightest stars and today I’m proud to report she is one of our most accomplished.
There’s no way to avoid operational costs, or the cost associated with hosting the events and programs that serve as economic development tools and community resources. While these indirect supports are vital, The Giving Fund is an accountability measure that ensures we don’t forsake the direct support our local businesses rely on us to provide. Much like tithing, we’ll give of our firstfruits and trust that what remains will be sufficient to meet our needs.
Attracting new businesses to our community by showcasing Scottsville's unique advantages and opportunities.
We love living and working in downtown Scottsville - and we’re confident others will, too. We’re committed to networking and sharing the stories that make our hometown the perfect location for launching your next endeavor. We’re casting a wide net and inviting folks with new ideas to explore downtown.
Collaborating with local stakeholders to enhance the infrastructure that supports commerce in our historic district.
We’re continuing to build our partnerships with local government, corporations, financial institutions, schools, and fellow nonprofits. We believe in multiplying our efforts through collaboration and effective teamwork. We’re working on parking signs and informational brochures and all the practical things. We’re also expanding our support of students, churches, and civic groups - ensuring they always have a platform to share their good news with all of you.
Community Engagement
Community engagement is the cornerstone of our mission. We believe that an engaged community is a thriving community. Our initiatives for 2025 will include a renewed focus on in-person connections.
Many people are stepping away from social media for a variety of personal, social, and mental health reasons. In response, we’re focusing our efforts on doing more of what we do best - organizing warm, inviting community events and fostering real human connections.
Organizing inclusive community events that allow residents to voice their opinions and shape local initiatives.
We hear from a lot of our neighbors who believe “this is just how it is around here” - and that note of defeat in their voices always hits us hard. There are certainly things we’d all like to see change in this community. While change is frustratingly slow and often uncomfortable, we’ll never see positive change if we don’t try.
So we’ll continue to invite you to have a seat at the table and, whenever we’re able, we’ll see to it that the decision-makers hear what you have to say.
Enhancing communication channels between Heart and community members to ensure transparency and responsiveness.
We’ll continue to prioritize real-life relationships over digital ones. While we appreciate social media as a tool, the comment section will never replace breaking bread together or sharing perspectives over a cup of coffee.
The trend of leaving social media seems to reflect a broader desire to live more authentically, protect mental health, and invest in real-world experiences - all things we strongly support!
We invite you to stop by the office (inside The Fieldstore) and hang out. Visit us at one of the First Friday Street Fairs. Or just grab us in line at the grocery store and we’ll plan a coffee date. If you have questions, concerns, or just want to catch up - we’re here for it!
Partnering with schools, organizations, and local leaders to foster a sense of belonging and encourage civic participation.
Working with these groups brings unique challenges and often challenges our perspective. But the end result is always better than the sum of the parts - making this an integral part of building community well.
Fundraising Goals
To fuel our work, we recognize the importance of robust fundraising efforts. Our 2025 goals include:
Launching targeted campaigns to increase financial support from both individual donors and corporate sponsors.
I’ll be honest and say, I despise fundraising. Let’s face it - we spend our entire lives being told it’s rude to discuss money and unforgivable to ask for it. Yet, as a nonprofit director, there’s no getting around the need for fundraising.
I hope you’ll give me grace as I try to grow into this particular area of my job.
More importantly, I hope you’ll find the work we do valuable and worthy of your support. I genuinely want to see your investment be a fruitful one. I believe strongly in my responsibility (alongside my Board of Directors) to be a careful steward of the resources at our disposal. If ever you have questions about where our funds come from or where they go, I’ll be happy to open the books and walk you through it.
Developing unique fundraising events that not only raise funds but also elevate community spirit and awareness of our mission.
Our inaugural Main Street Ball in March 2024 will go down in history as one of my favorite Heart events of all time. We raised much-needed funds (funds that kept us afloat after an unexpected and steep cut of our annual City contribution later in the year). But that’s not even what I remember most fondly…
It was the JOY. My board worked incredibly hard to pull off the event and they did it all while laughing and smiling - from early morning until well past midnight. It knit us together as a team in an entirely new way.
We hope to add at least one more fundraising event to the calendar in the next couple of years - one that will be a little more accessible. But these events are difficult to pull off and more than a little risky. You know that old saying “it takes money to make money?” Turns out it’s true. We have to pay the catering bill and pray hard that the tickets sell. So for now, we’ll stick with the Ball and build its foundation. But just as soon as she’s stable and healthy, we’ll launch the next one. I promise.
Exploring grant opportunities to secure additional funding for specific projects that align with our strategic priorities.
We’ve been fortunate in the past few years in regards to grant funding. The Laura Goad Turner Charitable Foundation, in particular, has been incredibly generous in their support of our programs. In 2023 we received a $50,000 grant to fund First Fridays and boy did we have fun giving away all that money! We passed out farmers market gift cards and free school supplies and business grants - and we enjoyed every second of it!
It’s funny, though. I used to think of grant money as easy money. After all, someone sends you a check and you just spend it, right? Experience has taught me otherwise. Didn’t your Granny ever tell you, “There’s no such thing as free money?” Turns out she was right.
Grants begin with a marriage of opportunity, compatibility, and capacity. The grant funder (folks with the money) let you know of a grant opportunity and tell you all the rules for how they want their money to be used. You then decide if you have a project that is compatible with that opportunity. Then you analyze if you have the capacity to pull it off - the staff and the equipment and the time and the matching funds and all the things.
If you’re awarded the grant, you really do get to have that fun moment of getting the check in the mail. Don’t get me wrong, that feeling never gets old! But it’s only just the beginning. You have to track data and measurable outcomes and account for every penny, of course. You may have a funder who walks alongside to mentor you and keep an eye on how the project is going. (These are my favorites because it’s like having a business coach and guardrails at once.) You will definitely have to give an account in the end.
Not every project succeeds. Not every goal is met. One of the toughest conversations I’ve had in my life was telling a grant funder that the project belly-flopped. It made me want to crawl under the table and cry.
I say all of this to say… we’re going to keep seeking grant opportunities that marry well with our mission and our capacity. But boy howdy, have I learned the hard way that juggling too many grants at once is a sure fire road to burnout. So I’ll be careful with this one and lean hard on my Board to be sure we don’t over-commit. One of my favorite mentors once said, “Pick one thing and do it better than anyone else.” That can be difficult in nonprofit work, but it’s solid advice and I’m reminded of it often.
In 2025, Heart of Scottsville is dedicated to cultivating a thriving economic landscape, engaging our community, and securing necessary resources to support our endeavors.
As always, it is a privilege to serve this community. We are grateful to continue this work and look forward to laboring with you.
Happy New Year!
Hannah Allston Brooks
