Shift Your Shopping Holiday Campaign!

Our local network is thrilled that BALLE national just announced the Shift Your Shopping campaign, just in time for the holidays.

Purpose: Let's keep some holiday shopping money on Main Street.

Your local chapter is going to be launching a campaign just for the Spokane area on how you as a consumer and you as a business can partipate. Think awareness + awesome raffles.

Stay tuned.

Shift Your Shopping (National)

Occupy This...

So you want your money to matter huh? In light of the Occupy movement, I want to share this post. Don Shaeffer spoke at the national BALLE conference this summer. Several of us from Spokane were in the audience.

I think it's important to be part of the solution, don't you?

Six Things You Can Do to Accelerate Community Capital
Recommendations from Don Shaffer of RSF Social Finance at BALLE's Accelerating Community Capital workshop on June 14 about what we can each do right now to make a difference.

1. Change your bank--from a big one to a locally based bank investing in your community.

2. Put your short and medium term savings in CDs that are working for your communities—such as a RSF Social Finance or Calvert social fund.

3. If you stay with your big bank, engage them and inquire what part of their deposits from the region gets reinvested regionally. Write the CEO about community capital—they will actually write back.

4. Spend less, save more, and then invest it locally.

5. Make your investment in community capital the center of your savings, not the fringe.

6. Engage the community institutions where you live (universities, foundations, religious institutions and others) and ask them where they are investing their funds.

http://www.livingeconomies.org/node/538

Updates, New Things

So many things to tell you all about!

Your local BALLE board has had a busy summer. Looking forward to getting into fall and getting to work. Oh wait. It is fall...

1. Many of you have met Wyeth Larson, who has been out and about talking to almost everyone that's joined. Wyeth has taken a new job in Seattle. His work with us was invaluable at getting us off the ground. We thank him for his service and wish him well on his next ventures. Thanks to Wyeth for his extraordinary service. We deeply appreciate you.

2. Cassie Price (me) is taking over our email and social media. We are going to try to keep you all updated more, one because it matters and two because we have a commitment to be transparent to you.

3. Your board is currently working on two program segments. One, our consumer campaign called Shift Northwest. We have already signed up several hundred people at various events this summer (Summer Parkways, Main Street Fair, Spoke Fest) who have committed to shifting 10% of their spending locally. If you are a SBN member, your business was advertised on all our material. Also part of this segment is working on possible ways to reward consumers for shopping local, be it through points, discounts, or group-on-esque programs (but that don't take so much of your money). We are also working on a holiday spending campaign.

4. We also have a business to business internal site that we are a going to be launching for our members soon (after the New Year, but don't hold me to it). More later. I don't want to ruin the fun.

5. And finally...our board members have committed to staying through the end of the year, but we are gong to be looking for new members to join us. If you're interested, keep us in your thoughts. We will announce more later.

SME's and Sustainability

Ever wonder how sustainability plays out for small and medium sized businesses?  You aren't the only one.  A new study finds SMEs gain some of the biggest financial benefits by adopting sustainability into their business practices. 

For more information, check out this artcile on Greenbiz.com.

We'll be out and about this weekend

Hey there SBN fans!

We'll be out enjoying our amazing late summer this weekend!

On Saturday, we'll be at the Community Building for the Main Street Fair.  The Main Street Fair is part of Sustainable September, and will highlight sustainability minded businesses in the Inland Northwest.

On Sunday, we'll be at Spokefest. Join in for the fun!  Spokefest has four bike routes this year, all finishing downtown at SpokeFair, where there will be live music, bike oriented businesses, and of course, SBN.

At both events we'll have our shift local commitment forms.  By pledging to shift your spending to local business, we'll have some drawing prizes from some of our great local independent business members!

See you this weekend!

Reforest Spokane Day!

Hey there everyone!

The Lands Council is in a dead heat for winning a prize from Tom's of Main.  The winner will receive funding for a conservation project, and the Lands Council is aiming to plant 10,000 native trees in Spokane.

You can vote once per day.  Help one of our most treasured nonprofits reforest Spokane!

Voting ends September 13th, and every vote counts!

What is a thriving local economy?

Michael Shuman has broken down some key aspects of successful local economies.

This list elaborates what broadly could be measured to determine whether a community is progressing toward Local Living Economy goals.  Admittedly, some of these indicators would be harder to construct than others, but none are beyond the measuring capabilities of most local governments.

1. Local Ownership – What percentage of jobs in the local economy are in locally owned businesses?
2. Self-Reliance – To what extent is the community self-reliant, especially in the basics of food, shelter, energy, and water.
3. Socially Responsible Business -- To what extent are businesses present across all sectors of the local economy that are achieving high levels of triple-bottom-line success? 
4. Youth – What’s the probability that young people stay in your community once they are graduated from high school (or return to the community after college)? A related question:  What’s the likelihood that a young person can have fun in your community without breaking the law?
5. Schools – What’s the probability that members of every age group in your community are increasing the amount of time they spend learning this year, compared to last year.
6. Entrepreneurship – What’s the likelihood that an entrepreneur in your community, especially a young person, can find the capital, technical assistance, mentorship, and other support that makes it possible for him or her form a small business that he/she is passionate about?
7. Relationships – What’s the likelihood that every resident knows the names of everyone on his or her block, and that the block throws block parties? 
8. Arts – To what extent are artists, writers, musicians, and other cultural creative drawn to live in your community? 
9. Safety Net – What’s the probability that the poorest members of the community find adequate food, shelter, and health care.
10. Diversity – To what extent does your community have a rich diversity of races, ethnicities, ages, religions, and political viewpoints.
11. Aging – To what extent has the concept of retirement been abolished and replaced by seniors embracing new personal and community missions as they age?
12. Volunteerism – What’s the probability that a resident has run for office, worked for a government program, or volunteered for a community initiative or an act of civic governance?
13. Sustainability – What’s the degree to which your community meets its needs, present and future, without impairing the ability of other communities to meet their needs, present and future?
14. Investment – What’s the percentage of your residents’ retirement savings that’s invested in local business?
15. Tourism – The degree to which outsiders come to visit in part because they regard you as a model community?
16. Walkability – What percentage of your residents can find most of what they need – for work, school, purchasing, and play – within a 10 minute walk from home?  What percent of people living in your community work there? 
17. Subsidies – To what extent is every penny of city money linked to business development is invested exclusively in locally owned business? 
18. 10% Shift – What percent of your community’s purchasing decisions – including those of consumers, businesses, and procurement agencies – are going to local goods and services? 
19. Celebrations – To what extent are your conferences (like this one) places where solutions to once hopeless problems are shared and celebrated?
20. Global Self-reliance – To what extent are you sharing your best practices in achieving all of the above with other communities globally?  How much time and money are you spending to help other communities worldwide to achieve the level of self-reliance you seek for yourself?