The State Street District announced the launch of a new nonprofit, the Downtown Ann Arbor Partnership, this past September.
The nonprofit organization aims to bring together stakeholders across Ann Arbor, including employees, residents, business owners and downtown districts, to help ignite positive change within the community. The nonprofit further hopes to unite individuals and to implement funding collaborations to enhance the experience of downtown.
“The goal is not to reinvent the wheel or to trip up or get in the way of anything that’s working,” Angela Heflin, co-founder of the Downtown Ann Arbor Partnership and executive director of the State Street District, said. “The goal is to use information we have available to identify what gaps may exist and where the nonprofit can be helpful and supportive to downtown.”
The State Street District Board of Directors was already discussing the creation of a new nonprofit when Heflin was hired by the district in August of last year. She says they wanted to create an organization that would help support the downtown area overall.
“There is an increase return on investment to work together across districts, across the downtown footprint to find solutions,” Heflin said.
The board also determined that the new nonprofit would be more beneficial with a 501(c)(3) status, which the Downtown Ann Arbor Partnership is currently in the process of obtaining. This status will allow the organization to be eligible for a greater variety of grants, and it will also allow the donations made to the organization to be tax deductible.
The funds acquired will be distributed using a process involving data, which is aimed to help identify the aspects in need of additional funding.
Using knowledge from her prior experience at Michigan Venture Capital Association, where she completed the statewide Michigan Venture Capital Association Impact Report for two years, Heflin will work within the nonprofit to help identify different data. This will then help create a needs analysis, which Heflin says encompasses the qualitative and quantitative impacts of two components together: what’s happening and the datapoints themselves. From there, the nonprofit will then determine its next steps in response to the resulting information.
“It’s not a good idea to just start to throw money at things, just to start to go after money,” Heflin said. “You can actually hurt by helping if you do it the wrong way, so it’s really important that this nonprofit uses data to drive their decisions.”
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The first donation was recently made to the nonprofit, equating $5,000. After voting, $2,000 was designated toward start-up costs for the Downtown Ann Arbor Partnership, with the remaining $3,000 voted to be equally divided across the Main Street, State Street and Kerrytown Districts to help in funding Midnight Madness.
“It’s a good example on a small scale of the impact the nonprofit can have when it’s benefitting the whole. It’s not just about State Street,” Heflin said.
In January of 2025, the board of the Downtown Ann Arbor Partnership is scheduled to meet. This meeting will consist of the discussion of the nonprofit’s next steps.
Some of these aspects will be determining what scope of data is desired to be obtained, what data is already available and from which organizations, and if there are any gaps in the data desired, including how to fill those gaps in.
After a needs analysis is created following the review of the data, the nonprofit will then begin to reach out to partners to help with funding when the opportunities present themselves.
Victoria Smith is a multimedia journalist studying media studies and journalism at Eastern Michigan University. She reports on local events and local government.
