The Chaffee County Visitor’s Bureau recently voted to dramatically alter course when it comes to supporting special events and initiatives aimed at attracting visitors.
The board voted to fund just $19,000 in grants for event advertising, leaving $26,000 of its $45,000 2009 grant budget on the table. In total, the CCVB had received grant requests from 13 organizations totaling $130,985 in the following grant categories: Underwriting, $7500; Niche, $13,705; Bootstraps, $90,000; and matching advertising, $19,780. Five grants represented new events or initiatives.
In reviewing its grant program, the CCVB opted to eliminate three grant funding categories that had been in place when event organizers applied last fall for 2009 support: niche, bootstraps and underwriting grants. Niche was a new category of grants aimed at bolstering business at local convention and meeting facilities.
Underwriting grants had been established as a way for the county to leverage its funds to attract bigger grants from sources outside the county including federal or state sources and other charitable foundations. Over the years, the underwriting grant category enabled the county to leverage $22,500 of lodging tax revenues to attract $130,00 from state agencies. In the first year of the program, the Greater Arkansas River Nature Association parlayed a $7500 grant from the CCVB into a $100,000 grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation to support establishment and promotion of the Collegiate Peaks Byway.
Subsequently, $7500 CCVB underwriting grants were used to attract two-for-one matching grants from the Colorado Tourism Office. The first such grant funded an interactive map component on the county’s official website. A year later, CTO matching funds helped create a $22,5000 marketing budget to promote the opening of the conference facilities at the Salida SteamPlant Theater and Event Center.
The four-year old bootstraps grant program was designed to help seed new events attracting visitors to the area. As a result, successful additions to the county’s annual events calendar include the Salida Omnium, Paddlefest, Adventure Xtreme and Trailfest.
In the past, all events and initiatives applying to the CCVB for grants were required to submit formal grant applications and provide post-event reports including documentation of how funds were allocated.
The following is a list of events that will receive one-to-one matching advertising funds from the CCVB, despite the fact that in some cases they applied to other grant categories:
- $2500 grant: Art Walk, FIBArk, Gore-Tex TransRockies, Adventure Xstream, Collegiate Peaks Music Festival, Paddlefest
- $1500 grant: Tenderfoot Du/Triathlon
- $1,000 grant: Salida Riverside Fine Arts Festival, Salida Mountain Music Series.
- $500 grant: Articipation
Lee,
Thanks for pointing this out. My big question is “Where does the rest of the money go?” The CCVB take in around $300,000. Now we know where 19 of it goes, what about the rest? I looked at their website and the budget is incredibly vague with things like “Offline Mktg – 83675″ and “Adv. Co-op 15000″. WHere does the money go?
Thanks,
I have been dismayed over the past year over the significant reversal in direction of the CCVB board with respect to accountability and transparency. For specific details of expenditures you would need to ask County Finance Director Dan Short or CCVB marketing contractor April Prout. Meanwhile, I prepared a crib sheet about the CCVB budget to try to respond to your question . Click here for the crib sheet.
Thanks Lee,
Alot of information in there. and it raises more questions. I will talk to Dan Short and get more detail. Cheers,
Bill