Heart on Main Street was a newly launched program when I first wrote about it just over three years ago. The non-profit had announced that its mission would be helping independent retailers and locally-owned businesses evolve and thrive within their local communities. According to founder Patrick Keiser, they planned to do this by providing tools, resources and education so that they could invest back into their businesses and maintain their presence in the community. 

Today Heart on Main Street is fulfilling this goal through a program of webinars featuring retail experts such as Bob Negen, Lyn Falk and Crystal Vilkaitis. A library of past webinars is available for free on their website. Topics covered include marketing, finance, customer experience, operations and retail trends.

There are also quarterly insights into the world of independent retail. These survey reports “bring together the voices of store owners from across the country so you can identify trends, benchmark your business, and stay ahead of what is happening on Main Street.”

But Heart of Main Street has now become known for something that wasn’t really on their radar in late 2022: disaster relief. The organization’s Independent Rebuild Program is committed to helping small businesses after a tornado, hurricane or flood closes their doors. The grants they provide help cover expenses such as repairs, replacement of equipment, and lost inventory.  Because the non-profit got its start in the gift industry, a number of vendors in this arena have aided these efforts by gifting goods to the shops working to reopen through a program called Giving Inventory.

The blog on the Heart of Main Street website recognizes the emotional cost of having a business shut down by natural disaster. “Independent retailers don’t just run businesses, they build them from the ground up. When disaster hits, they’re not just dealing with loss in a financial sense; they’re dealing with something personal.” The support that Heart of Main Street provides includes helping them move forward and achieve stability, which can be a slow process.

This work is funded by private donations, both from individuals and from vendors and sales agencies. Volunteers are also welcome, along with donations of supplies. Independent retailers in the U.S. are eligible to apply for a natural disaster relief grants within one year of experiencing a federally declared natural disaster.

In January of this year Heart on Main Street received the HEARTS Award from the Dallas Market Center and ART, the creative home furnishings network. This well deserved recognition, which was initiated during the pandemic, honors Heart of Mains Street for its important humanitarian efforts in the retail field.

Happy retailing, 

Carol “Orange” Schroeder