2023 was a big year for Southern Palmetto! It marked the 45th sapphire anniversary of our Regional Chamber of Commerce and the first full year of operations for our non-profit Foundation. The Chamber board made a strategic bet on the development of the Foundation while also expanding our staff from 1 to 3 at the beginning of the year, and that has paid off significantly!
We were able to increase our operating budget by ten times pre-2020 levels, deploying $377,057 in 2023 with various programs and events supporting economic prosperity in Allendale and Barnwell Counties. An organizational restructuring that also launched last yea gave us a slate of new offerings such as Blessing of the Crops, State of the Region, and BBQ, Blues, & Boos, which yielded record attendance with 1602 supporters joining us across 12 events throughout the year.
As a result of the new activities and a new benefits structure for the Chamber, we saw membership surge by 40% up to 136 members, 33 of which were new to the organization for 2023.
Our Palmetto Innovation Center’s work saw an increase with its first full year of operations, supporting 19 regular members, alongside hosting 2 cohorts of the Propel Business Lab Program which fostered the development of 41 new small businesses, helped 7 current business owners, and distributed $40,000 in grants!
We are excited to keep the momentum going in 2024, by continuing the great events and programs we launched last year while adding more to the roster. This January, alongside the third cohort of Propel, we are launching two new programs: Coding Career Connect for those wanting to break into the software development field and Homegrown Leadership Institute for those wanting to level up their leadership skills.
And we are all excited to have the EmpowHER women leadership program get in full swing this month featuring quarterly gatherings, a monthly podcast, and an annual summit which will debut in March. And that’s just the stuff we can talk about- SO MUCH MORE is in the works for 2024 and beyond. We look forward to you joining us as we continue to help the region THRIVE, and know that this work could simply not happen without the support of our member businesses and individuals like you! We can’t thank you enough, and we hope you are as proud as we are of the numbers in this report!
