Originally Published in the Monadnock Shopper News

On July 15, Monadnock Buy Local officially launched its Placemaker Local Rewards crowdfunding campaign with The Local Crowd Monadnock (our region’s locally based crowdfunding platform).  We're thrilled to report that in the first 2 days of the campaign we reached over 30% of our fundraising goal!  To see where we’re at today, please visit our crowdfunding campaign page.

What’s Placemaker?

On the surface, Placemaker is an online loyalty platform that tracks purchases made at locally owned businesses and offers gifts and discounts to community members who spend their dollars locally.

Join Us for a Stronger Community! from Katrina Scotto di Carlo on Vimeo.

Why Placemaker?

Dig deeper and you’ll discover that Placemaker is a powerful tool to inspire more community members to shop at locally owned businesses.  Placemaker can give us access to real data, while shoppers have fun.  With this data, Monadnock Buy Local and other economic development organizations can monitor and demonstrate the true impact of our efforts on our local economy.

Best of all, instead of independent businesses working to build customer loyalty on their own, they can band together through Placemaker and inspire more people to spend their dollars at locally owned businesses.

Why Crowdfunding?

Bringing Placemaker to our community requires a three-year commitment -- a really big investment for an organization like Monadnock Buy Local.  If we can raise $5,000 from you -- our neighbors, friends and family -- it demonstrates our community’s support for Placemaker.  These dollars will also allow us to lower participation costs for participating businesses.

The Roots of Placemaker

This program—started in Oregon by Katrina and Michael Scotto di Carlo—currently boasts a network of 150 independent businesses and 80,000 users who collectively shifted $8 million of their spending to locally owned businesses.  Placemaker was the couple’s response to watching their town’s Main Street businesses close -- a solution that drives revenue to businesses and engages citizens.

Earn Rewards for Shopping Locally

“We moved here three years ago from a busy metro area with the belief that a smaller town with more individual personality would be a better place to raise our family,” shared one of our early Placemaker campaign supporters.  “Placemaker will encourage a healthy local economy and ensure that the qualities we love about Keene will remain and hopefully strengthen. I love the idea of supporting my neighbors and friends in this way, and I'm not going to lie... I like rewards!”

How Placemaker Would Work

When you shop at a Placemaker business that's new to you, you'd receive 20 Merits. Each time you come back to shop or get a service at that business, you’d earn 5 more Merits. You’d collect these Merits at each participating business by sharing your phone number or using the free Placemaker mobile app.

Each participating business would then offer specific products or services that can be purchased with Placemaker Merits. You’d use your Merits to claim rewards on Placemaker's website or app.

How much would it cost for community members to participate? Nothing. It's free!

To make supporting our Placemaker campaign even sweeter, we’re offering special rewards to individuals who give at certain financial levels. For example, for $50 a campaign supporter can choose the "Buy Local Booster" and receive 5 gift certificates from Monadnock Buy Local members -- in surprise amounts from surprise members.

Another great perk: A number of Monadnock Buy Local Members donated fantastic rewards to show their support for our Placemaker Crowdfunding campaign -- and to thank supporters for contributing to our campaign.  Browse these sponsored rewards along the right hand side of our campaign page -- catered lunches, social media support, drone videos and more!  Claim a reward by adding it to your cart and then following the steps to complete your contribution.

These rewards are limited -- so be sure to check them out today.

So, What Do You Think?

Do you believe this is a good investment for our community? Then please support this program today.

Help Bring Placemaker to the Monadnock Region

Offline donations are also accepted.  Checks should be made out to Monadnock Buy Local (with Placemaker in the memo line) and mailed to The Local Crowd Monadnock, c/o Monadnock Buy Local, 63 Emerald Street PMB #114, Keene, NH 03431.

Placemaker can make connections between community and our locally owned businesses more visible, while making the benefits of shopping locally even sweeter!