Spotlighting Organizational Success

By RDG CEO Clint Nessmith

Recently, Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives focused its quarterly magazine on recognizing best practices among its membership. In keeping with that theme, we utilized our article in the magazine to highlight a few of our recent clients and their amazing work:

JAXUSA Partnership: Northeast Florida has become one of the strongest economies in the country, and we have been right there with them since 1990, running all but one funding campaign. JAXUSA, under the JAX Chamber umbrella, has excelled with talent development, with Earn Up at the core. One particularly impactful tactic has been convening HR executives of its investors regularly with area college and university leadership, along with Duval County Public Schools to discuss shared goals, identify opportunities, and facilitate partnerships.

Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation: These two organizations are separate yet share one strategy and one significant funding stream, which is the Innovate 28 strategy and funding campaign. There will always be cross-organizational challenges to overcome in a situation like this, but the Chamber and EDC are proving to the community they can work together to collaboratively advance common goals in a complex ecosystem.

Greater Wichita Partnership: The Partnership excels at thinking big! Just a few years ago, they saw an opportunity to work with their investors and public officials to advocate for dollars to create a biomedical campus in the heart of downtown Wichita. As executives and lobbyists from every sector would wrap up their meetings with elected leaders they would all make one final ask – fund the biomedical campus! It worked, and today the biomedical campus building is rapidly rising from the ground, and a biomedical corridor is already taking shape around it. The “Aviation Capital of the World” now also has its sights set on becoming a major national player in the biomedical and biotech space and is proving that thinking BIG and working collaboratively can yield community changing results.

Little Rock Regional Chamber: Do you Love Little Rock? We do! The LRRC is another long-time client. If you sat in on our session at the ACCE Annual Conference in Philadelphia, you heard our two teams go into detail about how the chamber has leaned hard into talent development and talent attraction over the years. The result has been successfully developing Academies of Central Arkansas working alongside Ford NGL and creating a unique and targeted talent attraction campaign to match former Arkansas residents to open positions in central Arkansas.

Detroit Regional Chamber: The Mackinac Policy Conference, hosted by the DRC is one of the most unique events in the chamber world that I have ever had the pleasure of attending. For a few days once a year on beautiful Mackinac Island, every decision maker in the state of Michigan convenes to dig deep on the issues of the day. This is the event you rearrange your calendar to attend. It is truly impressive how the DRC staff can pull off such a large and complex event each year and that they have kept the conference highly relevant.



Whether it is bridging institutional silos in Fargo, rallying a region around biotech in Wichita, or redefining talent development in Little Rock, our clients continue to challenge assumptions and elevate what’s possible. At Resource Development Group, we are proud not only to guide them through funding campaigns, but also to help them uncover and apply the best practices that drive lasting impact. These stories offer just a glimpse of the ingenuity and leadership that chambers and economic development organizations are demonstrating across the county – and we’re honored to walk alongside them as they shape the future of their communities.

Resource Development Group is celebrating 30 years of economic development fundraising consulting for clients across the United States. RDG is highly specialized in that the firm ONLY works with chambers of commerce and economic development organizations and brings to bear a team with deep roots from the industry. Reach out to Clint Nessmith at Clint@RDGfundraising.com with feedback, questions, or to explore how RDG can work with you to help you achieve your revenue goals.