The banner ads we should notice

You see them on banners hanging on fences around your kids’ ball fields. 

You see them on plaques and walls at libraries, parks, rec centers and museums. 

You see them on the back of t-shirts. 

Or do you?

It’s easy to gloss over them as just more advertising. We are, after all, exposed to over 4,000 advertising messages a day. It’s pretty easy to just tune them out. 

But those banners and t-shirts are different. The names and logos there are sponsors and donors, the lifeblood of youth sports, nonprofits, and civic organizations. 

And of course, parks. 

Without the support of local businesses and individuals giving money to organizations and causes, we couldn’t build and maintain rec centers and sports fields. We wouldn’t have places like Big Hollow Lake, Starr’s Cave Nature Center, and the incredible playground at Dankwardt Park. Without the nonprofit foundations that support them, the library, the hospital, and even our local schools would struggle.

The county conservation department is in the same boat. I’ve spent most of the last few months working with the team at the Partners for Conservation Foundation, the nonprofit organization that supports parks, conservation, and environmental education in Des Moines County. They’re the foundation that raised the money that developed Big Hollow Park, the Flint River Trail, and Starr’s Cave Nature Center. Recently, they created Burlington River Days as an annual fundraiser and they’re spearheading the effort to resurrect the Big Muddy’s building into a future interpretive center and restaurant. 

With county revenues growing slower than the cost of operations, they just launched sponsorship programs for Starr’s Cave Nature Center and the Big Hollow Shooting Range to make up the shortfall.

But the money these local foundations provide must come from somewhere. And that somewhere is all those businesses and names you see on those banners, donor walls, and t-shirts. 

The Burlington River Days Committee in front of the sponsor banner. The sponsors listed on on that 15 square foot piece of vinyl represent $60,000+ in donations.

Knowing this, I take notice. 

Many of the local businesses listed on all those banners hanging around the ball fields where my kids practice and play tournaments have single-digit employee counts, yet they continue to give a portion of what I’m sure are already rather small profit margins for what? The chance to put their name on a banner that most people won’t even notice? To get their business name in small print on the back of an extra small kid’s t-shirt? 

I fail to see the business case for such expenses.

But that’s not the point, is it? 

Being one of 50+ sponsors of the local youth sports league, the new riverfront festival, or the new conservation facility capital campaign isn’t about the marketing. It’s about the investment in the community. 

And so I notice. 

I read the names on those banners, on the backs of those t-shirts, printed in the programs at the local conservation organization chapter banquet, and hanging on the walls of nonprofit-operated places I’m proud to say exist in my community. 

And when I need a product or service, I look first to those businesses. I’m happy to spend a little extra knowing I’ll see that business name hanging on an outfield fence or on a donor wall at the nature center. I’m forever amazed at how quickly some local businesses say yes to donating to causes and organizations in which I’m involved. And the amount of money that some people and businesses have contributed to our local parks and conservation areas has more zeroes than most people’s annual household income. 

But again, it’s not about the ROI for these donors, is it? Sure, they get a tax write off and, if the contribution has enough zeroes, get to put their name on a building, or at least on a room inside it. For most though, it’s a sign hanging in a place like a RecPlex or nature center that simply wouldn’t be there were it not for all those three- or four-digit contributions. 

So when you visit one of those places and see one of those signs, take notice. 

Those signs are not advertisements. They’re a testament to the strength of a community, a who’s who list of the people and companies that see fit to give back – to our kids, to our landscapes, to our community.

To our future. 

So take notice. Because we get to choose where to spend our money. As much as I can, I choose to spend it with the companies that run banner ads not online, but on ballfield fences. The ones that buy sign space not on highway billboards, but at local parks and nature centers. The ones who would rather have their name on a local nonprofit facility’s donor wall than in the pages of Forbes. 

Those are the businesses that make our communities what they are. 

We get to choose where to spend our money. Choose wisely. 

This is my monthly column published in newspapers throughout Des Moines County.