Downtown Akron Partnership

What it reported doing in 2024

Vibrancy and economic development: downtown dora - the city of akron launched its first designated outdoor refreshment area (dora) in downtown in october of 2020. The dora allows customers to take alcoholic beverages outside within the boundaries of the designated area. Dap continues to support the dora through ambassador safety tours, programming, and management of the dora cup program as part of our commitment to downtown vibrancy. Downtown business development has evolved as a critical dap service since 2007. Dap meets with businesses for retention and expansion visits as a proactive approach to growing the number of jobs downtown, as well as assisting businesses with direct services and connections to address any challenges they face. Dap strives to meet with retailers quarterly, and with professional services at least biannually. Dap also conducts bre visits through the new bre effort within elevate greater akron. Dap tracks statistics on this work by calendar year. Within this effort in 2024, dap participated in all bre committee meetings and attended 45 ega bre outreach visits. Our individual nps score in this work in 2024 was 70% (team goal is 50%) with 50% of interviewees responding to the survey (team goal is 35%). Dap also meets with prospective businesses to assist them on their path to establishing a business. In 2024, dap conducted prospective business meetings with 58 site selection services - 32% were retailers, 12% creative industry, 26% professional services and 9% other types of business. Of these prospective businesses, 56% were owned by people of color and 53% were women owned. In 2024, 88% of ega portfolio businesses were retained downtown and 95% of all general non-retail businesses were retained. In 2024, 20 new businesses opened in downtown. In 2024, 6 new businesses were selected for phase 8 of dap's burton d. Morgan foundation funded start downtown program, formerly known as the pop-up retail program. The program matches entrepreneurs with property owners to bring new businesses downtown and encourage economic growth in the district. It prioritizes supporting businesses owned by women and people of color. The eighth cohort of start downtown businesses included six new businesses. In total, 89% of retail storefronts downtown were retained and 6 new storefront businesses opened downtown. Dap hosts an online site selection form to facilitate the process of entrepreneurs and businesses looking for space in downtown. Dap continues to maintain downtown available commercial listings on the lois (location one information system) database on downtownakron.com to engage entrepreneurs interested in locating their business downtown. Since the downtown vision and redevelopment plan of 2018, downtown's primary development focus has been on bringing mixed-use, residential projects to fruition. Residential development is critical to downtown's economic recovery, as well as an important part of keeping the district socially connected, vibrant and strong.dap continues to work closely with artists and instructors throughout the year to rethink traditional programming while remaining committed to supporting and celebrating arts and culture as a critical part of the downtown experience. We continue to convene district partners in a virtual, bi-weekly downtown programming call. Now with more than 20 organizations participating, the group is collaboratively helping rebuild downtown vibrancy. Placemaking through programming plays a vital role in dap's portfolio of economic development efforts. Dap adds programming to public spaces and assists others in bringing excellent programming to downtown to create a vibrant and valuable downtown for all. Part of dap's commitment to programming all people is illustrated by its work with local contractors, with a focus on working with businesses owned by people of color. For people of all backgrounds to feel truly invited to participate in what downtown has to offer, they need to see t

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 69.9%; rating input score 70
• Program expense ratio: 89.5%; rating input score 90
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 22.2%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.68; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.54; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 6.3%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 2.4% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 6.1% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings