Old Fashioned Cents
Six Fundraising Lessons
from Chambers Past
By Chris Mead
Raising money is se ldom e asy, but o ften int eresting, and it ’s a
recurrent the me in the near ly 250-y ear hist ory o f c hambers o f
commerce in N orth America. As al ways, the past o ffers lesso ns
for us t oday as w e navigate an e ra much different, yet somehow
much the same.
ersevere
In the midd le o f 1790 the C harleston,
S.C., c hamber fa ced the ne mesis o f
everyone who’s tried to boost membership: apathy. Several members resigned
in J uly. D iscouraged, anothe r me mber ma de a mot ion t o dissol ve the
chamber. Others decided to wait before
making this final mo ve. I n S eptember,
the mot ion was w ithdrawn and the
chamber r ecruited a n umber o f ne w
members.
This revival was timely. In May of the
following year, President George Washington v isited C harleston. H e ne eded an o rganization t o host
him. T he C harleston C hamber o f C ommerce, st ill in e xistence
thanks to its pat ient members, was the re to take on the jo b. The
chamber t reated the fathe r o f our c ountry t o a w onderful g ala
dinner on May 7, an event whose memory is still cherished by the
Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce.
The C harleston c hamber fa ced anothe r c hallenge aft er the
Civil War. The city was devastated, and many members were dead
or being hunted by federal authorities for their blockade-running
during the war . T he c hamber, ho wever, b oasted w hat ap peared
to b e a st rong balanc e she et. I t ha d k ept me ticulous r ecords
(including a b lack cr oss ne xt t o ea ch d eceased me mber) and it
appeared to have $2,511.51 o n hand. Unfortunately, it was al l in
Confederate money.
Nevertheless, with almost nothing t o work with, 22 me mbers
got together in 1866 t o bring the c hamber together again. These
brave souls inc luded Ge orge Alfred Trenholm, f ormer t reasurer
of the C onfederacy and a past p resident o f the c hamber. H is
wartime exploits would make him the mo del for Rhett Butler in
Gone with the Wind. Like Scarlett O’Hara in the smoking r uins
of Tara, Trenholm didn’t d well o n the t roubles o f the past and
the la ck o f r esources in the p resent. H e p roposed the v ery fir st
postwar r esolution o f the C harleston C hamber o f C ommerce.
The short document, which the c hamber approved, encouraged
the people of Cincinnati to continue their efforts to construct a
railroad toward Charleston.1 Trenholm and his c onfederates still
had dreams, and they were ready, with or without money, to make
those dreams come true.
isten to Your Funders
In R ussia, a se vere famine st ruck the
Volga r egion in lat e 1891. T he fu ture
Nicholas II, son of the reactionary Tsar
Alexander III, was in c harge o f r aising mo ney t o ame liorate the disast er.
He and his fathe r b ungled the e ffort
to fig ht the famine, causing imme nse
suffering and pushing man y t oward
extremist politics.
Americans, inc luding the v enerable
and d edicated C lara B arton, pul led
together f or a r elief e ffort. N aturally,
the g reat New York Chamber of Commerce’s me mbers t ook an int erest in he lping o n this disast er,
as the y ha d o n so man y othe rs. T hey r aised funds—b ut w ith a
wrinkle. At the chamber’s monthly meeting on Feb. 4, 1892, after
many testimonials in fa vor of aiding the R ussians, the p resident
of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., Jacob Schiff, spoke:
Mr. C hairman, I hesitat ed and was in d oubt w hether o r not
I should c ome to this me eting, for, as y ou are aware, I b elong to
that race which has suffered so terribly at the hands of the Czar’s
Government.2
Schiff went on t o say that although the J ewish p eople ha d
endured much at the hands o f the T sar, he w ould b e w illing to
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contribute to the fund, provided that the corrupt Russian officials
did not get their hands on it. He noted that “the Jews will tightly
close their pockets” if the money went directly to their oppressors
in the Russian government.
Money was r aised and se nt t o R ussia v ia p rivate c hannels.
Alexander and Nicholas had agents all over the world, and easily
could have read the public record of Schiff ’s 1892 remarks at the
New York Chamber. But Nicholas the fundraiser seems either not
to have known or not t o have cared about Schiff ’s attitude. The
pogroms continued. And Schiff ’s anger increased.
As the 20th century dawned and Prince Nicholas became Tsar
Nicholas II, he c ontinued the ant i-Semitic policies of his fathe r.
Jacob Schiff, a determined man, as he had shown at the New York
Chamber on more than o ne occasion, was inc ensed at the Tsar’s
continuation of the persecution that terrorized Russian Jews. He
decided, as he warned in 1892, to “tightly close” his pocket.
When Russia went to war with Japan in 1904, Schiff did his best
to ensure that the Tsar could not borrow money for the conflict.3
As he noted at the time, “I pride myself that all the efforts, which
at various times during the last four or five years have been made
by Russia to g ain the fa vor of American mar kets for its lo ans, I
have been able to bring to naught.”4 He arranged financing for a
$200 million bond issue on behalf of the J apanese government.
The mo ney b oosted J apanese mo rale and was use d t o b olster
its land f orces and a cquire and e quip the ships that d ecisively
defeated a motley Russian fleet at the battle of Tsushima. For the
first t ime in mo dern hist ory, an Asian nat ion ha d o vercome a
European power in war.
The humiliation of the defeat destabilized Russia, encouraging
unrest that simmered on past the opening of World War I. Under
the pressure of German arms, the wobbly Russian regime finally
collapsed. T he Tsar and his famil y were shot. S ome, o r p erhaps
all, o f this mig ht ha ve b een a voided if, in 1892, N icholas the
fundraiser had paid att ention to one angry chamber member in
New York and his concerns about the Tsar’s treatment of Jews.
olve a Big Pr oblem
Why is it that mo ney mag ically mat erializes w hen p eople face the b iggest
problems? On April 17, 1861, the N ew
York C hamber o f C ommerce he ld its
first me eting aft er the ou tbreak o f the
Civil War. D uring that me eting, aft er
hearing o f the ne ed t o e quip t roops
for the fr ont, the g roup r aised $21,000
in 10 min utes, the e quivalent o f ab out
$500,000 t oday. I t also p romised t o
quickly subscribe the remaining $9 million of government borrowing to fund
the c onflict.5 When c onfronted b y a
massive c hallenge, the N ew York C hamber f ound the ne cessary
resources to help its country.
A similar incid ent occurred a c ouple of thousand miles away
just after the Civil War. The city of Denver was faced with disaster.
The near ly c ompleted t ranscontinental r ailroad was passing
through C heyenne, not D enver. P eople and b usinesses b egan
streaming out of the C olorado cit y, convinced it ha d no fu ture.
By the fall of 1867, the situation was desperate. As a later chamber
chronicler wrote:
Denver had to have a r ailroad if it was t o survive as a cit y. So
on November 13, 1867, John Evans and John Smith and General
John Pie rce and others marched up the stair s o f C ole’s Hall o n
Larimer St reet, and b efore the y ha d mar ched d own ag ain the
Denver Board of Trade had been born, with the ambitious job of
securing for Denver a railroad.6
The group made a plan for a $500,000 capital project, organized
the Denver Pacific Railroad Company on Nov. 19, and c ollected
the fir st $300,000—har dly a t rivial s um in a smal l cit y in this
period—over the ne xt thr ee da ys. T he fir st lo comotive ar rived
in town on June 15, 1870, and othe rs followed. T he brand-new
Denver Board of Trade had ensured that its city would thrive.7
atch the Fever
Occasionally, whether for good or ill, a
community may be seized by a sense of
excitement o r urg ency that fundr aisers
can e xploit. I n S an F rancisco d uring
1915-16, a lo ngshoremen’s strike raised
tensions t o the f ever p oint. A st eady
stream o f lab or-related b eatings and
harassment was pouring from the docks,
despite the c hamber’s pub lic p rotests
and appeals to Mayor James Rolph Jr.
On July 10, 1916, in a r oom pa cked
with 2,000 p eople, the S an F rancisco
Chamber of Commerce se t up a g roup
called the La w and Or der C ommittee. T he c hamber, und er its
brawny president, J . F rederick Koster, was determined to st rike
the strikers. Within five minutes after formation, the g roup had
$200,000 in pledges.8
Less than two weeks later, on July 22, San Francisco held a Preparedness Da y Parade. (S uch par ades, w hich o ccurred in man y
cities, ma de the p olitical statement that if war w ith the C entral
Powers should c ome, Americans w ould b e r eady.) U nions ha d
been e xcluded fr om the list o f par ticipating o rganizations, and
some labor advocates urged a boycott. But a crowd of 50,000 was
there to watch. A mile int o the mar ch, a b omb exploded, killing
10 and injuring 40.9 Public horror was matched by white-hot fury
among chamber leaders and members.
Four days later, the Law and Order Committee held a meeting,
this time with 6,000 people. Chamber President Koster proposed,
and was urged to set up, a Committee of One Hundred, harking
back t o the c hamber-linked (and v iolence-tinged) Vigilance
Committee o f 1856. T he ne w g roup w ould b e p eppered w ith
famous, established businessmen of the port city, as well as some
parvenu pla yers, inc luding a c hamber b oard me mber name d
A.P. Giannini, w hose B ank o f I taly cat ered t o lo cal immig rants
and working class people, and later would be called the Bank of
America.10 w
Chamber Executive Summer 2012
31
The La w and Or der C ommittee fought f erociously on al l
fronts, seeking the culp rits for the b ombing with reward money,
and fighting unions, strikes, and the closed shop at every turn. So
galvanizing was the struggle that the chamber held, from Aug. 29
to S ept. 1, a me mbership dr ive using t elephone o perators. T he
result was a p henomenal increase in me mbership, from 2,400 t o
6,313.11 This made it, said the organization, the largest chamber in
the nation. Indeed, the telephone drive was one of the most s uccessful chamber membership pushes in the hist ory of voluntary
chambers of commerce anywhere.
The Law and Or der Committee soon overstepped its b ounds,
running r oughshod o ver the la w and w inning the e nmity not
only o f the le ft b ut o f mo derates, inc luding M ayor R olph. T he
group’s extremism brought Presidential candidate Charles Evans
Hughes to grief when he let himself be identified with its hardline,
closed-shop, ant i-union stanc e. T his fa cilitated Woodrow Wilson’s nar row v ictory over Hughes in C alifornia, w hich provided
the e lectoral v otes ne eded f or Wilson t o w in a se cond term as
President.
Although the La w and Or der Committee made more than its
share o f mistakes, it p roved a p oint. When a c hamber taps int o
emotional currency, it can also tap into currency—lots of it—and
plenty of new members to boot.
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Chamber Executive Summer 2012
ap into the Power Sour ce
Fred S. B all b ecame the ne w e xecutive
vice president of the Salt Lake Chamber
of C ommerce o n J an. 1, 1971. H e was
shocked t o find the re was not e nough
money t o mak e his v ery fir st pa yroll.
What was he going to do?
Ball called someone who had encouraged him to take the job: N. Eldon Tanner, second counselor in the Fir st Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. Tanner invited Ball to
his office the next day, where the church
leader said, “I f eel inspired to have you g o se e the p residents o f
KSL Radio and TV, Deseret Book, ZCMI, Beneficial Life, Murdock
Travel, the D eseret News, Zions Securities, and B onneville International. But give me two hours before you go to them.”
Ball did as Tanner suggested. Each business was connected with
the Mormon Church, and at ea ch one, he f ound a $5,000 c heck
waiting f or him. H e ha d e nough mo ney t o mak e pa yroll, and
never r an int o s uch a se rious financial p roblem ag ain in his 25
years at the chamber.12
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ang the Drum
Florida was the e conomic development
wunderkind of the mid-1920s, the place
where al l the star s want ed t o li ve and
where everybody se emed t o want to
move. B usiness p eople in Atlanta t ook
note o f Flo rida’s s uccess and e nvied it.
Atlantans also w ere c oncerned b y the
collapse in c otton prices and the r ise of
the boll weevil. And there was a d eeper
rooted, c ontinuing e nvy o f the cit ies
of the N orth, w ith the ir hig her li ving
standards and t echnological and c ommercial so phistication. H ow c ould this
out-of-the-ashes Civil War city fight its
way out of these constraints?
The answ er e merged in August o f
1925, when Atlanta Chamber President
W.R.C. S mith, a pub lisher, announc ed
an advertising campaign called Forward
Atlanta. T his e ffort w ould sho w the
world, and esp ecially the N orth, the a dvantages of this sou thern
metropolis. The aim was to attract companies to Atlanta.13
The goal was $250,000. Fundraising began on Oct. 6, resulting
in pledges of $85,000 that day. By Oct. 10, chamber volunteers had
scooped up an extraordinary $668,000 in commitments. With this
impressive war c hest, the c hamber b egan pla cing a ds. T he fir st
appeared in the S aturday E vening P ost o n F eb. 20, 1926. S oon
the promotional pieces were appearing in F orbes, Fortune, trade
magazines, and other publications. The ad choices were made by
a senior team of Atlanta executives who knew the kinds of things
their counterparts in other cities were looking for.14
The campaig n was a smash hit. In 1926 alo ne, Atlanta a dded
169 new firms with nearly 5,000 jobs, prompting the chamber to
extend the campaig n for an e xtra three years. By the campaig n’s
end, 762 firms totaling 20,000 jobs had come to town, although it
is unclear how many actually came as a dir ect result of Forward
Atlanta.15
The newcomers included Chevrolet and Nabisco. In the excitement, lo cal b usinesses e xpanded, t oo, and the Atlanta c hamber
and the allied Junior Chamber of Commerce worked with Mayor
Hartsfield on his har ebrained scheme to turn Candler Field into
a leading airport. Forward Atlanta didn’t do all these thing s, but
1 Minutes, Charleston Chamber of Commerce: 1866-1878, handwritten manuscript, Charleston Historical Society
library. Entry for February 13, 1866.
2 Thirty-Fourth Annual Report of the Corporation of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New-York, for the Year
1891-92 (New York: Press of the Chamber of Commerce, 1892), 99.
3 Jean Strouse, Morgan: American Financier (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), 547.
4 Letter to Lord Rothschild, April 4-5, 1904. From Cyrus Adler and Mortimer Schiff, Jacob H. Schiff: His Life and
Letters, Part 2 (Garden City, New York, 1929), 122.
5 Frank Moore, editor, The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, Volume I, (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1861),
96.
6 Anonymous, Summary of the Minutes of the Denver Board of Trade and the Denver Chamber of Commerce,
1867 to 1949, chapter entitled “1867 – 1884,” page a.
7 Anonymous, Summary of the Minutes of the Denver Board of Trade and the Denver Chamber of Commerce,
1867 to 1949, chapter entitled “1867 – 1884,” page b.
8 Steven C. Levi, Committee of Vigilance: The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Law and Order Committee, 19161919 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 1983), 29-30.
9 Steven C. Levi, Committee of Vigilance: The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Law and Order Committee, 19161919 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 1983), 41-44.
it did a great deal and focused local business people and the community on the idea of growth and the “Atlanta spirit.”
Just as c hamber lea der Asa C andler ha d s uccessfully b ottled
refreshment w ith his ap pealing C oca-Cola dr ink, so F orward
Atlanta b ottled the Atlanta spir it and e xported it t o the w orld.
A Junior Chamber of Commerce volunteer at the t ime, Duncan
Peek, r eminisced lat er ab out F orward Atlanta: “That was the
beginning, in my estimation, of Atlanta becoming a great city.”16
Even before Forward Atlanta, the Ge orgia city was famous f or
its pub licity ma chine. It was in 1924 w hen Ge rald W. J ohnson,
while criticizing the Babbittry of his native Greensboro and other
southern cities, issued his often-quoted dictum: “There is no God
but Advertising, and Atlanta is his prophet.”17 It’s a measure of the
Atlanta chamber’s chutzpah (or limited reading of contemporary
magazines) that inst ead o f t urning o ff the a dvertising fauc et
because of Johnson’s invective, it decided with Forward Atlanta to
shoot its message through a veritable fire hose.
The campaig n r an thr ough 1929, and w ith the a dvent o f the
Great Depression it was not renewed in 1930. But there was something singular about this project, something worth repeating. The
fizzy Atlanta spir it ne eded a b ottle, a st ructure t o cap ture and
export the v alue of the o verachieving southern me tropolis. And
so the m ultiyear c ommunity p romotion/advertising campaig n
would return to Atlanta in the early 1960s, as ambitious as before,
and c opied b y c ommunities not o nly in the S outh b ut a cross
much o f the r est o f the nat ion. I ndeed, c hamber “capital cam paigns” or “superfund campaigns” would become identified with
Atlanta, e ven thoug h similar funding campaig ns ha d hap pened
long before 1925, and far away from the southern city where war
was hell and drinks steamed with carbon dioxide.
What may we conclude from these six tales o f money, the lack
thereof, and o ccasional ma yhem? T here ar e c ertainly the fund raising lesso ns atta ched t o ea ch incid ent. S urely o ne a dditional
lesson is that creativity is not confined to any city or any era. And
finally, perhaps, if we lo ok at these incidents c losely, we can see
that money, like humans, is a pack animal: it prefers not to travel
alone, but with a dream.
Chris Mead is ACCE’s senior vice president of member
and sponsor relations. Although it’s not in his job
description, he’s researching and writing a history of
U.S. chambers, a labor of love that began three years
ago. Publication is expected in 2013.
10 Steven C. Levi, Committee of Vigilance: The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Law and Order Committee, 19161919 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 1983), 131.
11 Law and Order in San Francisco: A Beginning (San Francisco: San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, 1916), 37.
12 This entire incident is reported in this excellent source on the Salt Lake Chamber: Don Woodward and
Joel Campbell, Common Ground: 100 Years of the Salt Lake Chamber (Montgomery, Alabama: Community
Communications Inc., 2003), 134.
13 Clifford M. Kuhn, Harlon E. Joye, and E. Bernard West, Living Atlanta: An Oral History of the City, 1914-1948
(Athens,Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1990, 2005), 89-90.
14 Clifford M. Kuhn, Harlon E. Joye, and E. Bernard West, Living Atlanta: An Oral History of the City, 1914-1948
(Athens,Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1990, 2005), 90.
15 Clifford M. Kuhn, Harlon E. Joye, and E. Bernard West, Living Atlanta: An Oral History of the City, 1914-1948
(Athens,Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1990, 2005), 92.
16 Clifford M. Kuhn, Harlon E. Joye, and E. Bernard West, Living Atlanta: An Oral History of the City, 1914-1948
(Athens,Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1990, 2005), 93.
17 Gerald W. Johnson, “Greensboro, Or What You Will,” from South-Watching: Selected Essays by Gerald W. Johnson
(Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), 45. This essay first appeared in the Reviewer in
April 1924.
Chamber Executive Summer 2012
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