HEARTS Affiliate Services

Creative, robust, and results-driven programming excites new visitors, facilitates collaboration, and helps regional sites and organizations achieve sustainability.

In May 2024, HEARTS Collaborative Inc. (HEARTS) was granted IRS 501(c)3 status to be a comprehensive non-profit entity designed to unite and enhance historic sites and organizations and unite them under a common mission: To preserve and share our region’s history, while encouraging community engagement and facilitating sustainable operations. HEARTS does this by providing our Affiliates with operational and program assistance, efficiently connecting them with state-of-art technology, administrative staff, and robust financial resources to facilitate that allows the public to access up-to-date information in a single platform for all regional people, places, and pieces related to history, ecology, arts, reunion, trails, and historical stores in the Catawba Valley region. Through this collaboration, HEARTS believes the achievement of greater historical goals and their safeguarding through financial sustainability is attainable for all historic sites and organizations.

Our region has an incredibly vast and diverse cultural and natural history. This history is made up of many special places - some with stories we know, some with stories lost, and some with stories still being discovered and shared. Many of these historic sites have huge potential to reach much wider audiences to share this history, as well as to support ongoing preservation and public programming. Each of these special places will benefit from collaboration among historic sites and with community resources to achieve measurable benefits to both the sites and the community.

HEARTS extends an invitation to all public and private historic, ecological, artistic, and genealogical sites and organizations in the Catawba Valley region to join our collaborative initiative and gain from our collaborative connection, elevation, research, preservation, and management services by becoming an Affiliate Member.

As a HEARTS Affiliate Member, sites and organizations connect to our collaborative platform that offers a regional network of experts, funding opportunities, volunteers, and HEARTS’ free public education programming. Affiliate Members are operationally elevated and efficiently connected to resources and management services to achieve a financially sustainable future and raise awareness of their important history in our region through HEARTS’ unique place-based programming. Affiliate service options range from ala carte services to a full array of back-office operational and hands-on site support with custom-designed fundraising and volunteer management that meets every site or organization's unique needs and goals. Affiliates also have opportunities for greater reach through economies of scale in marketing and development, all aimed at increasing preservation, public awareness, and appreciation of our shared history.

HEARTS works directly with its’ Affiliate Members for customized solutions that best serve the Affiliates’ mission and goals. This may be a one-time project, full-administrative oversight, or anything in between that will assist in achieving the Affiliate’s goals by efficiently enabling:

  • Financial sustainability through measurable growth in community awareness, financial outcomes, and operational goal achievement.

  • Creative programming and events that draws new guests, encourages community engagement, excites new visitors, and entertains .

  • The understanding of the history and culture of HEARTS Affiliate Members through HEARTS’ free community programming, school field trips, public and private group tours, community service opportunities, internships and apprenticeships, facility rentals, and more.

  • The sharing of knowledge and information within and between HEARTS-adjacent sites and organizations.

  • Access to resources such as guidebooks, videos, podcasts, lectures, workshops, best practices, funding, tax credits, preservation and conservation easements, and to regional, state and federal programs.

HEARTS operates as a comprehensive umbrella of operations, marketing and event management offering economies of scale through our available Affiliate services, such as:

  • Strategic goal implementation and supervision.

  • Nonprofit legal entity determination and fillings.

  • Conservation, preservation, and restoration initiative implementation and management.

  • Bookkeeping and other back-office financial services.

  • Site and facilities management.

  • Staff and/or volunteer recruitment, training, and supervision management.

  • General fundraising and donation management.

  • Sponsorship solicitation and sponsor benefit management.

  • Membership, newsletter, blog, etc. development and maintenance.

  • Grantwriting and grant cycle tracking for preservation, education, exploration, program development, etc.

  • Historical or ecological preservation easement application and supervision.

  • Distribution of federal and/or state funds to support community preservation needs.

  • Nonprofit or site program development and management.

  • Special event planning and organization.

  • Centralized event scheduling to achieve efficiencies with participants, vendors, sponsors, and public safety resources.

  • Business and administrative technology management.

  • Public relations, marketing, and advertising initiative development, implementation, and management.

  • Digital, social media, and other web currency platform management including QR codes, photographic, video, audio, and information content.

  • Access to research, documentation, the HEARTS Artifact Database.

  • Inclusion on the HEARTS website, a centralized state-of-the-art searchable public platform, with a featured subpage that includes information and graphic content as well as links to direct domains, social media pages, and other publicly accessible Affiliate Member information.

Discover how HEARTS can assist your historic site or organization with reaching its strategic missions and goals!

HEARTS Definitions:

Affiliates – Organizations, historical buildings, properties, or sites qualified to receive and utilize HEARTS services though our own administrative staff and our collaborative networks.

Collections – Featured HEARTS-related organizations, people, places, and pieces of the Catawba Valley region.

Members – Members of the HEARTS Collaborative who support the HEARTS mission and vision, our programming, and our continued outreach to help save and share the special local places in our region.

Contributors – Anyone providing professional advisory and/or technical assistance to HEARTS by participating in our research initiatives, facilitating our Affiliate services, and/or through our HEARTS event programming.