CINCINNATI, Ohio— Earlier this month the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation known as 3CDC helped match $250,000 in gift cards for small businesses in the downtown Cincinnati area. And now, they’re doing a second round of gift card matches, this time to help women and minority-owned small businesses.
- The program will give a full match to all retailers and service providers and a 50% match to restaurants and bars
- The matched gift card will be to a woman or minority-owned business.
- In order to get your matched gift card, you must submit your receipt online
Downtown Cincinnati is full of small businesses. But many of them are struggling to get by. That’s where 3CDC comes in- they’re encouraging people to buy gift cards, they’ll match that gift card purchase with a gift card from a minority or woman-owned business.
In Over the Rhine, Vine street is filled with restaurants and boutiques, now closed because of the stay at home order. 3CDC has helped these businesses in its now second round of gift card matching. Last time the majority of gift cards were purchased for bars and restaurants. So this time around, they put their effort in making sure retailers and service providers get a full match while bars and restaurants get a 50% match.
“Not only will we focus our efforts a little more on that side, but also on minority and women owned businesses," Joe Rudemiller the VP of Marketing and Communications with 3CDC said. "To make sure that really we’re spreading all of this wealth to as many businesses as we can.”
$175,000 will be matched through purchases made on Tuesday. And the matches will all go to minority and women owned businesses.
“Hopefully it opens your eyes so you can experience a new business who you may have never heard of before," Rudemiller said.
For Carolyn Deininger, owner of two retail businesses in OTR, this program will be a major help.
“We’re all going to face an uphill battle here when things get opened up again," Deininger said. "And the minority and woman owned businesses, it’s so great to have that message out there that we all need help.”
Deininger says she’s sold half of last year’s total in gift cards in just two days at her store, Mica. She shares the extra support from 3CDC and its partners have given her and her husband hope.
“It’s so scary and you have no idea if you’re going to come through this," she said. "And then to have that support it just meant so much, it was such a boost to our spirits that maybe we have a fighting chance.”
3CDC says it still has money to give.
“At this point we’re up to $425,000," Rudemiller said. "We still have $100,000 out there to match.”
And despite the difficulties of making the program happen and making it level for all businesses to prosper, it’s all in the name of keeping these stores open.
“The urban core would not be what it is without all of these creative entrepreneurs," Rudemiller said. "And so we all have to do everything we can to make sure that they’re still around when we get through this. We have this vibrant downtown. We want to make sure we can keep it vibrant.”
This second round of the Cincy card connection ends on Tuesday. Click here for a full list of the participating businesses. Click here to submit your information to get your gift card match.