Building Community: Local First

The budding group of members experienced exponential growth, so, in 2007, four years after its inception, Local First hired Elissa Sengalli Hillary as director and acquired nonprofit status in order to begin fundraising. In just two years, Local First membership grew from 150 to over 500 locally owned businesses and was able to hire additional staff to assist Hillary in brainstorming new undertakings the organization could sustain.