Real change starts with a plan.

Downtown 365 is a six-week online program that helps small-town leaders, business owners, and community advocates move beyond talking about what’s possible and start building a practical plan for their communities. Learn at your own pace through on-demand lessons, with optional live sessions to connect, ask questions, and work alongside others. Join the waitlist to be the first to know when enrollment opens, get early access to the program, and receive practical resources to help your town get started.

You don't need to be an elected official, economic development professional, or business owner to participate. You just need to care about your town and be willing to do the work.

Launching Oct. 12, 2026

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$250 per town team

One payment covers up to five participants in our founding cohort.

Over six weeks, you'll work through 12 on-demand lessons, six real-world case studies, and practical assignments and tools focused on your own community. You'll also have access to three optional live sessions to ask questions, connect with other participants, and work through challenges together. By the end, you'll have a clearer understanding of your town, a collection of useful assessments and maps, and a practical action plan you can take back to your community.

What we'll cover

Understand what's actually happening in your town

Learn how to assess your downtown's strengths, identify gaps in its business mix, examine foot traffic, and understand what business owners and residents actually need. You'll start with a clearer picture of where your town stands today.

Make better use of the spaces you already have

Explore why buildings sit empty, how gaps between businesses affect foot traffic, and what makes a downtown useful throughout the week. Learn how to identify opportunities for vacant properties, new businesses, and more productive use of existing spaces.

Get the right people working together

Learn how to bring business owners, chambers, local government, property owners, and residents into the conversation. We'll look at how to build partnerships, create shared responsibility, and move beyond relying on the same handful of volunteers.

Understand the policies shaping your downtown

Explore how zoning, permitting, property conditions, incentives, and local decision-making affect small businesses. Learn how to identify barriers, research potential solutions, and approach local leaders with specific, constructive recommendations.

Build a plan your community can actually use

Bring everything together into a Downtown 365 action plan with clear priorities, potential partners, next steps, and ways to measure progress. You'll leave knowing what your community can start doing now and what will require longer-term collaboration.

Tools you'll receive

Downtown Gap Analysis Map

Identify missing businesses, services, amenities, and connections that could make your downtown more useful to residents and visitors.

Vacant Property & Space Inventory

Document vacant buildings, underused properties, ownership information, and potential opportunities for bringing spaces back into productive use.

Foot Traffic & Usefulness Audit

Assess how people move through your downtown and narrow down what might encourage people to spend more time there.

Stakeholder & Community Asset Map

Identify the people, organizations, businesses, and existing resources that could help move your town forward.

Local Policy & Barrier Assessment

Examine potential obstacles affecting small businesses and property owners, and organize your findings into questions and recommendations for local leaders.

Community Conversation Guides

Get practical questions and meeting templates for productive conversations with business owners, chambers, city officials, and property owners.

Downtown 365 Action Plan Template

Bring your findings together, establish priorities, assign responsibilities, and create a roadmap for what happens after the course ends.

Live sessions (optional, recorded)

Week 1: The Kickoff

We'll walk through the Downtown 365 Framework, discuss what you're hoping to accomplish, and help you get started with your town's initial assessment. You'll also meet other participants and learn how to make the most of the next six weeks.

Week 4: The Midpoint Check-In

By now, you'll have started uncovering opportunities and challenges in your own town. We'll discuss what you're finding, work through common obstacles, answer questions, and help you determine where to focus your efforts as you begin developing your action plan.

Week 6: The Final Session

We'll bring everything together, discuss your action plans, and talk through what comes next. You'll have an opportunity to share what you've learned, hear how other communities approached similar challenges, and identify your first steps after the program.

Practical Resources

Get the tools, templates, and guidance you need to start making progress in your town.

Early Access

Be the first to know when Downtown 365 enrollment opens and secure your spot in our founding cohort.

Build Together

Bring up to five people from your town through the program and work together on a plan you can actually put into action.