No, the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce serves ALL businesses. Our 1,700-plus members represent over 500,000 employees, including all sizes and types of businesses throughout the region. Our large businesses help the Chamber by serving as our foundational members, allowing us to have the resources to better serve small business. You may be surprised to know that most of our members are actually small businesses! Over 70 percent of our membership is made up of businesses with an employee count of 50 members or less. Nine out of ten Chamber members run small to midsize enterprises. Serving all types of business is what we do every day!

If your business needs to market itself and grow, you CANNOT afford NOT to join. This is the perfect time to invest in your future. A base level membership for 1-9 employees only costs $355—that amounts to less than one dollar per day for the entire year. According to the Shapiro study, when consumers believe that a business is a Chamber member, they are 80 percent more likely to patronize your business. There is also a 73 percent increase in consumer awareness of your business and a 68 percent increase in its local reputation.

Do you pay taxes here, have kids that go to school here, drive on local roads or have employees that live in or near Lincoln? If you do, you are part of our community and have an inherent stake in Lincoln’s future. The Chamber works hard to advocate for improvements in not only the business community, but for the improved quality of life in our city too.

That’s the perfect reason to join! The Lincoln Chamber works hard to help you develop new contacts and make the business community aware of your arrival on the scene through raising awareness with members and potentially hosting a ribbon cutting/public relations event once you are ready. Chamber membership and sponsorship should be part of your budget to start growing brand awareness of your business in Lincoln.

Let’s face it, our busy lives lead us in many different directions with many different obligations. We promise that if you select the Chamber as the one organization to dedicate your energy to, there is no other organization like ours that leads Lincoln in representing your business interests and is with you each step of the way. Our 1,700 voices are stronger than any one voice could be. Let us be your voice and priority, you won’t regret it.

Naturally, as a business owner, we understand you’re busy. So, let us help you out! At the Chamber, we can work together and work for your business, so you don’t have to do it alone. Even if you don’t have time to support the Chamber, your financial support will help make the Chamber successful in its efforts to grow Lincoln and make our team and coalition successful. The Chamber also has great benefits, such as advocacy and member referrals that take no time to participate in, but you must be a member to receive them.

The Chamber is not asking for a contribution. Your financial investment in the Chamber provides you a service from our organization for our work on your behalf, advocating for your business as well as providing you opportunities to network, gain referrals and grow your business. Your investment is also 90 percent tax deductible as a business expense.  

We have all kinds of members. We have members who like to be “top of mind” and bring home business cards from each event they attend, plugged in and heavily engaged. We also have members who have little time to give or even attend our events. We work hard for those members as well because the Chamber is for businesses of all activity levels and always will be. Your membership is what you make of it and we hope you see the value in belonging to such a diverse group of people, businesses and networks across the city.

A critical part of the Chamber is our advocacy work. We fight each day to make sure business is thriving and that policies don’t adversely affect the business environment in our city. The Chamber prides itself on being a non-partisan partner and works with all groups in Lincoln. In an increasingly divisive political environment, the Chamber works with all elected officials at the local, state and federal levels to advance our main objective: making Lincoln the best place to do business. See some of our policy initiatives for 2019.

It comes down to dollars and cents. The Chamber’s activities should reduce your cost of doing business, leaving more dollars in your pocket. The Chamber connects you to new customers who will potentially buy your product and increase your business revenue. Join the Chamber and you will grow--we’d love to help you join and introduce you to our members!