Asheville, North Carolina Business Coalition Announces Results of Nov/Dec Hurricane Relief Efforts
18 local businesses collectively donated $48k+ in cash/in-kind donations, 530+ in volunteer hours and raised over $30k+ in additional donations.
Eighteen local businesses joined forces for the 1% for Asheville initiative, pledging to donate 1% (or more) of their November/December 2024 revenues to Hurricane Helene relief efforts. Their combined efforts made a substantial impact on the community's recovery.
Key Results:
Over $48,000 donated in cash and in-kind contributions.
Over $30,000 raised in additional donations.
Over 530 volunteer hours contributed.
These funds and efforts provided crucial resources such as food, water, hazmat gear, and rent assistance. They also supported local businesses, schools, artists, and overall community recovery.
Multiply Our ImpactWe invite you to multiply our impact by making follow-up contributions to the organizations listed below.
Organizations Benefitting from 1% for Asheville:
Direct support was also made to help fellow local businesses, including:
1% for Asheville Businesses Donated Over 530 Volunteer Hours, including:
Packing holiday tea for Asheville Tea Company
Volunteering at the Black Mountain Tailgate Market
Organizing the WNC Fermentation Festival
Donating acupuncture treatments to first responders
Distributing flour to local bakers for community meals
Community Response Highlights Asheville's Unique Business Ecosystem
The response to Hurricane Helene revealed the deeply interconnected nature of Asheville's business community, where traditional business categories blur and mutual support is the norm.Two aspects of this ecosystem stood out particularly: the seamless blend of arts and entrepreneurship, and the way local businesses leveraged their community knowledge to help fellow businesses recover.
Arts & Entrepreneurship
The initiative highlighted the connection between arts and entrepreneurship in Asheville.
“As someone whose first passion is art, I knew I wanted to focus my contribution on supporting Asheville’s vibrant creative community,” says Sabrina Hill, founder of Spice Witch. “Supporting ArtsAVL Emergency Relief Grant felt like a natural fit, as it not only helps individual artists recover but also ensures that Asheville’s cultural heartbeat continues to thrive.”
Sunlight Tax founder Hannah Cole is an artist as well and saw her studio on the Swannanoa River destroyed. She reached out to the supporters of Sunlight Tax for help and raised about $30,000 to pass on directly to affected local artists.“I'm not done yet,” says Hannah. “I am also donating 100% of the proceeds from my tax workshops in January and February to the Asheville Area Arts Council artist relief grants, and to the Mountain Bizworks/WNC Strong fund for small business grant reliefs.”
“Our donations went to our longtime conservation partner, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation to help them reopen the Parkway in time for springtime traffic,” says Benjamin Walls of the Benjamin Walls Gallery. “The Blue Ridge Parkway is not only a major draw for tourism and economy to Asheville and surrounding communities, it's also a key part of our regional identity.”
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Local networks played a crucial role in the relief efforts.
While the outpouring of outside donations to our community has been essential, welcome and appreciated, the choices by the 1% for Asheville business leads show that local networks and insight can give strategic donations of time, grit and generosity a bigger impact.
As a longtime pillar of the local fermented food community, Fermenti focused on supporting the farmers, food and craft producers in the WNC fermented foods community.They raised a fund that now stands at over $2k to distribute directly to businesses in need and contributed hundreds of hours of work to bring the annual WNC Fermentation Festival back on schedule despite Helene.Asheville is a town of festivals, but it was this niche food event that led the way back to normalcy by pulling off the annual event as a space for the fermentation community to come together in mutual support.
Sourhouse normally sells tools for sourdough home bakers, but in November they organized a series of Bake For Your Neighbors pop-ups to give away ingredients to sourdough bakers with the invitation to bake bread for a neighbor in need.“The sourdough baking community in Asheville knows the comfort a fresh loaf of bread can bring to someone in distress,” says Erik Fabian, co-founder of Sourhouse. “Giving local bakers over 300 lbs of locally-milled Farm & Sparrow flour turns that flour into twice as many loaves and moments of connection in our community.”
Mary Tantillo, founder of Dolci di Maria, sent donations to the Buncombe County Schools Foundation, to supply relief to students and their families who have suffered from the impacts of Hurricane Helene.“Money will help administrators purchase what staff and students truly need, not only during this emergency but for the months to come,” says Mary Tantillo, founder of Dolci di Maria. “My own sons went through Buncombe County Schools from K-12, and I am grateful for all the caring educators that taught them.”
Caring for first responders and our community came in many forms including Asheville Orthopedic Acupuncture, who donated over 50 partial or full acupuncture treatments to first responders, business owners, and community members in need of support for trauma, “bucket shoulder”, back pain, arm pain from chainsaw use, shock, despair, grief, and other care needs.
Multiply Our ImpactWe invite you to multiply our impact by making follow-up contributions to the organizations listed above.
1% for Asheville Members
Dear Friends & Neighbors,In response to the devastation that Hurricane Helene brought to our community, we are businesses pledging 1% (or more) of our sales from November and December of 2024 to relief efforts in Asheville and the Western North Carolina region.Our home has long captured the world's imagination with its beauty, history, and charm. Now, we're showing another side of our character: our grit, our generosity, and our unwavering spirit.Through these investments in our neighbors, our neighborhoods, our land, and our economy, we take another step toward rebuilding. Together, we will restore the vibrant community that makes these mountains magical.#MountainStrong
signed:
Erik Fabian & Jennifer Yoko Olson, SourhouseSarah Ubertaccio, q.b. CucinaNathan Phillips, YallaJami Daniels, Brightbell Virtual ReceptionistCelia Naranjo, Asheville GoodsAshleigh & Jared Fillinger, Common Housefly
Sabrina Hill, Spice WitchSarah Wickers, Well Seasoned TableSamara Price, Brew NaturalsBarb Skupien, Embellish AshevilleNicole DiDio Johnson & Chad Johnson
Asheville Orthopedic Acupuncture | Moxa HouseNatalie Dechiara Gilbert
Wild Goods
Hannah Cole, Sunlight TaxMeg Chamberlain, FermentiSamm Coffin, Matcha NudeMary Tantillo, Dolci di MariaPatrick McMahon, Affordable BeddingBenjamin Walls, Benjamin Walls Gallery
Together We Are StrongerPlease join us in our commitment to rebuild Asheville and our mountain communities.As local business owners, we live and work alongside those most affected. This allows us to do something unique: rather than support a single charity, we can direct resources exactly where they're needed most, when they're needed most. Our deep roots in this community guide every dollar we invest in recovery.We know from experience that news cycles are short, and Helene's impact on our region risks becoming yesterday's story. But we refuse to let that happen. By working together, we keep our community's needs in focus and inspire others with our shared journey of recovery. After all, the most powerful stories are the ones we write together.Our Commitment
1% (or more) of November and December sales donated as funding to recovery efforts (of your choice) in Asheville and the surrounding Western North Carolina communities.
Sharing a recap and documentation of your support by January 5th 2025 so we can tell the story of our collective impact.
How We Will Support Each Other
Mutual support of telling the story of our commitment and its impact through our various communication channels (social, PR, website, etc).
Permission to use the 1% for AVL logo on our websites to signify our commitment.
A peer group for sharing resources and needs as we try to help our community.
Money is only part of the solution but it is needed and our customers want a way to make their holiday spending be a bit more impactful.With your commitment we will take one more step towards helping our home recover.
Join Us