Welcome … to Ithaca, New York, USA

Preserving the Roots of Community
Through Legacy Business Stewardship

Impact Ithaca is a bold and innovative civic initiative designed to celebrate and preserve Ithaca’s identity-not just in land and real estate, but in the impact and legacies of its small businesses.

Just as land trust protects forests and farmland from being lost to development, and a land bank restores aging properties to serve modem community purposes, Impact Ithaca brings that preservation ethic and best practices to something just as essential but often overlooked: long established “legacy” businesses – 25 years older or more, which often are the backbone of local economies.

From independent bookstores and neighborhood bakeries to cultural anchors like the Ithaca Times, these businesses are more than just employers and taxpayers. They are community institutions, built over decades by local founders whose vision and sweat equity shaped Ithaca’s character.

However, many of these founders are reaching retirement age and, without a clear succession plan, their life’s work is at risk of disappearing. Nationally, this wave of “silver tsunami” retirements is one of the greatest threats to local economic ecosystems. In Ithaca, the stakes are deeply personal: each closing leaves a hole in the civic fabric, a loss of community culture, and often, a void left dark.

Impact Ithaca Exists to Help Businesses
Continue Forward Into the Future

This initiative acts as a kind of “community trust for local enterprise.” It helps business owners pass the baton of leadership to a new generation-whether through employee ownership, nonprofit conversion, next-generation family leadership, or a team led by new civic-minded entrepreneurs.

Where traditional development sees profit potential, Impact Ithaca envisions stewardship and asks:

    • What businesses hold a story that belongs to the community?

    • What institutions have been “quiet civic anchors” that deserve preservation and renewal?

The first wave of Impact Ithaca projects will focus on these legacy business transitions – starting with the Ithaca Times and its sister publications which can be preserved and sustained as both empowering nonprofit storytelling platforms and a public-facing engine for civic engagement.

Long term, Impact Ithaca may become a model for other towns and regions-a locally rooted framework for intergenerational wealth transfer, community ownership, and preservation of the cultural and creative commons.

Impact Ithaca isn’t just about saving small businesses-it preserves place, civic memory, and possibility of maintaining local identity, while also giving younger generations the opportunity to become cultural stewards of legacy businesses and the local economy in their own hometown.

Legacy businesses, including local journalism, are critical civic and cultural infrastructure assets. Just like water systems or public schools, a trusted local newspaper connects people to the decisions, resources, and community opportunities that shape their lives. Impact Ithaca, preserves the Ithaca Times and its sibling publications as a critical hub for storytelling, dialogue, and unity.

Why is the Ithaca Times
a Perfect Legacy Flagship Project

  • Trusted Infrastructure
    • News is essential to civic life. Branding the newspaper as a cultural anchor aligns directly with Impact Ithaca’s mission.
  • Fast, Visible Progress
    • Membership tiers, editorial campaigns, and public forums create quick, community-visible wins that show momentum.
  • Built-In Engagement Engine
    • Town halls, school programs, and local reporting tum the newspaper into the public face of civic collaboration.
  • Scalable, Replicable Model
    • This transformation offers a template to preserve other local assets-like libraries or food co-ops-to evolve into partnership with the public.

  •  

  •  

  •  

Strategic Goals

    • Rebuild local trust with a nonprofit, membership-based newsroom

    • Launch co-branded creative content aligned with key community priorities

    • Host live events and forums under the Impact Ithaca Presents banner

    • Develop youth media programs and civic journalism training

    • Produce an annual State of the Community report in collaboration with partners

Key Messaging

    • “A community powered by facts and trust. “

    • “Our newsroom, your neighborhood.”

    • “Impact Ithaca begins with a shared understanding. “

Next Steps

    • Launch a pilot public education initiative under the Impact Ithaca brand

    • Co-sponsor town halls and community events

    • Form a Community Advisory Panel to guide collaboration and visibility

    • Secure lead funding and early civic partners

Contact Us

    • For All Inquiries, Please Contact the Ithaca Project Coordinator using the form below.
  •