New L.E.A.D. Executive Director looks to accentuate the positive and grow Lincoln’s economy through local collaborations

[August 20, 2021]  

In October of 2019, Lincoln Aldermen learned of a new organization that was forming with a focus on economic development in Lincoln, the Lincoln Economic Advancement and Development, Inc. (L.E.A.D.). The privately funded organization was formed with several well-known local business owners investing. The spokesperson at that city council meeting was Dr. David Gerlach accompanied by local business owner Chris Graue. Gerlach talked about the initial vision of the group and what they wanted to accomplish for the town. The group was not there to ask for money. What they wanted was to share their intentions and ask the city to bless their efforts to make our community stronger and better.

We heard about L.E.A.D. again in early 2021 in a press release announcing the hiring of Executive Director Andrea Runge. Dr. Gerlach stated, “As we began the process of organizing LEAD we determined that to succeed we would need to hire a seasoned professional as a full time chief executive officer. We conducted an extensive search looking for someone who would have the experience, drive and talent needed to lead the high caliber economic development organization we envisioned. Our search ultimately led us to Andrea and we were very fortunate to recruit her for this position.” Runge’s start date was set for March 16th, 2021.

Though she has only worked five months and lived in Lincoln for just over two months, Runge is no stranger to Lincoln.
 

She came to the L.E.A.D. after a 20 year stint with the Illinois Association of Community Action Agencies. She spent 18 years with the IACAA spin off corporation Illinois Ventures. Her time at Illinois Ventures along with her prior experience in banking gave her a strong understanding of banking and lending, and an appreciation for helping others to grow their opportunities.

While with Illinois Ventures, Runge enrolled in the Midwest Community Development Institute Master’s program, a product of Illinois Institute of Rural Affairs at Western University. Runge said that she enjoyed the studies and learned a great deal. She then applied for the position of Director of Community Development at IACAA and spent her last two years with the agency in that role.

In her 20 years with IACAA, Runge said she paid visits to Lincoln, meeting with those at the Central Illinois Community Action Partnership. From those visits she gathered her first impressions of the town. She found Lincoln to be a very warm and welcoming place where there was a lot of entrepreneurial spirit with businesses that were already thinking outside the box to develop their businesses.

Runge’s decision to leave IACAA came from a desire to do more. She said that at IACAA she worked with theory, but not practice. She wanted to go into a job that involved taking action and seeing results.

Knowing what she did already of Lincoln, and learning of the goals of the L.E.A.D., she said she knew that the executive director position would fulfill those personal goals of doing more to help communities grow.
 

Runge said that the first few months in Lincoln have involved a lot of paper. Starting the organization from the ground up she has had a lot of administrative duties to perform thus far, but has also been able to get out into the community and talk to the people and the businesses.

Runge is the sole employee of the organization, but she says that she thrives under those circumstances. She has enjoyed putting it all together, setting up the financial recording, developing fiscal policy and employment, and management policy and procedures have been a great exercise of her education and experience.

Runge said that she has worked more than 20 years with boards of directors and she finds her L.E.A.D. board “refreshing.” Runge said that they are building a great rapport. “This board is refreshing, because of their guidance and their trust. They are great at talking things through with me. I’m always very pleased with their attentiveness. When I interviewed with them they said they wanted to be ‘heads in and hands off’ and they have really followed through with that.”


She carries with her work an understanding of what her job is in Lincoln. She noted economic development is not a destination, it is a journey. “We can never rest. We can get to the point where we can celebrate. We can celebrate when we have successes. Sustainability is the sweet spot where we want to go. But in order for us to do that, we have to be agile, more energetic, and willing to make adjustments and pivots in order to be sustainable.”
 

Out in the community now, she is hearing a lot of questions about what she plans to do in Lincoln. She said her response is that there is no pre-designed plan. “I don’t have a prescriptive plan because to me, that is a sure fire way to fail. I want to listen, learn and then bring in thoughts as I see them being beneficial. And then, work as a community. I’m a firm believer that everyplace is unique and special because of that uniqueness. Everything Lincoln needs to be successful exists here. It is just a matter of us celebrating who we are. It’s about us being the best we can be. So that is not about me coming in and saying this is the best way to move forward. It much more collaborative than that. It’s listening and thinking together.”

Runge was excited to talk about her first grant win and how it will assist the community in that sustainability. L.E.A.D. is now a sub-grantee within the Small Business Navigator program. She said that she earned a grant that will enable her to invest time in first promoting the grant, and then assisting applicants in applying for available grants.

Runge will be the official “navigator” for the grant. The funding will assist her in doing metric studies, planning promotional events for other grants, marketing those grants, and doing door-to-door calls to assist local businesses in applying for grants.

She said the first grant she will be promoting is the Back to Business Grant that begins the middle part of August. At the point of her interview with LDN, she said that finite details of the Back to Business Grant had not yet been released, but what she does know is that it will be for those who can show financial losses comparing 2020 to 2019 pre-covid.

She also believes that in her role as navigator she will be able to follow the grant application once it is submitted. She can see if an application is experiencing difficulties in getting approved. As issues would arise, her role will be to help get those issues worked out and make the grant process easier for the applicant.
 

Runge was asked, "As a community, who are we? Are we a bedroom community that should promote commerce rather than industry, or does she see potential for industrial growth in Lincoln?

Runge said she didn’t think we should define ourselves either way because we have potential to grow as both within one unit.

“I think we have a lot of good things going on. I prefer to think of us as a 'micropolitan.' Where we are, and the size that we are, we are a place that other communities around us come for goods and services. Because we do have a population of people who chose to live here, we have the ability to offer some of those smaller town amenities. We are salt of the earth hard working people, so it is a good place for industry. We shouldn’t limit ourselves.”

Runge said the pandemic has also taught us that people can work from anywhere remotely. They can come to Lincoln and still work for a company not in town. For those people, they are looking for a particular lifestyle. “We have that lifestyle, a walkable downtown, things to do, good food, good coffee, good beer.”

Asked how do we bring new businesses downtown, Runge said that it would take a pulling together of people in the community to show Lincoln’s potential. She said there was a difference between development IN community and development OF community. She said that both were needed, but development OF community should be a big focus. It would involve pulling people together, working together to explore where the potential for new business exists and what needs to be done to draw that new business into town.

Runge said, “If a national chain would come to us and say they want to come to Lincoln, sure, we would do everything in our power to make that happen. But the other part of it is that we need to empower Lincoln to do these things for ourselves. Don’t wait for something to come in to change our trajectory. It’s about talking to people, finding out what they are passionate about and then connecting that to a business idea.”
 

Runge went on to say that we want to grow our entrepreneurs. She said that when we have hometown people building their businesses in the community where they were raised, they have an even greater sense of ownership and the community has a greater sense of loyalty.

Runge said that while the first few months of service in Lincoln have been “administrative heavy” she is also working to get out into the community and get to know various groups and organizations. She noted she would be attending a meeting of the newly formed Logan County Professionals Network that is a spin off from the former Young Professionals Network that was a part of the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce. She has been attending “Ask Me Anything” meetings on Saturday mornings at Guest House that were organized by Ethan Hoinacki, Michael Gowin and Laura Myers of Bloomington. She’s paid visits to Heartland Community College and talked about collaborative activities with the school. She has attended meetings of the Small Business Coalition formed by Community Action.

She has also has met with a number of the Lincoln Aldermen. With each one, she has asked the same four questions. “What makes Lincoln great? What is our biggest obstacle? How do I go about building trust, considering there have been other initiatives that did not succeed? And finally, how do I help you?" She says those are the building blocks of learning for me.

Runge said that what we have that is one of our greatest assets is our service oriented downtown businesses, where customers are people, not just credit cards.

One thing that Runge would like for everyone to understand is where their money goes or stays depending on where they spend that money. “Thirty percent more of every dollar spent in a local restaurant or local business is circulated back into the local economy versus a box store. If you spend $100 online, $1 dollar is circulated back into your community if your order is delivered by a local driver. If the driver is not local, then none of that money comes back to your community.”
 

Runge said she had addressed the Land of Lincoln CEO students and had shared those statistics. She said that for them she wanted them to understand that when they become a local entrepreneur they are benefiting from their local community and the community is benefiting from them. At the same time, she wanted them to understand that as a business, they will want to source locally as well. Keep the business in the community and keep the dollars in the hands of our citizens is the lesson she wanted them to understand.

Runge was asked if there were any things that she could point at and say “I did that.”

Her first response was the Business Navigator grant. To pull that off for Lincoln was a big thing.

She said she has also helped a business that is planning to come to town make the right decision between Lincoln and another city. She is hopeful that everything will continue to move smoothly along and that business will be up and running in the future.

She said the connections she has made thus far are a big plus along with the relationships she is building. In summary she said she’s doing quite a bit that she can be proud of, though she considers it all to be “maybe not sparkle, but substance.”

Finally, Runge was asked if there was anything in particular that she would like to say to the community and to LDN readers. She paused a moment, then moved forward with a very candid answer.
 

“I understand that there is a history here that I am working against. What I tell everyone is that I cannot control how I am perceived, only how I am presented. I really want what is best for Lincoln. And when I look at what is best for Lincoln, I look not just with a business focus or just a social focus, but in a way that strikes some kind of tone that is best for all of Lincoln. Like I said, we make Lincoln great. We have to be willing for it to take time. We need to project our warmth and hospitality that someplace else cannot. It has to be a movement, it can’t just be me. It has to be all of us working together.”

[Nila Smith]

Visit the L.E.A.D. website at thriveinlincoln.org

Contact information:

Lincoln Economic Advancement & Development, Inc.
Andrea Runge
[e-mail]
217-836-4999

Past related stories

Local CEO’s take the L.E.A.D. on economic development in Lincoln


LEAD Takes Shape with Formal Launch and New CEO
Local Economic Development Group Hires Experienced Professional Andrea Runge