How Eureka Main Street Made the Case for SeeMyLegacy and Won

The clearest before-and-after is volunteer coordination. What used to take a six-hour shift to staff now takes one to two hours

That time and cost savings is easy to explain to a board or a skeptical peer, because the price is small next to what it replaces.

Eureka also draws on SeeMyLegacy's network of other Main Streets and communities for ideas, borrowing campaign formats that have already worked elsewhere.

Once campaigns were live, Eureka started hearing from people who'd never been on their radar. One sponsor set up a recurring $10 monthly gift on his own, without ever being asked directly.

Breaking the Fourth of July event into scheduled volunteer time slots made it easier for people to say yes to a smaller commitment, and automated reminders meant nobody had to be chased down the day of.

For Eureka's annual meeting, the team could finally see, in real time, who had signed up.

Getting the board on board meant leading with value, not cost. Amanda built her pitch around Eureka's 2026 goal of growing revenue, and framed SeeMyLegacy as one of the systems that would help get there. She pointed to the platform's track record with Main Streets nationwide, noting it had caught the attention of major supporters of small towns, including Coca-Cola, and walked the board through exactly what would move online: vendor sign-ups, volunteer time slots, sponsor payments and future opportunities, and waivers collected right at the point of registration.

She was direct about what that would save. Chasing down vendors, sponsors, and volunteers, and the back-and-forth communication that came with it, had been eating significant time. A dedicated rep would build the system to Eureka's own branding, and a limited-time subscription rate created a clear reason to act rather than wait for the next scheduled board meeting. The board approved it by email vote, unanimously.

Part of that pitch was naming the real cost of doing things the old way, including how much of the organization's volunteer work was falling on their executive director. Without the volunteer help they needed, Amanda and her family stepped up to make sure the events ran smoothly. Now, they have plenty of volunteers to help make their programs a success.

Before SeeMyLegacy, institutional knowledge lived in spreadsheets, inboxes, and whoever ran the event last time. When a volunteer or board member moved on, sponsor lists and vendor contacts often went with them, and every initiative risked starting from scratch.

Now, that history stays put. The whole team can see who has supported them before and what worked, so sponsor, vendor, and volunteer relationships carry forward from one event to the next instead of resetting every time.

That continuity is what turns a single successful event into a repeatable one. Instead of starting over each year, Eureka builds on what it already knows.