Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) announced it has received a $20,000 grant from Lincoln Financial for the 2020 version of the Downtown Greensboro Summer Passport Program.
The Passport Program, which runs from June 1 to August 31, encourages people to shop, eat, drink and play downtown by awarding points to win prizes for different activities at participating venues.
The passport program began four years ago as an actual booklet, but converted to a digital format in 2019.
There are three digital passports within the DGI App in which people can participate: Shopping; Food & Drink; and Things to Do. And if you downloaded the App last year, it updates for 2020, so there is no need to download it again. Users complete a required task at each business to earn points. The required task might be posting a photo to social media or checking into a business. The user starts receiving prizes after amassing six points, and there are three prize level categories up to 20 points.
The prizes range from Koozies, to DGI T-shirts and, at the highest level, DGI water bottles. Those who make it to the water bottle level are entered into a drawing for the grand prize. In 2019, that was a weekend in downtown Greensboro, which included a night at the Hyatt Place hotel, Wrangler jeans, dinner, theater tickets and dessert at Cheesecakes by Alex. The grand prize for 2020 is a work in progress, but DGI promises that it will be even bigger and better than last year.
In 2019. more than 90 downtown businesses, including restaurants, shops and destinations such as the Greensboro Children’s Museum, participated in the program and more than 1,500 people downloaded the app.
DGI President Zack Matheny said, “We are thankful for the financial support from Lincoln Financial to continue the Digital Passport Program. The passport app has proven to be a fun interactive way to champion our locally-owned businesses.”
