Downtown New Bedford, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization representing all downtown stakeholders: property owners, business people and residents. Our goal is to make the heart of our city an economically healthy, welcoming, vibrant place to work, live, shop, dine and visit. We promote this goal in a number of ways:

• We present a collective and unified voice to communicate with city government and other entities regarding Downtown problems and concerns.  
• Through our Downtown Loan Program we assist new and expanding business in securing loans at attractive rates. 
• We provide less experienced entrepreneurs with free technical support services. Our Board Member Consultants represent a total of more than 250 years of business experience they are eager to share. 
• Our Public Safety Committee hosts a weekly Downtown Safety Meeting at which our Downtown Community Police officers report on safety-related events of the previous week and discuss concerns brought to the meeting by members of the Downtown public.
  
• The Safety Committee publishes a weekly email “Safety Update” and distributes it to nearly 500 subscribers.
  
• We sponsor a number of special events, including “Taste Our SouthCoast” and the “New Bedford Seaport Chowder Festival.” These two festivals alone bring more than 6,000 people a year into the Downtown, many for the first time. We believe that everyone who attends an event of this type and leaves with a positive impression is likely to return to shop, dine and visit our attractions.
  
• We maintain an active web site that promotes Downtown’s many assets and an extensive data base that allows us to quickly and effectively promulgate information of importance to our fellow Downtowners.
  
• Please click here to read our quarterly newsletter, The Downtown Beat.