A nonprofit established to use state and local resources to improve Martinsville’s uptown is at risk of losing its status due to numerous problems.
Martinsville’s Uptown Partnership recently “split ways” with five board members and its executive director — and lost more than $100,000 of annual funding. Now, Virginia Main Street is detailing problems with the partnership including a lack of annual reports, social media presence and structure.
The partnership is spending its reserve funds to stay afloat as it faces questions on issues, including whether the organization used artificial intelligence to quickly create documents to try to meet a state deadline, according to emails obtained by Cardinal News. The problems come, too, as officials discuss the need to find ways to bring vacant and dilapidated uptown buildings back to use through entities such as the partnership.
The Uptown Partnership acts as Martinsville’s local Main Street program. Virginia Main Street brings together communities that seek to revitalize their downtown areas and has three tiers: exploring, mobilizing and advancing. The organization has awarded facade grants to uptown businesses and worked on community projects like the Wall Street alleyway.
Uptown Partnership received the state’s “advancing” designation in late 2024 — making Martinsville one of 35 communities in Virginia to be part of that highest tier.
The designation brings a wide range of opportunities and resources including grants, professional development, networking opportunities and promotional benefits. It also requires more in-depth reporting to the national and state organizations — Main Street America and Virginia Main Street, which is housed under the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.
Uptown Partnership did not receive national accreditation through Main Street America during its 2025 assessment, according to documents obtained by Cardinal News.
Zachary Whitlow, Uptown Partnership’s program administrator with Virginia Main Street, said the “most likely scenario” is that the organization will not receive accreditation again in its 2026 assessment, according to a Sept. 11 email.
If a local program does not receive national accreditation for two consecutive years, then the organization loses its advancing designation, according to the 2025 program guidelines. If a program is unable to meet the accreditation standards, the organization, Virginia Main Street and the local government will agree upon a remedial action plan, according to the guidelines.
Whitlow and the Uptown Partnership board will talk about its future at the end of January, said Courtney Mailey, the Virginia Main Street state coordinator. Remediation options have not been presented yet, because it’s “too soon for that,” she said.
“There’s no doubt about Martinsville being able to retain the designation,” said Daniel Galyon, Uptown’s board chairman. “We have been assured not only do we have a path forward, we’re on that path.”
Partnership loses local funding
The city of Martinsville and the Harvest Foundation both stopped funding Uptown Partnership this year — totaling a loss of more than $100,000 annually. The partnership’s budget was about $272,000 in 2025, according to Virginia Main Street documents.
The Harvest Foundation’s funding — $650,000 in two, three-year grants — ended on March 31, said DeWitt House, its vice president of community investments. (Disclosure: The Harvest Foundation is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.)
House declined to share details about the grant or the relationship with Uptown Partnership, citing the foundation’s confidentiality policy.
After losing that funding, the partnership’s then-director, Spencer Koger, went to Rob Fincher, the city manager, to ask the city to supplement the lost funding. Koger emailed Fincher on April 23 about that, according to emails obtained by Cardinal News. Instead of offsetting the funding loss, the city decided to completely eliminate funding for the organization.
The city had previously funded $15,000 annually to Uptown Partnership — one of the lowest city donations to a local Main Street organization, according to Virginia Main Street documents obtained by Cardinal News.
In his email to Koger, Fincher cited a difficult budget year with massive budget cuts.
“If they’re not getting funding from elsewhere, we shouldn’t be funding it either,” Fincher said in an interview with Cardinal News.
Fincher said the organization likely won’t be in operation without funding from the Harvest Foundation, so since the city can’t increase funding to fill the gap, officials decided not to fund it at all.
Fincher said he has heard that there are great opportunities and resources through Virginia Main Street and knows there is potential, but the city hasn’t seen any progress or proof.
“It might be a really great program,” Fincher said. “People might have a tainted view because we haven’t seen the benefit in the past.”
Uptown Partnership looks to rebuild presence, reputation and trust in the community, Galyon said.
The partnership is using its operational reserves right now, Galyon said. He did not say how much money remains.
“We’ve decided to, you know, scale down our organization a little bit,” Galyon said.
The need for funds looks different now, Galyon said, since the organization is operating solely on volunteers.
‘Back to the basics’
Amid the loss of funding, the partnership also did not meet two of nine baseline requirements and was insufficient in four accreditation standards, according to Virginia Main Street’s 2025 annual assessment and designation report.
Whitlow, the program administrator, detailed issues and potential paths forward for the organization in emails obtained by Cardinal News through an open records request.
The partnership has not had a comprehensive work plan that has been used to “meaningfully guide programming and priorities,” Whitlow said in an Oct. 6 email.
A review of the partnership’s 2024-25 work plan showed that 15 items had not been started, six were in progress and 10 were completed.
Whitlow also said he had been asking for a 2026 work plan and several other documents for “some time,” and when he received them, he said he “had concerns that they appeared to have been developed fairly quickly (AI) to satisfy the requirements rather than being documents that had been developed, adopted and actively used by the organization,” according to the email.
Galyon said the partnership has not been told about any deficiency in reports. Galyon, along with other board members, were copied on Whitlow’s email, according to a copy obtained by Cardinal News.
Whitlow said an argument could be made that two other baseline requirements were not met as well. He requested more structure in the partnership’s monthly economic development data reporting, and pointed out the organization’s lack of social media presence and communication, including an absence in annual reports.
“These are only some of the areas that need attention, but they illustrate where I believe the organization should begin,” Whitlow wrote in an email. “Any future remediation plan or continued technical assistance should really focus on getting back to the basics.”
If the partnership does not receive accreditation again, Whitlow said he thinks the organization can work toward regaining the advancing designation if committed to the process.
“Our team is more than capable of tackling the list of items that they have for us,” Galyon said.
Whitlow wrote that he has attempted to facilitate a work planning session with the board but has been unsuccessful in getting enough board participation.
“We’re in constant communication with them to make sure that what we’re doing is complying,” Galyon said. “We have the dedicated volunteers on board to get it done, and we will get it done.”
Moving to a lower tier would mean that the partnership would lose $50,000 in annual grant opportunities and any Virginia Main Street branding, as well as extensive guidance that Uptown Partnership currently receives from the state.
“We won’t lose that [advancing designation],” said board member Elizabeth Carter Bailey. “And if we did, if we got bumped and we had to start over, we know the process of starting over. We’re not worried.”
Mailey, the Main Street state coordinator, said the exploring tier would be easy to obtain and sustain if the board decided to no longer be part of the advancing tier.
“We enjoy working with people in Martinsville and have a lot of optimism about the future, and we hope that the community can come together and do the things that it takes to stay designated in the future,” Mailey said.
The partnership discussed working with other local organizations, like the city’s economic development authority, Galyon said, but the organization decided it is confident in its ability to maintain the advancing designation without going outside the organization.
“Given the recent leadership transition, our organization believed it was important for Uptown Partnership to slow down, focus on defining our own unique identity,” Galyon said. He said it is looking forward to having a collaborative relationship with organizations in Martinsville.
Changes in organizational structure
Koger’s last day as partnership director was Sept. 11. Koger was not fired, Galyon said, it was “a conversation” about how to move forward.
“It wasn’t an easy decision. We recognized that Spencer’s been with our organization for a long time,” Galyon said. “But we realized that our focus needs to be more about how we can meet the needs of our community and meet the needs of DHCD. So that’s why the organization made a decision in September to do a change in leadership.”
The partnership is required to have a full-time executive director, which Virginia Main Street will consider met if a director is in place for at least six months of the year — meaning it will need a full-time executive director by July 1, 2027.
“Not having a director for a month is not a deal breaker for us,” Mailey said. “It’s when you don’t have someone in place for six months or more during the accreditation window.”
Mailey said that is when Virginia Main Street would initiate “a serious conversation.”
In the meantime, Leutisha Galloway is volunteering as the interim executive director. Galloway has been on the partnership board since the organization’s inception in 2019, she said.
Galloway said she will be in the position until February at least.
“So I have been attending monthly uptown business meetings, working to reestablish meeting cadence with our community partners,” Galloway said. “Becoming, like, the uptown area’s cheerleader.”
Galloway said she’ll be doing a Facebook Live to highlight businesses and bring more people to Uptown. Social media presence was a concern that Whitlow detailed in his Oct. 16 email. Aside from a press release announcing that Koger is no longer with the organization, the last post was in December 2025.
Galyon said that the group needed someone in the role now to help facilitate and “get things done.” They chose Galloway because of her longstanding ties with the organization.
The partnership board has lost the five members in the past few months, Bailey said. There are currently eight board members, with a maximum of 13.
“The resignations that we received were just that they felt like it was time for them to move on,” Galyon said. “We have more than enough board members to meet the upcoming requirements to serve the city of Martinsville.”
Galyon said the board is reassessing the needs of the organization, including plans to hire an executive director and add more board members.
“That’s going to be a determination that we’re going to assess as we go, making sure that we can stay in compliance with the Main Street organization,” Galyon said.
Koger did not respond to a message left by Cardinal News. Attempts to reach any of the five previous board members were unsuccessful.
Martinsville has lost the designation before
The advancing Main Street designation was held by Martinsville Uptown — a nonprofit organization until it was taken over by the Chamber of Commerce and that designation was lost.
Laura Bowles was the director of Martinsville Uptown from 2010-13, before leaving the state for her spouse’s job, and therefore having to leave the job. While she was there, the chamber had proposed taking over Martinsville Uptown, but that didn’t happen at the time.
While Bowles was at Martinsville Uptown with the advancing designation, she said the group was able to start the farmer’s market, revive Oktoberfest and improve business facades.
After Bowles left, she said, Martinsville Uptown was taken over by the chamber. Her assistant director moved to the chamber with Martinsville Uptown but was fired a few months later, Bowles said.
The organization then lost the advancing designation around 2018, she said.
Uptown Partnership was created in 2020 as a nonprofit dedicated to the growth, development and revitalization of uptown, which it calls “the heart of Martinsville.”
“Our organization is committed to continuing on the mission that started six years ago to continue to help this community to do what’s best for the community, to support uptown,” said Galyon, the board chairman. “We’re willing to do whatever it takes to get it done.”
