North Kingstown Chamber of Commerce

The North Kingstown Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1929 by several area business owners. The Chamber was originally created to meet the needs of the community, and to serve not only its’ members, but also the community at large. For instance, after the devastating hurricane of 1938 the Chamber played a key role in restoring the Town of North Kingstown.

As with all organizations the North Kingstown Chamber has transformed and adapted over its 80 years, both to fulfill the needs of the community and as its leadership has changed. The leadership is shared between an executive director and a 14 – 18 member active board of directors. Today our mission states that the North Kingstown Chamber of Commerce is a diverse group of business, professional, civic, and educational leaders who act on the needs and interests of the business community to make the area a better place to live and work. We fulfill this message by creating innovative programs that meet the needs of our members.

The North Kingstown Chamber provides many benefits to its members and welcomes non-members to participate, but membership has its privileges. Understanding that most members want exposure for their business we promote a member in our “Business Spotlight” feature in our twice monthly Standard Times page. For any member holding an event we will place that event on our Constant Contact e-newsletter as well as on our website. Special notices are also featured in our North East Independent insert on a quarterly basis. Each member is welcome to utilize a complimentary webpage on our website. For new members and new businesses we place a picture of the new member or ribbon cutting in our Standard Times page and in the North East Independent insert. All of our members are listed in our Chamber Resource Guide and Business Directory that are given out to residents, Chamber visitors, area businesses, non-profits, civic groups and people interested in moving to North Kingstown. Referrals are given to the numerous people calling and stopping by looking for assistance. We also offer job opportunity listings and commercial space listing on our website to all members. These are all services a business receives free with a membership.

The many talents of our Board of Directors are utilized by asking for their participation on our ten committees as well as attending functions such as our Businesses After Hours and our Breakfast Before Business events. Chamber members are welcome to join the Membership committee, the Program of Work committee, Government Affairs committee, Facilities committee and the Events committee.

Recently the Board of Directors has asked the Chamber to take a more active role in the business community and we have stepped up to the challenge. The Chamber took the lead role in educating business owners about the new sewer lines that have been laid on Post Road. The Executive Director represented business in a visioning group for the Routes 2 and 102 area of North Kingstown. The Chamber is also represented on the NK Economic Development Advisory Board by its executive director. The North Kingstown Chamber strives to be the collective voice for businesses in NK. We have taken a survey of our members and are responding to their needs by creating a Business Educating Business speaker series which will kick off in February.

As our original mission stated, we are here to meet the needs of the community as well as the businesses. We continue to achieve this today through our Visitors’ Center and through our 501(c) 3 organization, The NK Chamber Charitable Foundation. The Foundation held the outstanding and successful family oriented Harbour Fest in September at our newly renovated town beach. Through funds raised at this event, grants were given to organizations and two scholarships will be awarded to two North Kingstown students. Plans are currently being made for future events that the Foundation will sponsor. Community members as well as businesses are encouraged to take part in the Chamber Charitable Foundation.

The North Kingstown Chamber is committed to helping business in NK to grow and prosper. As a former NKHS Principal was famous for saying… We Are…NK. Students, community members and the Chamber carry this mantra forward.

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