The Initiators: Scott Hunsicker

Photos by Emma Highfill, Rose Wheat Photography

On April Fool’s Day, Scott Hunsicker, owner and president of Kansas Financial Resources, called several local businesses offering to buy $3,000 to $5,000 in $50 gift cards. Fortunately for incredulous business owners, the magnanimous gesture was no joke.

Following stay-at-home orders in response to widespread concerns about the physical dangers of COVID-19, Hunsicker and his friend Lance Sparks, president of Market Synergy Group Inc., sought a way to help struggling small businesses whose client base had been immediately and indefinitely cut off.

HOST 1 LIFTS OFF

They decided to buy $50 gift cards to eateries and other service businesses and then give them to workers displaced by the pandemic for a twofold benefit through HOST (Helping Others Support Topeka).

“We thought this would be a great way to help businesses with their cash flow and create more customer traffic for the future because people who received the gift cards would be encouraged to not only redeem the gift card but to go back to the business again and again,” said Hunsicker. “Advertising is expensive, and this program guaranteed businesses that we’d be putting people in their establishments once the stay-at- home order lifted.”

The two friends were confident about their ability to recruit other individuals andbusinesses in the community to contribute toward the effort. Hunsicker took the lead in enlisting the expertise of the Greater Topeka Partnership to administer the program through its 501c3 status, coordinate the logistics of gift card distribution and secure a funding match.

“Initially, we thought we could raise $200,000, but we passed that number pretty quickly,” said Hunsicker. “I told Matt Pivarnik, CEO of the Greater Topeka Partnership, that I thought we could raise $1 million.”

HOST 2 ACTIVATES

Soon after, the Joint Economic Development Organization and
GO Topeka provided $1 million in matching public funds to be disbursed through a grant program, HOST 2, to help alleviate the pandemic’s economic stressors on small businesses.

As of the end of July 2020, Hunsicker and Sparks had raised $710,000 in private funds. So far, $663,000 has been used to purchase 14,000 $50 gift cards to locally owned businesses like Blind Tiger, Chuckburger, Rees Fruit Farm, Milk & Honey and Connie’s Corner Café in Dover.

“When I showed up to pick up gift cards or drop them off, people were completely overwhelmed by the community’s generosity during a really tough time,” he said. “It was eerie to enter formerly busy businesses now empty and see chairs and bar stools upside down on tables.”

Hunsicker said some small businesses, including Hazel Hill, donated gift cards to the effort themselves, foregoing the HOST program’s sizable cash contribution because they knew of other struggling entrepreneurs who needed the money more.

BUSINESSES RISE UP

“We have unbelievable business owners in our community,” said Hunsicker. “Whenever a business said there was someone else who could benefit, we put those establishments on our list. The goodwill this program generated continued to grow.”

Displaced workers received a bundle of five $50 gift cards obtained from 180 different businesses from every sector of the city, ranging from hair salons and automotive service providers to restaurants and coffee shops.

“Everybody’s been hurting through the pandemic, but while a lot of us could work from home, photographers, fitness trainers and florists had their doors locked,” said Hunsicker. “And even now that restrictions have been lifted, the occupancy rate of some businesses has been cut by 50 percent to accommodate social distancing requirements.”

In addition to helping businesses pay their bills, HOST funds were also used to provide dinners for 250 frontline healthcare workers at the University of Kansas Health System St. Francis and Stormont Vail Health. Gift cards totaling $150,000 were distributed to Shawnee County staff working for police and fire departments, the sheriff ’s office and ambulance services too.

“These employees not only didn’t have an option to stay home, they’ve been in the thick of things during the pandemic,” Hunsicker said.

Although his first foray into fundraising resulted in regional media coverage and positive public relations for Shawnee County, Hunsicker said he’s “not looking for an encore.”

“I’m in the financial services business and I don’t like calling my customers to ask for money,” he said. “I’m just really grateful that we had so many people and companies come forward, including a family who donated $100,000. Shawnee County set a high bar and for years to come a lot of other parts of the country will be looking at our example.”

WIN TOGETHER

Self-employed since 1983, Hunsicker’s lifelong affinity for small businesses began at a young age. His grandfather started McElroy’s, a plumbing, heating and air conditioning company.

“I understand what it takes to run a small business here and the importance of helping those who help you,” he said. “Topeka may not be the country’s leading center for some things, but when it comes to values,
we have a definite advantage. I always say, ‘We lose by ourselves, but we win together.’ Support of the HOST program proves that.”