About Drake & Company

Founded in 1992, Drake & Company is a St. Louis-based, accredited association management company.

Drake & Company makes dreams fly by passionately providing vision, leadership and professional services to trade associations, membership organizations, foundations and companies.

DrakeCo specializes in full-service management services for a wide range of association clients with regional or national members or activities. DrakeCo has gained a reputation for proactive leadership and unequaled service for its clients. [ Company Resume ]

DrakeCo is a C-Corporation incorporated in the state of Missouri. Company revenues totaled $1.35 million in 2009.

Current workload
With a staff of 20 association professionals, DrakeCo currently manages nine regional, national and international associations.

• We support and manage association budgets ranging from $125,000 to $1.7 million.
• We manage $2 million weekly in cash, CDs and other investments.
• We recruit and retain members for associations ranging from 220 to 125,000 members.
• We maintain rigid internal and external vigilance of all accounting processes and fund management.
• We support more than 150 board meetings, conference calls and committee meetings.
• We manage nine conventions and conferences with attendance ranging from 75 to 1,100.
• We supervise one Washington, D.C. representation (lobbying) contract.
• We manage two industry promotion / marketing campaigns.
• We manage or supervise development and day-to-day activities of thirteen Web sites, blogs and social media networks.
• We produce two association magazines and more than a dozen printed and electronic newsletters.
• We implement fund-raising programs (including writing foundation grants) for three 501(c)(3) foundations. [ Top ]
  

Our Current Clients
Drake & Company provides full-service association management services to the following regional and national organizations:

• Alpha Zeta Foundation: a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation focused on leadership grants and scholarships for college students.
• American Academy on Communication in Healthcare: a 400-member 501(c)(3) organization focused on improving patient care through relationship-centered healthcare. AACH accomplishes this through education, research and advocacy.
• Christmas SPIRIT Foundation: the charitable branch of the National Christmas Tree Association, the Foundation advances the Christmas spirit for children, families and the environment.
• Country Living Association: a startup association for those living the country life; has reached 10,000 members in four months.
• Dairy Calf & Heifer Association: a national organization representing 500 growers, producers, industry and academics involved in raising premium dairy replacement heifers.
• Fraternity of Alpha Zeta: the nation’s oldest and largest professional honorary fraternity serving 2,000 students in 67 collegiate chapters. Founded in 1897, AZ has more than 100,000 alumni throughout the world.
• International Fruit Tree Association: a research-oriented, membership-based organization representing fruit tree growers around the world.
• MidStates Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association: a regional affiliate representing 200 retailers, distributors and manufacturers in Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and West Virginia.
• National Christmas Tree Association: an international organization representing more than 4,000 growers and retailers of Real Christmas Trees with a focus on education, marketing, research and government relations.

In addition, Drake & Company provides services for:

• Ag Media Summit: We manage the finances and coordinate the Steering Committee of this annual convention for members of three national associations. Attendance is about 400 editors, publishers and others in the media. [ Top ]
  

Innovative Thinking
Drake & Company is recognized for the innovations and creativity it brings to clients. In the course of the last 15 years, DrakeCo has facilitated the efforts of its clients to develop innovative solutions to challenges the association and/or profession. Here are four examples:

Ag Media Summit

• As CEO of the Ag Publishers Association, Steve Drake helped conceive of the concept for a combined conference of AAEA, LPC and APA. Steve worked for three years to bring the groups together to hold the initial Ag Publications Summit in 1999. Now incorporated as the Agricultural Media Summit, LLC, the AMS has become the largest single media conference in agriculture. Today, the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) and Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) hold their annual conferences in conjunction with AMS.

National Christmas Tree Association

• Facing intense pressures from differing elements of a single industry, DrakeCo facilitated strategic planning sessions and coordinated an outside market research consultant culminating in a new organizational structure. NCTA created four Premier Sections (one for each element of the industry) with separate benefits and memberships under the NCTA umbrella. In the initial year, 54% of the members joined one of the Premier Sections.
• On behalf of NCTA, we proposed the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, a charitable branch designed to advance the spirit of Christmas for children, families and the environment. And, recruited FedEx to sponsor a major Trees for Troops program.

Country Living Association

• Monitored trends and research in the rural living market and began developing concepts for an association as early as 2005. At about the same time, Teresa Hinrichs was moving forward with the same concepts. We joined efforts and launched the Country Living Association (CLA) in late 2006 with Teresa as the majority owner and DrakeCo as its association management company. In first four months, we have recruiting four major corporate sponsors and generated more 8,000 members.

Alpha Zeta

• Less than three years prior to its Centennial, AZ contracted with DrakeCo for full service management and asked for concepts for its celebration. Drake facilitated planning that led to an $85,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the creation of the AZ Centennial Honor Roll and a new Summit on Food, Fiber and the Environment jointly hosted by AZ, APA, Foundation E.A.R.T.H. and others.

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