In an unheard-of display of public admonishment, the Geneva Chamber of Commerce board treasurer warned the City Council Tuesday, Jan. 20, that its festivals were at risk without a financial commitment from the city.

According to its 990 tax filing as a 501(c)6 in 2024, the chamber’s total revenue was more than $1.7 million in 2023. But for 2024, its revenue was $1.26 million, $463,868 less. Also according to its 990 tax filing for 2024, the chamber spent $488,908 more than it took in, with expenses of $1.6 million.

The nonprofit ProPublica compiled the tax filing from raw data, as the IRS lists the latest chamber returns from 2022.

“I don’t really look at tax returns as being an accurate reflection of the truth,” Chamber Board President Michael Olesen said in an interview. He didn’t attend the meeting.

To put it in perspective, Olesen said the tax documents do not include the city’s services of police, fire and electricity that support the festivals, nor is the chamber staff’s work accounted for in 990 forms.

“We lost a bunch of money that year,” Olesen said of the revenue loss between 2023 and 2024. “These festivals are just expensive to do. ... The tax forms don’t necessarily reflect the reality of what is going on. That is just a plain fact of tax forms.”

He said 2022 was a more balanced year, 2021 was impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2020, the revenue was better.

“But that’s because part of our revenue would have been from 2019 from the city to help pay for advertising,” Olesen said.

“Business is tough. It’s tough everywhere. The days of getting sponsors lining up are gone,” Olesen said. “Every day you’re out there, it’s a scratch.”

Olesen said the city did not give the chamber anything in 2024. The only extra money it had for advertising in 2024 was $50,000 unspent from a previous year, he said.

“Without the city services, without the cooperation, the partnership with the city of Geneva, there is no way these festivals could be put on to the benefit of the community as a whole,” Olesen said.

In 2024, the City Council approved using the 5% hotel-motel tax with the Aurora Area Visitors and Convention Bureau and the chamber. The tax is for promoting tourism.

Chamber treasurer Susan Huang took the city to task Tuesday over the lack of financial support.

“The fests – large and small – require hundreds of hours of planning and implementation and not to mention thousands of dollars to actually execute them,” Huang said. “Festivals require funds to remain sustainable. We thank the city for your festival sponsorship last year, which was really critical for us.”

The city was the presenting sponsor in 2025 with $50,000, she said.

The chamber hosts four major festivals a year – Swedish Days, Geneva Arts Fair, Festival of the Vine and Christmas Walk & House Tour – and smaller events, such as Restaurant Week and Cocoa and Chocolate Crawl.

“The assets, our festivals, need to be protected. The reality is, that we are operating in a tighter environment. We see the city resources being stretched thin. And the chamber reserves are beginning to fade. What will happen to our festivals?” Huang said.

Lack of funding in the last few years has contributed to the chamber’s revenue decrease and its inability to host festivals in the same way as in the past, Huang said.

“We are at a crossroads,” Huang said.

Huang said later that her comments should not be interpreted as meaning that there wouldn’t be festivals without city funding – but that the chamber needs to know how much it will have to spend to promote them.

“We need support from the city to do promotional advertising,” Huang said.

She acknowledged that outside of direct funding, the city supports all its festivals by providing street closures, police, security and fire protection and access to electricity.

Huang, Olesen and Chamber President Paula Schmidt all would not say what dollar amount the chamber wanted from the city.

The chamber has other sources of revenue, such as sponsorships, Olesen said.

According to the 2024 tax filing, Swedish Days alone costs $572,024 to host and revenue was $291,430.

Olesen said the chamber’s internal documents show the real cost is closer to $633,000 to put on Swedish Days.

Revenue comes to the chamber from the carnival and the craft beer tent. The revenue covers all expenses from the bands to the tents to the parade.

“Sometimes we make a profit and sometimes we don’t,” Olesen said.

Olesen, Mayor Kevin Burns, city staff and members of the chamber board plan to meet Thursday, Jan. 29 to discuss what level of support the city would provide.

“We’re going to outline what we feel we need to help make the four festivals successful this coming year,” Olesen said.

“When I sit down with Kevin ... Thursday, do I have a number that I’m going to offer him? Yes,” Olesen said. “I’m certain he has a number that he’s going to offer me. And I’m certain that we’re going to come to a number in the middle – you know – that we agree on.”

The City Council and Burns don’t usually respond to public comments at meetings, and Burns declined to comment for this story.

Olesen said the Geneva Chamber is fortunate because it’s not totally dependent on sponsorships, memberships or festival revenue.

“But if you have a bad year or COVID comes along and they shut you down, or you have a rain-out that happened one Festival of the Vine – we’re not sitting on huge reserves," Olesen said. “I would always love to have more money in the bank.”