What is a Chamber of Commerce?
A Chamber of Commerce is an organization of businesses operating as a non profit 501(c)6 organization. Chambers of Commerce seek to further their collective business interests while advancing the economic well being of their community, region state or nation. While a Chamber of Commerce works with the government, it is not a government entity. A chamber will often lobby the government at the local, state or national levels to ensure their legislative agenda gets represented. Chambers operate as individual organizations and do not receive any government funding. Today there are more than 4,000 Chambers and volunteer organizations in the USA advocating for a variety of issues from tax policies to legal and economic reform. There is also an International Chamber of Commerce, the ICC, with 45,000,000 members representing over 100 countries spanning every sector of private enterprise. While guiding principles for each Chamber of Commerce vary, many of their goals center around economic development, prosperity and employer community.
