The Business League and the Trade Associations

Mishawaka Business Association: business start July 23, 1961 (BBB record); 501(c)(6) ruling May 1989; state record active

Lead: Mishawaka's own business league is the Mishawaka Business Association Inc (EIN 35-1484900), and its dates run the full three-date discipline: the Better Business Bureau's file dates the business's start to July 23, 1961 — the association's own biography agrees, "formed in 1961 and revitalized in 2006" — while its 501(c)(6) ruling dates only to May 1989, and the state corporate record stands active, its business entity reports filed through July 2024. Its program, in its own Form 990-EZ words, is to "promote growing business environment in Mishawaka" and to "be a resource and advocate for association's members while supporting, facilitating and enhancing commercial opportunities in the city." Its scale is a membership corporation's, not a fund's: revenue of $39.7 thousand in its fiscal 2022 return, register assets of $17,678. Its current initiative is civic as much as commercial: Inspire Mishawaka, begun in January 2019 as the association's own program, works with Visit South Bend Mishawaka's Community Tourism Action Plan and the Indiana Main Street program on the commercial districts — the business league as downtown-revitalization vehicle, at postcard-filer size.

The register's (c)(6) row holds the valley's trade associations beside it, seated in Mishawaka while serving the county: the Home Builders Association of St. Joseph Valley Inc (ruling 1958; assets $182,679, revenue $368,420) and the St. Joseph Valley Association of Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors (ruling 1955; assets $1,703,060 — the largest business-league balance in the register). The boundary is the chamber: the county's chamber of commerce is a South Bend corporation, told in South Bend's file through its years as the South Bend–Mishawaka Area Chamber of Commerce — Mishawaka's merchants are served by a league of their own city and a chamber of the county's, and the register prints both seats without merging them.

Sources:

1. IRS Business Master File, Indiana extract, November 2026: Mishawaka Business Association Inc (EIN 35-1484900, (c)(6), ruling May 1989), Home Builders Association of St. Joseph Valley Inc, and St. Joseph Valley Assn of Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors rows.
2. Better Business Bureau profile, Mishawaka Business Association Inc (business started July 23, 1961; 320 W. Fourth Street); Indiana corporate record via OpenCorporates (company 193062-017, active; entity reports through July 26, 2024).
3. The association's own biography ("formed in 1961 and revitalized in 2006") and its Inspire Mishawaka partners page (mishawakabusiness.org); its Form 990-EZ program statement as compiled.