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Ginkgo vs. District360: Two Platforms Built for Managing Downtown Districts — But Built Very Differently

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Running a downtown district takes more than visualizing where things are — it takes knowing what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what to do about it.

That’s where most platforms split.

Ginkgo does a great job mapping your district — from business locations to public assets to QR-based service requests.

But District360 goes deeper. It’s built to manage the entire operational lifecycle of a district — from service requests to board dashboards, stakeholder engagement, and economic reporting — all backed by a support team that functions like an extension of your own.

In this breakdown, we’ll show where both platforms align — and where District360 pulls ahead when your district needs more than just maps.

See District360 in Action
  • Local Success Stories
  • Tailored Use Cases
  • Integration & Migration Synergies
Schedule a Demo

Side-by-Side Summary

Category District360 Ginkgo
Property Management Houses all property details like assessments, vacancies, ownership & management contacts, tenant businesses, square footage, and Tracks basic insights like vacancies, assessments, and business units
Service Request Management Has a mobile App to identify, delegate & address service requests on the go Has mobile app + QR-based request flows, to assign and resolve
Stakeholder Management Provides complete engagement timeline: board & committee management, tenant and vendor and other stakeholder contacts, membership lifecycle management, integration with marketing platforms Tracks memberships, boards, and contacts
Mapping Includes geofencing, heatmaps & clusters, ambassador routing, links to website, business directories Has strong mapping, geofencing, and visualizations
QR Capabilities Unlimited QR code generation for events, assets, check-ins, and business visibility Unlimited QR codes for service, engagement, and asset data
Reporting Salesforce-native dashboards across modules — properties, stakeholders, economic activity, service requests Structured data export, CSV-level reports
Additional Features + Integration Feature-rich to bring the entire organization into one operational platform, integrates with website & marketing platforms, and payment gateways Limited features & integration capabilities
Automation Fully customizable Salesforce flows for tasks, reminders, approvals, and escalation Supports service workflows and data flows
Support Model U.S.-based managed services team + onboarding + customer success & reporting help No formal managed services or admin support included

Two Philosophies: Data + Mapping vs. Data + Mapping + Support

Ginkgo: Data-first, mapping-native

Ginkgo isn’t just a mapping tool — it’s a structured data platform with excellent spatial visualization. You can:

  • Track property details, assessments, and vacancy
  • Organize memberships, board lists, and contact information
  • Embed public-facing maps for business directories and issue reporting
  • Use QR codes across assets and engagement points

Its biggest strength? Translating data into live, interactive visualizations.

District360: Built for execution, decision-making, and scaling across departments

District360 tracks the same core data — properties, requests, contacts — but leans heavily into operational and cross-departmental use cases as well:

  • Board-ready reports and stakeholder insights
  • Committee workflows, renewals, and voting terms
  • Economic impact dashboards
  • Tagging, segmentation, and automation that lightens your team’s daily workload

And it comes with an easy-to-access expert team behind it to help you clean data, build reports, and actually use the system, not just license it.

Pricing — Aligned View

Plan District360 Ginkgo
Base Pricing $1,800/year (Starter);
$3,600/year (Growth)
$1,800/year
(based on three users)
Pricing Model Flat subscription cost Per user cost
Nonprofit Bonus Salesforce licenses are free for 501(c)(3) eligible districts Not available

District360’s flat pricing lets you scale access across staff, board, vendors, or volunteers — no per-seat constraints.

Feature Comparison – What It Feels Like to Use These Platforms

Property Management

  • Ginkgo: Tracks units, assessments, vacancy, and business data in a structured way. Great for viewing properties geographically and organizing details in a list form.
  • District360: Adds operational context — ownership & management contacts, location on map, tenant businesses, square footage and available space details, and historical engagement, all filterable and taggable. It makes it easier to analyze trends and not just store data.

Service Request Workflow

  • Ginkgo: QR-based flow with form submission → internal assignment → status update. Map-based tracking makes spatial reporting intuitive.
  • District360: On-the-go submission with connected mobile app. Deeper delegation and resolution process — service requests can be identified, delegated, addressed, tracked by time-to-close, and filtered across status, zone, and type.

Stakeholder Management

  • Ginkgo: Tracks board members, program participation, and memberships with tagging and contact lists.
  • District360: Full stakeholder life cycle — committee terms, voting eligibility, engagement frequency, tenant turnover, engagement activities — all tied to roles and historic activity.

Reporting & Board Visibility

  • Ginkgo: Data exports are structured for Excel workflows. Light summary views are built in.
  • District360: Dashboards and filtered reports for properties, stakeholders, assessments, marketing, and board metrics — all in real time and export-ready.

Additional Features & Integration

  • Ginkgo: What you see is what you get. Limited features and integration capabilities.
  • District360: Features modules that offer management across the organization, from Major Initiatives to Events, Membership and donation lifecycle management, website integration, marketing platform integration, Board reporting, etc. Plus, if you want to work with our team to develop an innovative new functionality, we’re excited to partner with you to bring it to life!

Mapping & Visualization

  • Ginkgo: Strongest in this area — map overlays, GIS zones, embeddable public maps, real-time visualizations.
  • District360: Provides more operationally-driven visuals, such as ambassador path tracking, issue heat maps, and dynamic business directories with filters.

Support That Makes a Difference

This is where most platforms stop talking — because they can’t offer much beyond login credentials and a help doc.

Ginkgo gives you a structured system, but it’s on your team to handle the rest: data imports, building reports, managing users, cleaning records — all fall on internal bandwidth.

District360 includes access to a U.S.-based Managed Services Division — a team that acts like an extension of your organization’s staff.

They help with:

  • Data migration & cleanup — no manual imports or spreadsheets required
  • Custom report building — for your board, grants, or economic development needs
  • User roles & access setup — ensure board, staff, and vendors have the proper visibility
  • Workflow and tagging strategy — tailored to your district’s structure
  • On-demand help — for those “can you get me this report by tomorrow?” moments

And because they work your hours, you're not waiting overnight or navigating offshore support just to get basic admin help.

If your organization doesn’t have a Salesforce admin or technical ops lead, this team becomes that — no hiring required.

Built to Evolve With You

Platform Capability District360 Ginkgo
Custom modeling Fully flexible — add fields, objects (tabs), and automation Modular, but structured
API integrations Mailchimp, Eventbrite, QuickBooks, Block by Block, GIS, and more Website embeds, GIS-focused APIs
Scalability Grows with your org — from data to workflows to reporting Scales within the platform

Final Verdict: Which Platform Fits Your District’s Way of Working?

Ginkgo is powerful for Districts focused on mapping, QR-based engagement, and spatial visibility. It’s polished, visual, and well-suited for externally-facing data.

District360 is the right fit if your organization is:

  • Building board-level reports regularly
  • Tracking service requests end-to-end
  • Automating approvals, workflows, or renewals
  • Looking for a true team behind the platform
  • Managing complex stakeholder roles

In short, if you need more than just data visualized, and instead need data activated, District360 is the better operational system.

Want to See It for Yourself?

We’ve supported downtown districts and place management organizations across the U.S. who’ve outgrown rigid systems and spreadsheets, helping them modernize operations and reclaim time.

📅 Book a demo and we’ll show you how District360 fits your team — and grows with it.

See District360 in Action

  • Local Success Stories
  • Tailored Use Cases
  • Integration & Migration Synergies
Schedule a Demo