This town really is big enough for the two of them.

Two historical preservation nonprofits, that is.

The Preservation Society of Nashville officially launched Wednesday. Its leaders stressed the importance of advocacy and education to the work of historic preservation in Nashville.

Preserving historic buildings in Nashville has long been the work of Historic Nashville Inc, a nonprofit organization powered by volunteers. Historic Nashville uses legally-binding façade easement agreements to incentivize adaptive reuse and preservation of historically significant buildings in town, like the former YWCA building, recently remodeled to be multi-family housing.

Historic Nashville also maintains an advocacy arm with the annual Nashville Nine, a list of historically significant buildings at risk of demolition or decay.

“We deeply respect the work of (Historic Nashville, Inc.) and their legacy in Nashville," co-founder Kelleigh Bannen said. "From a missional perspective, we have a lot in common."

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But the Preservation Society of Nashville plans to hire and maintain a full-time staff solely dedicated to the historic preservation of neighborhoods and buildings. Founders of the nonprofit on Wednesday said they have raised $300,000 of their $1 million fundraising goal. That money will go to hiring staff and launching programming.

"I think the necessary component is having people who are doing the work every single day," co-founder Colson Horton said. "This town is large enough to have as many hands on deck as possible."

Horton said one of the tools she would like to see explored is increased historic neighborhood overlays, which is a city zoning tool used to mandate historic preservation of entire neighborhoods. The 2nd Avenue and Lower Broadway districts are two of the most well-known existing historic overlay districts in Nashville.

"If we can gather leaders in every community, we can raise their voices before it's too late for a building or neighborhood," Horton said.

Board of Directors for the new nonprofit organization include co-founders Bannen and Horton as well as Nick Birren, Gary Burke, Nick Dryden, Rachel Halvorson, Lynn Maddox, Keith Meacham, Sam Reed, Mark Simmons, Cyril Stewart, Brian Tibbs, Mary Ann Weprin and Holly Williams.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Historic preservation nonprofit launches with focus on advocacy