About The Fund

The Fund for Our Economic Future ("The Fund”) is a collaboration of philanthropy in Northeast Ohio formed in 2004 to help transform the region's economy through grantmaking, research and civic engagement.

As a collaboration, the Fund's members direct its strategy and management. Leadership and loaned staff from member organizations work with the Fund's staff to implement its strategy.

The Fund is in the second, three-year phase of its collaboration. In Phase 2 it is focused on working with its private and public sector partners to implement Advance Northeast Ohio, the region's economic action plan. You can learn more about the plan at www.advancenortheastohio.org.

Phase 1 Outcomes

Since 2004, the Fund’s work has contributed significantly to three meaningful changes in Northeast Ohio.

1. Regionalism Taking Root
The Fund’s success at bringing together parties from 16 counties to work on economic development has created a spirit of regionalism in Northeast Ohio. We see it particularly in the government and business sectors. For example, our region’s mayors are exploring tax revenue sharing and our chamber heads are meeting regularly and in April they launched our first regional marketing campaign.

2. Healthy Entrepreneurial Environment
According to Entrepreneur Magazine, there wasn’t a worse place in America in 2002 to be an entrepreneur than right here in Northeast Ohio.  Thanks to a lot of hard work, we’ve moved from dead last (61^st) to 23^rd place. Between 2004 and 2006, about 100 companies raised at least $500 million in capital, mostly coming from out-of-town firms. Several of those out-of-town capital firms opened offices in Northeast Ohio. JumpStart is among the 10 most active venture firms, according to the July 2007 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.

3. Global Growth Industries Emerging
We are leveraging the region’s historical strengths in such areas as health care, advanced materials and energy and propulsion to grow new industries. For example, our health care sector is booming. Health care companies raised more than $200 million in venture dollars in the first half of 2007. Northeast Ohio has attracted three fuel cell companies to take advantage of the state’s cutting-edge research and commercialization efforts. At Kent State several companies are collaborating on the next generation of flexible liquid crystal displays at a new industrial park on the university’s campus.