The decades-long decline of northeastern Ohio’s economy had achieved a dimension described by the media as a “quiet crisis” by the turn of the 21st century. Determined to help the region mount an aggressive campaign to staunch the slow but steady loss of jobs, in 2002 the Cleveland Foundation initiated a broad-based discussion with business, political and philanthropic leaders about how to promote business formulation and economic growth. Growing out of these consensus-building conversations was a remarkable commitment made in 2003 by 40 area philanthropies to join forces, pool their resources and launch the Fund for Our Economic Future to stimulate business creation and expansion.

Quickly expanding to 68 members, the fund raised $30 million to be used over three years to support new intermediaries promoting entrepreneurship, fostering new high-growth industry clusters and improving the region’s business attraction and support services. The Cleveland Foundation made a large-scale commitment of nearly $20 million to the fund’s first five years of operation and has remained a significant annual contributor to the largest  philanthropic collaboration of its kind in the United States.