The Fund for Our Economic Future has awarded $5.3 million in grants to six regional economic development organizations collaborating to improve Northeast Ohio's economic competiveness. The Fund has been awarding these year-long grants since 2004.

"Part of what we do through grant making is develop a system in Northeast Ohio that we know hits on things that work," says Brad Whitehead, president of the Fund. "The purpose is to advance the economic agenda in Northeast Ohio."

The Fund for Our Economic Future is a collaboration of more than 100 foundations, organizations and philanthropists from across Northeast Ohio that strengthens the region's economic competitiveness through grant making, public engagement and research.

The grant recipients are: BioEnterprise, JumpStart, MAGNET, Minority Business Accelerator 2.5+, NorTech, and Team NEO. "Collectively, these six organizations have strengthened Northeast Ohio's economy contributing more than 2,000 new jobs, $47 million in payroll and attracting $371 million in capital," explains David Abbott, chairman of the Fund and executive director of the George Gund Foundation.

These six organizations best represent and support industries that have great growth potential -- namely manufacturing in emerging markets.

"Early on we identified the areas in which we need to work on, and we've tried to have constancy in these organizations," says Whitehead. "For a long time people thought that because we're a manufacturing economy that that was a bad thing. What we're learning is Northeast Ohio manufacturing is still an important part of our economy. We're turning old growth manufacturing into new growth products. Manufacturing is cool again."