The Case for Rural: Portsmouth, Ohio
Portsmouth was selected to be a part of the Rural Innovation Initiative’s 2020 Development Cohort, a technical assistance program run by the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) and its sister organization Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc.
Last year, CORI worked with the SSU Kricker Innovation Hub to connect with community leaders and business owners in the region. Through those connections, CORI was able to put together a case study which examines how our rural community can strategically leverage diverse sources of funding to support the staffing, programming, and physical space necessary to build out a tech-based economy ecosystem.
In Portsmouth, CORI found that central ecosystem leaders garnered funding from a variety of sources in their efforts to finance staff, space, and programming, and did so using several key strategies:
Developing a clear vision and knowing its funders
Taking advantage of capacity-building opportunities
Assessing how different funders play different roles for the community