Civic Innovation Lab Sparks New Businesses, Organizations

The Civic Innovation Lab, a project of the Cleveland Foundation, is just one example of the kind of innovative, entrepreneurial activity that is taking place in our region.

This project provides funding to entrepreneurs – whether nonprofit or for-profit – to start a project that will foster economic development or address a civic need in Northeast Ohio.

Recently, Jennifer Thomas, the Executive Director of the Civic Innovation Lab, spoke with Crain’s Cleveland Business about the program’s successes and failures. Thomas deems about 25% of the projects that the Lab has funded to be successes, about 50% to be promising, and about 25% to be struggling. She says that this success rate is typical for entrepreneurs founding start-ups.

The 40+ projects that have received funding from the Civic Innovation Lab all have something in common – risk taking. That’s what it will take to reverse Northeast Ohio’s brain drain and to spark innovation in our region, and the Civic Innovation Lab is one example of a program that rewards risk taking.

For more information about the Civic Innovation Lab, please visit their website at www.civicinnovationlab.org.