COLUMBUS – The Ohio Business Roundtable (OBRT) has launched the Ohio Grants Alliance (OGA), an initiative of OBRT in collaboration with Ohio’s regional business associations, that aims to research, identify and promote competitive grant opportunities to Ohio’s business, educational, charitable, and economic development communities in order to make Ohio more competitive. In addition, OGA will support applications and help win more grants that transform all of Ohio’s communities.
OGA’s founding partners include Ohio Business Roundtable, Cincinnati Business Committee, Greater Cleveland Partnership, Columbus Partnership, Appalachian Partnership, Dayton Development Coalition, and the Regional Growth Partnership. Michael McLean, former Vice President of Policy for OBRT, will serve as OGA’s Executive Director.
“The Ohio Grants Alliance was created to help unite the business community and our regional partners around this historic opportunity to bring down federal dollars to transform our state ” said Pat Tiberi, President & CEO of the Roundtable. “We want to create visibility around grant opportunities, and convene and coordinate the private sector by forming cross-regional coalitions, heightening awareness of what is required to win, and supporting applications that contribute to the economic growth of our state.”
Federal legislation passed in the last two years has the potential of creating transformational change across the country. The opportunity for Ohio is to be able to take on and complete infrastructure and technology projects that will strengthen the state’s economy and lay the base for decades of enhanced prosperity. Because of the magnitude of the projects and investments to be made, federal grant makers are expected to strongly favor applications that are private-sector driven, and that have broad, committed support of businesses, universities, local and state governments, economic development organizations, and major non-profits, including charitable non-profits.
“Working with our regional partners across the state, we want to give Ohio’s business, education and economic development communities a competitive edge by providing the organization and structure to give Ohio-based grant applications the best chance of success,” said Michael McLean, Executive Director of OGA.
To seize the opportunity presented by the unprecedented federal programs, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, a group of leading Ohio business organizations have collaborated to form the Ohio Grants Alliance (OGA) to serve as a resource to potential grant applicants. OGA will identify and promote grant opportunities, convene coalition partners, facilitate cross-regional coalitions, provide subject matter expertise, obtain up-to-date intelligence on the preferences of federal agencies making grants, and generally serve as a promoter of Ohio applications. OGA’s goal is to maximize benefit to Ohio from the federal grant programs by making Ohio applications the best they can be.