Appalachian Council of Governments | Economic Development

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT

ACOG supports regional economic development in a variety of ways: (1) Planning, (2) Grants, (3) GIS-based marketing and analysis through its flagship program, InfoMentum, and (4) through its professional affiliation with the Appalachian Development Corporation, a certified SBA and USDA loan intermediary.

Economic Development Planning

Economic Development Planning involves not only developing and updating the Regional Five-Year Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS 2018-2022), but also providing communities with support on Business Retention and Expansion analysis (BRE), downtown development, planning to encourage entrepreneurship, tax increment finance (TIF) planning, and revitalization planning.

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Economic Development Grant Writing

Economic Development Grant Writing is provided by the Grants Services Program. Local governments and economic development organizations utilize Grant Services to apply for funding which helps enhance infrastructure and capacity. Commonly pursued funding sources include the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), the Community Development Block Grant program (CDBG), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA).

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InfoMentum

Whether promoting a site, a building, or an entire community, economic developers and strategic planners require the best information quickly. InfoMentum provides investors with the ability to pull radius or drive time reports, area demographic and market profiles, and generate maps with your organization's logo. A custom-designed property search tool embedded into your organization's website. The GIS-based mapping and data tools of ACOG's InfoMentum program give investing organizations a competitive advantage to support capital investment, job creation, and overall community enhancement.

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The Appalachian Development Corporation (ADC)

The ADC is an affiliated partner with ACOG through its management of State and Federal Revolving Loan Funds. ADC is a non-profit economic development lending corporation which specializes in "gap financing" for small business using a variety of public loan guaranty sources in order to help create jobs in the region. ADC works hand-in-hand with banks in order to package small business loans that are partially backed by agencies like SBA and USDA. ADC is a certified Small Business Administration (SBA) lender and an approved originator for the USDA B&I Loan program.

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