The Cleveland Foundation

As a recent outgrowth of its mission to enhance the lives of all residents of Greater Cleveland, the United States' oldest and second-largest community foundation, the Cleveland Foundation, is encouraging international businesses to establish a presence in Cleveland. The Foundation Center asked Cleveland Foundation President and CEO Ronald B. Richard:

Based on your experience in working to help globalize Cleveland, what advice can you offer your fellow U.S. grantmakers — particularly those with a local focus — about how their efforts can benefit from international partnerships?

"You may be surprised to hear that Greater Cleveland had more than 2,700 high-tech jobs available in May this year because of a lack of high-skilled workers — and that's just in the areas of computers and related technology, not in other high-tech fields such as medicine and materials. By pursuing the globalization of our city, the Cleveland Foundation hopes that we can assist our local companies, increase the city's tax base, and help grow and diversify our population so that we have a more exciting and dynamic cultural mix in Cleveland.

"The Cleveland Foundation has been a strong advocate for Cleveland's globalization, and we are pursuing it in all areas of our work, from raising educational standards to promoting cultural exchanges to stimulating economic development. We support local economic driver organizations, including Team NEO and Global Cleveland, in attracting international businesses, in helping local businesses expand in international markets, and in attracting highly skilled foreign workers and students to locate here.

"In this day and age, I believe even local, place-based foundations such as community foundations need to have globalization as a major component of their work for so many reasons. International outreach adds to communities' arts and culture; promotes valuable scientific exchanges among institutions, hospitals, and universities; fosters the exchange of business and high-tech knowledge between local companies and foreign nations; and promotes the hiring of brilliant staff members from abroad to interject new and creative thinking into their foundations or institutions. I believe that if Cleveland is to grow and prosper, it will only do so as a global city. I think all cities can say the same."