Study Says Philanthropy Adds Billions of Dollars to Metro Detroit’s Economy
New Economy Initiative says its grants created 17,000 jobs since 2007.
A new study says philanthropy has had an almost $3 billion impact on Metro Detroit’s economy over the last nine years. The New Economy Initiative, which started in 2007, gets support from 12 local and national foundations. Since then, the group has awarded more than $96 million in grants to entrepreneurs in Southeast Michigan. PricewaterhouseCoopers and the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research analyzed the effects of those grants. They found businesses supported by NEI created more than 17,000 jobs and $2.9 billion in real economic output. Initiative Director Pamela Lewis tells WDET’s Pat Batcheller that’s the amount of revenue new companies have put into the local economy. Lewis says 70 percent of the new jobs were in Wayne County, and 40 percent of the new businesses created are minority-owned. Click here to see the results of the study. Click on the audio player to hear the conversation.
