By Scott Miller
smiller@scbiznews.com
Published Jan. 20, 2010

The Greater Greenville Chamber of Commerce today asked businesses to support a $4 million campaign to fund a five-year initiative aimed at raising the per-capita income in Greenville County.

The five-year initiative, called Accelerate, is an expansion of many functions the Chamber already performs. Through Accelerate, the Chamber wants to increase its legislative advocacy efforts, its education-related endeavors and its efforts in assisting startup companies at the Next Innovation Center in downtown Greenville.

“Yes, the chamber has been doing some of this, but with such limited resources,” said Chamber President and CEO Ben Haskew.

To support Accelerate, the chamber may increase its staff, particularly at the Next Innovation Center, which currently has one person, Haskew said. No final determinations on staff hiring have been made, he said.

The chamber developed Accelerate with the input of 60 business and community leaders.

So far, 27 investors have pledged $1.5 million. Haskew hopes to raise the remaining funds by March. While pledges have been accepted since November, the chamber introduced the Accelerate campaign publicly this morning at a breakfast at the Poinsett Club in Greenville.

Accelerate is a response to Greenville County’s decreasing income competitiveness relative to the rest of the nation, the chamber said.

Advancement in per capita income in Greenville County has not kept pace with the rest of the nation and it has cost the region $1.3 billion in spendable income annually, Haskew said.

Accelerate hopes to raise per capita income in three ways:

• By improving business soil conditions through an increase in the chamber’s legislative advocacy efforts and support of local initiatives to advance the development of downtown Greenville and assist the attraction of a low-cost airline to the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, among other measures. The chamber wants to invest $1.45 million in this piece of the Accelerate program.
• By working with local employers to help attract talent and by developing talent through increased involvement at K-12 schools, University Center and Greenville Technical College. The chamber plans to invest $1.1 million in this area.
• And by assisting the development of startup companies by increasing staffing and involvement at the Next Innovation Center in downtown Greenville and the Clemson University Advanced Materials Research Center in Anderson, among other efforts. The chamber wants to invest $1.1 million in this effort.

The chamber intends to use the remaining $350,000 of the $4 million to be raised on strengthening its operations.

Haskew said an oversight committee of investors will be created to measure program progress and ensure a return on the investment in Accelerate.

For more on the program, visit www.accelerategreenville.com.