The Routt County Economic Development Partnership for the first time will embark on a fundraising campaign as it looks to diversify income sources to support its mission.

John Bristol, RCEDP’s executive director, discussed the new move last week.

“We weren’t quite in the position to do it before, but now we have started by participating in Colorado Gives Day and are certainly continuing to keep going so that folks are able to donate if they’re interested,” he said.

The partnership drives innovation in the Yampa Valley, prioritizing quality of life and long-term economic sustainability. It is committed to community-driven economic development supporting industry diversification and quality jobs through entrepreneurship and business retention and expansion.

“We’re focused on community and have driven economic development across all of the county. And what that means for us is we’re fostering a stable local economy through industry diversification,” Bristol said.

The organization offers free and confidential business counseling services for both new and existing small businesses through the Yampa Valley Entrepreneur Center and recently launched the High Country Accelerator, a new and innovative collaboration between Startup Colorado, Summit Economic Partnership and the Routt County Economic Partnership to support entrepreneurs and startups across the Yampa Valley.

In December, the partnership hosted the High Country Accelerator Demo Day, which shined the spotlight on promising business ideas and celebrated the achievements of the accelerator’s latest cohort of entrepreneurs. During the Demo Day startup, companies from Routt and Summit counties pitch their ventures in front of a live audience.

“In the past we’ve had the business plan competition, but we evolved this last year, and a cohort of new entrepreneurs went through the accelerator,” Bristol said. “There were nine presentations at Demo Day in early December.”

Bristol said RCEDP is a nonprofit funded through private-public partnerships supported by investments from public partners including local government entities, as well as private partners.

He added that he felt the time was right to start a fundraising campaign and that the new project will help the organization diversify its sources of income.

“I think we wanted to show success,” Bristol said. “From our outcomes over the last three years, we’ve been showing incremental success, and so I wanted to take our time before we opened up a fundraising campaign.”