On Monday, April 16, the board of directors of the Springfield Business and Development Corporation unanimously elected to retain the services of Resource Development Group (RDG), a Columbus, Ohio-based economic development consulting firm, to manage the Partnership for Prosperity II capital campaign.

RDG has more than 100 years of collective experience building some of the strongest,most well-funded economic development programs in the country. The firm recently provided the SBDC board of directors a comprehensive assessment which included key findings related to organizational, program and funding recommendations.

SBDC's first ever five-year economic development initiative, Partnership for Prosperity (2003-2007) is slated to end on December 31 of this year. In meeting the key success measures of the first campaign (i.e. workforce growth, increases in per capita income) and closing in on the new capital investment objective, the SBDC board of directors' decision to move forward on a second five-year initiative will, we believe, continue the tremendous momentum our region is experiencing in community and economic development!