Economic Development is a private, non-profit organization funded by private and public annual membership donations. As such, EDCO is not a department of local or state government, and does not receive any financial support from the State of Oregon.
EDCO attracts new, permanent primary jobs and capital investment to Central Oregon through marketing and recruitment, and also assists and supports the growth of existing businesses. Strategically, our efforts focus on primary employers in the manufacturing and technology sectors. EDCO works closely with organizations such as state agencies, local chambers of commerce, educational institutions, banks, real estate professionals, developers, resource providers, local municipalities and regional organizations to build the regional economy.
The organization’s current membership is over 300 members and is led by a volunteer board of directors and a dedicated staff.
To learn more about becoming an EDCO member, please click here.
EDCO strives to provide results-driven assistance that is specific and provides direct value in the client relocation or expansion process.
This assistance includes:
EDCO is actively involved in helping local manufacturers and technology businesses prosper. Assistance is timely, substantive, and specific to the needs of individual companies to address issues including access to capital, building and development, production efficiency, workforce training and sourcing, assistance with permitting and access to financial incentives. Strengthening local employers strengthens the entire economy, mitigating the effects of swings in the business cycle.
Traded sector employers (also known as primary employers), are typically manufacturers, technology- and information-based firms. These companies typically export a majority of their goods or services outside a local or regional market area. Non-traded sector employers (or secondary employers) include commercial and retail trade, housing, professional services and health care. Revenues generated by traded sector employers expand the local or regional “economic pie”, while secondary employers tend to compete for customers and market share or a piece of that pie. For these reasons, EDCO, like other economic development organizations across the country, focuses its efforts on growing traded sector employment that will, in turn, support secondary employers and the entire economy.
Click here if you would like to view more information on EDCO's mission and goals.
EDCO is led by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of the region’s top 32 leaders from the private and public sectors. Directors “pay to play” or contribute significant financial resources to purchase seats on the board. A handful of the board seats are elected by the paying membership for two-year terms. EDCO currently has approximately 275 members, all but a dozen of which are from the private sector. For more information about membership, see the membership section of our website.
The Board of Directors provides paid staff with policy direction, assistance with business recruitment projects, and acts a sounding board for various activities of the organization and region as a whole. Link to our Board of Directors for more information about EDCO’s current leadership.
Economic Development for Central Oregon, was founded in 1981, during a recession that brought unemployment rates to nearly one quarter of the workforce. Amid this time of economic gloom and doom, a group of visionary business leaders decided that if the communities they cherished were to survive, it required a bootstrap effort to build a vibrant and diversified economy.
Now over 25 years later, the fundamental vision of the organization remains the same:
To build a sustainable regional economy strong enough to create family wage jobs.