The results from the National Needs Assessment of Economic and Workforce Development Practitioners that was conducted by the Institute for the Economy and the Future as the first phase of the “Know Your Region” Project revealed community development as the most common organizational priority, followed closely by development and finance, planning and research, and workforce development.  These findings are supported by the results of the Survey of Economic Development Organizations conducted by ACCRA / The Council for Economic and Community Research in June of 2006. 

The following categories represent these organizational priorities, as well as other common organizational focuses.   National development organizations have been aggregated into these categories, such that clicking on one of the headings below will generate a list of relevant development organizations and a link to their homepage. 

Federal:
US Economic Development Administration - http://www.eda.gov/
US Department of Agriculture -  http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome
U.S. Small Business Administration - http://www.sba.gov/

Entrepreneurial Development:
Kauffman Foundation - http://www.kauffman.org/

Entrepreneurial Development
National Association of Development Organizations - http://www.nado.org/
National Association of Regional Councils - http://www.narc.org/

Research Park / Tech Transfer / Business
National Business Incubation Association - http://www.nbia.org/
Small Business Development Center - http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/sbdc/index.html
State Science and Technology Institute - http://www.ssti.org/about.htm
Association of University Research Parks - http://www.aurp.net/

Policy & Research
National Governors Association - http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga
National League of Cities - http://www.nlc.org/
National Association of Counties – Resource Center - http://www.naco.org/
American Planning Association - http://www.planning.org/
Council on Competitiveness - http://www.compete.org/

Workforce Development
National Association of Workforce Boards - http://www.nawb.org/
National Workforce Association - http://www.nwaonline.org/