As towns like Silverthorne and Dillon embark on economic diversification and development initiatives, Summit County is losing an organization that was created to support the entire community’s economy. 

Nonprofit Summit Economic Partnership shut its door at the end of July after a three-year run. Its former executive director, Thayer Hirsh, said while it’s ceasing operations, he doesn’t think the need it served will be going anywhere. 

He said Summit Economic Partnership was the successor to an effort started in Summit County in 2018, the Summit Prosperity Initiative, which was aimed at stabilizing the local economy.

“People were recognizing the need for some economic diversification here in Summit County and that  the reason we had such a poor recovery to the 2008 recession was we didn’t have diversification,” he said. “We were and still are overly reliant on tourism.”

Creating and supporting both new and existing industries to boost the local median wage remained a key focus of the nonprofit. Hirsh championed the idea of a building a balanced economy by including various fields. His organization sought to assist existing businesses by helping them grow revenue bases and identify new markets while also offering resources to new businesses to aid them in getting up and running.

He said funding challenges paired with “a change in focus” in Summit County government caused the nonprofit to lose a significant sources of funding, so much so that it could no longer operate. He said when he began his position in 2023, he was told he had around $1.2 million in funding from a grant to use over the course of a few years. He said the county applied for the grant on behalf of the Summit Economic Partnership. When he went to ask the county for the money, he said he was told the grant money had been spent.

Where the nonprofit got around $150,000 from the county’s general fund last year, he said the nonprofit was notified it would not be receiving anything from the general fund this year.

Summit Economic Partnership board member Mark Richards said the county, similar to numerous other governments, is navigating impacts to revenue brought on by the current economic environment. He said county officials seemed to be “laser focused” on certain initiatives, and he doesn’t fault them for that. 

While Summit Economic Partnership is “dormant,” as described by Hirsh, he and Richards think the sentiment of economic diversification is something people still support.

With the nonprofit’s absence will go its initiatives that put local business owners in front of field experts and resources that helped bolster their companies. 

Summit County resident Kelly Mazanti said a key lesson she learned amid taking a gamble and starting her apparel business, Buttnski, from scratch was organizations like Summit Economic Partnership can be the lifeline to rural startups. She said she acquired her first angel investor through a similar organization doing work in Chaffee County, and her story isn’t unique. 

“Having access to a network of investors that are active in your community who take chances on early-stage startups is just a huge part of the puzzle the Summit Economic Partnership built,” she said. 

Similarly, SkyGOAT founder Ram Mikulas, who created the Dillon outdoor apparel brand, said he found the networking the organization fostered to be invaluable. He said in a resource-light region, entrepreneurs can learn from each other and build relationships to strengthen the local business community at-large. 

Both said the education provided by the nonprofit was unmatched. By creating a network and filling the board with people like Richard, who led a successful career as a “serial entrepreneur” in Silicon Valley before relocating to Summit County, business owners could tap into minds who’ve made it in the start-up realm. 

Programs like its economic gardening one gave businesses 40 hours of strategic management consulting and research services customized to their growth goals. Initiatives like its “coopetitions” gave startups the chance to compete for grants to fund their operations.

“The idea of economic diversification might not live in an entity, but it’s going to be more grassroots and a focus on the people here who want to help create businesses, and we need to create an entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial environment ourselves to help that kind of grow,” Hirsh said.