The North Country Alliance: we can help your business do business.
North Country Alliance Service Area
The North Country Alliance services the seven northern New York counties of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence.
North Country Alliance Mission Statement
The North Country Alliance is a private-public consortium of economic development organizations, private businesses, utilities, public and private colleges, the media and financial institutions working to grow the economy of New York's seven-county North Country region. Its role is to offer a single point of access to the resources you need to expand or locate your business in the Northern New York.
North Country Alliance History/Activities
The North Country Alliance was born from the abortive effort to locate the so-called superconducting supercollider in northern New York in the mid-1980s. Businesses, governments, and developers who had worked together to convince the federal government to put the SCSC in New York’s North Country realized they should continue to work together to revive and expand the region’s economy.
Adding their own resources to the generous support of Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. (now National Grid), the region’s professionally-staffed economic development organizations formed the North Country Alliance in 1988, initially to do cooperative regional marketing. In essence, the North Country Alliance pooled marketing resources to do marketing on a regional level that was beyond the resources of individual economic development organizations who were members.
In addition, as the needs of the 30+ development organization members dictated, the North Country Alliance also created (and still manages) one of the country’s most successful rural revolving loan funds; developed and hosted professional economic development training programs for both members and others; engaged in State legislative education with the region’s elected officials; and provided a forum for the region’s developers to share best practices. Until recently, the North Country Alliance was primarily a partnership of the region’s economic development organizations.
In 2010, the North Country Alliance established a new membership and governance structure that increases private sector involvement in the organization’s activities by opening membership to any organization or individual wishing to support economic development in the North Country. The new North Country Alliance immediately formed an Advocacy Committee to develop and promote the North Country region’s economic agenda and successfully weighed in on several legislative issues during the 2010-2011 session. The organization continues to administer its revolving loan fund.
The “new” North Country Alliance’s aim is to be the primary “voice of the North County” in economic development affairs.
