The rapidly growing cryptocurrency phenomenon is emerging as a key fundraising tool for nonprofits that can sustain giving in new ways while also bringing in a younger demographic to philanthropy.

For some West Michigan music and entertainment venues, the approaching two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic is a crossroads. For others, it represents a finish line after having endured the worst.

A Brighton-based startup has lofty goals to help build out a nationwide 5G network that combines renewable energy, high-speed telecommunications and advanced mobility.

Late last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce named 60 finalists across the country that each could be eligible for up to $100 million in grants to support regional economic development initiatives. 

LANSING — General Motors, alongside top statewide elected leaders in Lansing, today announced separate multi-billion-dollar investments in Michigan that officials say will help to make the state a global leader in electric vehicle manufacturing.

Muskegon County’s economic development organization is seeking new leadership as the firm continues a restructuring focused on attracting new corporate funders and coordinating strategic planning in communities.

Legislation signed into law late last year by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer aims to speed up the process for building certain electric transmission lines in Michigan, which a major operator says is crucial in helping to facilitate the clean energy transition.

Steelcase Foundation President Daniel Williams is one of 19 people in the country selected for a fellowship to help address intergenerational poverty.

After nearly two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, smaller family-owned businesses are generally better positioned to overcome labor and supply chain challenges than non-family-owned companies. 

An oil and gas pipeline expert testifying in a permitting case involving Enbridge’s Line 5 says state energy staffers are downplaying the risk of a potentially catastrophic explosion within a proposed tunnel that would carry oil and propane beneath the Straits of Mackinac.

Nonprofit leaders and researchers say maintaining donor relationships is perhaps the biggest ongoing challenge for organizations as the COVID-19 pandemic continues surging and creating distance between funders.

Last month, Autocam Medical Devices LLC graduated its fourth class of CNC machinist apprentices under a program that’s meant to lure young professionals to the skilled trades. John C. Kennedy, president and CEO of the contract manufacturer of medical devices, is using the program to grow his talent pipeline while the company is on the verge of a major expansion. Autocam Medical is in the process of building an additional 100,000-square-foot facility in Kentwood that will support 250 new jobs and roughly double the company’s workforce. Kennedy recently talked with MiBiz about building a talent pool amid an ongoing skilled trades shortage, as well as his leadership principles that helped guide the company through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roughly a week after lawmakers passed a $1 billion program to incentivize major advanced automotive projects in Michigan, state energy regulators followed suit today by approving special electricity rates to support such industrial projects.

Economic development leaders and elected officials have mobilized in recent months to attract major advanced manufacturing projects after Ford’s announcement of $11.4 billion in battery and assembly projects in Kentucky and Tennessee. The Right Place Inc. President and CEO Randy Thelen called it the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” foreshadowing multiple new economic development efforts statewide. Thelen recently discussed potential new incentives, as well as labor market forces that are shaping his outlook for the year ahead.

Since its founding in 2001, East Lansing-based Stellar Broadband (formerly Spartan Internet) has grown to service nearly 150 Michigan communities with high-speed 1-gigabit internet service.

If there’s any certainty about 2022, it’s that Michigan policymakers will have billions of federal dollars to distribute for infrastructure and economic development. 

Few industries saw a nearly complete tanking in business like airports did with passenger travel during the early stages of the pandemic. However, Gerald R. Ford International Airport has since rebounded to about 80 percent of pre-pandemic travelers, and officials continue to pursue an aggressive capital investment strategy in the years ahead.

The Grand Rapids-based Women’s Resource Center experienced a surge in demand for its services at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For nearly four decades, the Literacy Center of West Michigan has been embedded with communities to improve literacy skills of children and adults.

While major utilities often garner headlines as power generators and providers, electric transmission companies are often behind the scenes as the critical infrastructure that moves power to customers.

Officials with specialty vehicle manufacturer The Shyft Group Inc. say they are making progress on their electric vehicle chassis design while eyeing organic growth and more acquisitions in the coming years.

A little more than a year after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered Enbridge to shut down the Line 5 pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac, the state retreated on its key lawsuit seeking to close the twin pipelines.

WALKER — Developers from Lansing and Farmington Hills are partnering on a $23 million transaction to purchase Green Ridge Square retail shopping center in Walker.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive directive setting priorities for millions of dollars Michigan is poised to receive under the federal infrastructure bill for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Officials with three major West Michigan health systems reported Friday that their hospitals are at, or near, capacity with COVID-19 patients, test positivity rates are at record highs, and worker fatigue is at its worst levels of the pandemic.

Michigan’s two largest investor-owned utilities seek to play a more active role in economic development — particularly in luring advanced manufacturing facilities to the state — with plans to offer new electricity rates for large expansion projects.

As the new leader of Kalamazoo-based Urban Alliance, Chris Pompey wants to take more creative approaches to overcoming generational poverty. Pompey, who’s been with the organization in various roles since 2018 and was named permanent executive director last month, sees opportunities to lead more social enterprises that help people find meaningful work.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has issued an executive directive calling on state agencies to work with the Legislature to spend tens of millions of dollars that Michigan is set to receive for broadband internet under the new federal infrastructure law.

Regional economic development organization The Right Place Inc. is expanding its services to two new West Michigan counties while working with existing partners to develop full-time business attraction efforts.

Karen Tracey is set to become the majority owner of The Image Shoppe Ltd., a Grand Rapids-based brand marketing firm she helped form nearly two decades ago.