The Michigan's Defining Moment Public Engagement Campaign is designed to get citizens in local communities thinking about the future of the state and then take citizens' ideas directly to policy makers.

It's working.

Among the many common ground agenda items to come out of the first round of nearly 100 Community Conversations involving 1,800 people in the past year was the citizens' desire for a diversified economy supported through tax incentives, philanthropy and other public investment strategies.

In July, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced the Invest Michigan Fund to provide $300 million in state pension fund assets as venture capital investment in small- and medium-sized Michigan companies. And the Granholm Administration credited Michigan's Defining Moment with helping spur the idea, as the Council of Michigan Foundations recently noted on its web site...

The Governor's staff also notes the new Invest Michigan Fund incorporates several strategies for economic diversification and entrepreneurialism gleaned from more than 100 community conversations with government and business leaders and the public during the past year sponsored by The Center for Michigan's Defining Moment Campaign.

"The Center for Michigan's community conversations throughout the state collected excellent ideas, suggestions and feedback on how best to strengthen the state's economy and ways to promote economic revitalization," says Robert S. Collier, president and CEO of the Council of Michigan Foundations. "It is an important, ongoing effort that is making difference."

Granholm agrees, noting that her team of state financial and investment officials drew from the rich data of information and ideas sparked by the Center's efforts as part of the research effort for Invest Michigan.