A Tale of Two Organizations
As FY24 comes to a close and FY25 begins, I am embarking on my sixth state fiscal year as the Executive Director of MTC. Before looking ahead to the upcoming fiscal year, I wanted to reflect on my nearly five years in this role and acknowledge the collaborative efforts of the board, chair(s), executive committee, and other leaders who have played a crucial role in shaping MTC into what it is today. 
Upon reviewing MTC’s programmatic activity for FY20 to FY24 (Table 1), it is evident MTC’s programmatic activity falls into two distinct phases.
- In the initial phase (FY20-22), MTC received a total of $4M in state funding but awarded over $11M through its core programmatic activities (MOBEC & IDEA Fund).
- During the second phase (FY23 & FY24), MTC received access to a substantial increase in public funding, including increased state appropriations, funding for special projects, and federal SSBCI 2.0 program funds. This allowed MTC to award an average of over $20M per year through core programmatic activities and award nearly $17M in funding to special projects.
The increase in state appropriations has enabled the organization to introduce new grant programs (Physical Infrastructure, Regional Node, & Investor Education). In the last two years, MTC has awarded nearly $3M in grants through these new grant programs, accounting for over 10% of the total funding awarded and nearly 50% of the grant funding awarded.
Furthermore, these new grant programs have enabled MTC to expand its grant-based support across the state nearly 3-fold. Including awarding grants to new organizations and increasing the geographic impact of the organization’s mission to expand the entrepreneurial capacity of the state (Infographic 1) – specifically through increased funding across southern Missouri and to central Missouri.
In summary, MTC has been awarding funding at a significantly higher pace over the past two fiscal years compared to previous years. Additionally, our staff has been developing and launching new programs that are attracting new organizations and expanding the geographic reach of our financial support of the state’s innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems.
I wanted to share a few reasons why MTC was well-positioned to greatly increase its programmatic activity in recent years. During my initial three fiscal years with the organization, my primary focus was gaining a comprehensive understanding of MTC’s history, current status, and future direction. This culminated in a labor-intensive 6-month strategic initiative which resulted in the publication of the Catalyzing Innovation Report. The report outlined five (5) strategies and included 16 specific actions/recommendations to guide the organization towards achieving its mission and maximizing economic development impact through programmatic activities.
Over the past two fiscal years, my focus has shifted towards enhancing the operational capabilities of the organization to effectively implement the core operational strategy. This includes launching new programmatic activities based on the recommendations from the Catalyzing Innovation Report. For example, the Physical Infrastructure & Regional Node Grant Programs, which were initiated in the last two years, were implemented based on Strategy 2, Action 5 which emphasizes the need to support regional initiatives that offer top-notch entrepreneurial services to high-potential, high-growth, traded-sector startups.
The time and effort invested by the organization and our stakeholders through our strategic initiative enabled me as the Executive Director to establish a solid organizational groundwork. This enabled MTC to be well-prepared to act and scale up when additional funding became available over the past two fiscal years through the reauthorization of the federal SSBCI program and increased state appropriations.
What does the future hold for MTC in FY25?
- A healthy state appropriation in FY25 will enable MTC to sustain grant-based support at levels comparable to FY23 & FY24 across our core grant programs – MOBEC, Physical Infrastructure, & Regional Node.
- Continued access to federal funding through the SSBCI 2.0 program will enable MTC to continue awarding levels of equity-based investment through our state-sponsored venture capital program (IDEA Fund), similar to the amounts awarded in FY23 & FY24 (over $15.5M).
- Furthermore, our board has approved increased funding for the recently launched Investor Education and Proof of Concept programs, as well as funding for the development of a program aimed at addressing ‘investor readiness’.
A more detailed overview of our activities in FY24 and our planned programs for FY25 and beyond will be provided in our FY25 Implementation Plan, which will be publicly released this fall.
Table 1: Programmatic Activity over Past 5 Fiscal Years
Notes
- The full appropriation for FY20 was either withheld or returned to the state as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on state revenues.
- Because of a spending authority limitation, a significant portion of the FY23 appropriation was transferred to MTC in FY24.
- New MTC Programmatic Activity refers to funds awarded through core programs that had not been deployed or awarded in a previous fiscal year (Physical Infrastructure, Regional Node PG, Regional Node, etc.).
Infographic 1: Geographic Impact of MTC’s Grant Funding Awarded
Notes
- During fiscal years 2020-2022, MTC provided direct funding to the eight innovation centers across Missouri situated in Cape Girardeau, Columbia, Joplin, Kansas City, Kirksville, Springfield, St. Joseph, and St. Louis.
Jack Scatizzi
Executive Director of MTC
