A nonprofit foundation that funds some of Brunswick County’s economic development efforts has met its fundraising goal of $70,000 per year for the next three years, an economic development official announced Tuesday.

Thirteen businesses, among them banks, architects, utility companies, engineers and home builders, are contributing at least $70,000 per year to the Brunswick County Economic Development Foundation, said Jim Bradshaw, executive director of the Brunswick County Economic Development Commission.

The foundation pays for travel to conferences and trade shows, appointments with site consultants and hosting industrial prospects, Bradshaw said, as well as promotional materials and multi-media marketing that the commission needs.

Foundation funds also allow the commission to respond quickly when an industrial prospect needs an engineering or environmental study, outside of studies that have already been completed, for a specific site, Bradshaw said.

“Rather than having to go back to the Board of Commissioners and say we need additional money, we can usually provide that type of study” using funds raised by the foundation, Bradshaw said.

Currently, the foundation is sharing the cost with North Carolina's Southeast, a regional economic development partnership, of a labor study to evaluate the effect Vertex Rail will have on the region’s labor supply, Bradshaw said. Vertex plans to hire more than 1,300 employees to manufacture new rail cars at a Wilmington plant, and the study “will help determine whether there is still labor available for additional large employer industries (1,000+ employers) to locate in Brunswick County,” a post on the commission’s Facebook page says.

The labor evaluation, which is being conducted by Creative Economic Development Consulting, is expected to be complete by this spring, Bradshaw said.

Last year, the foundation funded a $30,000 retail study that provided research on the potential for additional retail development in Brunswick County, where the commission has been working with a major developer to find a site for a large regional shopping center.

In terms of public money, the commission, which has an office in the county government complex in Bolivia, has been allotted $138,500 for operational costs and just under $280,000 for the salaries and benefits of commission employees, according to the county’s adopted budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year.