The Marin Economic Forum, a government and business collaboration created to foster economic growth in the county, will cease operations early next year after a 12-year run.

A statement announcing the organization’s pending dissolution proclaimed: “Mission accomplished.”

“The board of directors took the decision following an analysis that the organization’s mission and goals had been achieved through its activities over the past 12 years and that the recent additions of economic development staff at the county and multiple cities could cause redundancy,” the statement said.

Mike Blakeley, the nonprofit’s chief executive officer since 2018, declined to be interviewed but did respond to emailed questions.

“MEF was founded to provide economic development expertise to the county, jurisdictions, and private organizations at a time when there was no public staff to do so,” he said in an email. “As of 2024, the county and several jurisdictions have added staff positions focused on economic development or appointed existing staff to manage economic development.”

Blakeley added that since MEF had advocated for more economic development staff across the county to support local businesses and nonprofits, “this recent development is an achievement of MEF’s efforts.”

Blakeley is the group’s fifth and longest-serving director, and its only full-time employee. The forum has struggled financially for years, unable to attract significant financial support from the local business community. It has relied principally on funding from Marin County.

MEF grew out of the Marin County Economic Commission. It was launched in 2010, operating initially under the fiscal sponsorship of the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership before obtaining its status as a nonprofit organization in 2012. Robert Eyler, a professor of economics at Sonoma State University, was the first chief executive officer.

Eyler, who has continued as the organization’s chief economist on a contract basis, said nonprofit status was deemed important so that MEF would be viewed as being independent from the county.

“The county could help finance it,” Eyler said. “But the county did not want economic development activities to be seen as politically motivated.”

Created on the heels of the Great Recession, the organization had assignments other than fostering economic growth. Its founders also specified that it must protect the environment and promote equity.

Awarding the organization a $75,000 grant in 2010, Thomas Peters, the chief executive officer of the Marin Community Foundation, said, “A strong economy is the necessary foundation for accomplishing the vital goals of providing for the underserved and addressing climate change.”

During that time, some of Marin’s largest employers and MEF’s biggest financial supporters — Autodesk, Lucasfilm, Fireman’s Fund, Disney — either disappeared, downsized or moved out of Marin.

MEF has periodically struggled over the years to cover its expenses. In the 2015-16 fiscal year, the organization ended the year with a deficit of about $55,000, and in 2014-15 it had a deficit of about $33,500.

When Blakeley’s predecessor, Robin Sternberg, was hired in 2017, the organization was projecting a $76,000 operational shortfall for 2017. At Sternberg’s request, Marin County gave the forum a $100,000 advance to keep it afloat.

When Blakeley replaced Sternberg in 2018, he said MEF’s financial solvency was not an issue. He said the forum had 36 members, including six “platinum” level sponsors who had contributed $10,000 each. Blakeley would not disclose how many business members the organization has now.

Responding by email, Blakeley said the organization was solvent last year, but declined to disclose its revenues and expenses. Its tax filings show its expenses exceeded revenues in 2020, 2021 and 2022 by $96,234, $191 and $34,689, respectively.

The organization reported $287,348 in expenses in 2022, and $191,000 of that was Blakeley’s pay and benefits. Government sources accounted for a majority of the revenue in each of those years. In 2021, government funding supplied 85% of the revenue, and in 2022 it accounted for 71%

The board of directors includes Marin County Supervisors Eric Lucan and Mary Sackett. Lucan said that since he joined the board in 2022, the organization has had a “heavy reliance” on government as a funding source.

Over the last eight years, MEF has received more than $1.4 million from the county. That does not include a $133,000 federal grant that MEF partnered with the county to secure. The money was used to hire a consultant to help create the Marin County Economic Vitality Strategic Plan, which was completed in 2022. It is the county’s first long-term economic development strategic plan.

Lucan declined to comment on MEF’s current financial situation, how many business members it has or how the board reached its decision to dissolve the nonprofit. Sackett did not respond to a request for comment.

Regarding why MEF hasn’t received more financial support from the local business community, Joanne Webster, president of the North Bay Leadership Council, a regional business advocacy organization, said, “The business community wants action relative to economic development in the county. MEF was really great at providing information and data, but they really didn’t take advocacy positions.”

In 2020, Webster, then chief executive officer of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce, teamed up with Cynthia Murray, Webster’s predecessor at the North Bay Leadership Council, to formulate a list of 10 recommended actions to help Marin’s economy recover from the pandemic. The first item on the list was the creation of a long-term economic development strategy.

With the demise of MEF, the responsibility for implementing the long-term plan will fall to the county’s new economic vitality coordinator, Raissa de la Rosa. De la Rosa, who was Santa Rosa’s economic development director for more than six years and studied film and photography at the San Francisco Art Institute, was hired last December at an annual salary of $164,340. She got a two-year contract.

Over the last eight years, MEF has received an average of more than $177,000 per year from the county. For the fiscal year that began in July, however, the county had budgeted only $100,000 for the organization.

Lucan said the allocation was reduced because de la Rosa would be carrying some of the load. Nevertheless, Lucan said he considers MEF a “big success.”

“Just because an organization decides it’s time to wind down operations, it’s not necessarily a bad sign,” Lucan said. “In many ways, it’s a sign that they’ve done what they needed to do. Mission accomplished.”