The Southern Ohio Agricultural and Community Development Foundation (SOACDF) was created in 1998 with money from the $10.1 billion share that Ohio received as part of a lawsuit settlement reached with tobacco companies. The foundation has worked in "22 traditional tobacco-growing counties to help tobacco farmers shift to other crops, offer college scholarships, and facilitate economic development, among other things," according to the Gongwer Ohio Report. By the end of the last fiscal year, SOACDF had made "more than $83 million in total investments leveraged in excess of $190 million." The legislature securitized and sold off the foundation's income stream five years ago, leaving the company to survive off "investment income from its remaining money." At its current rate of spending, which fell off precipitously since its peak in 2007, the foundation will go broke within three to four years without new sources of income. For more, visit the SOACDF website.
Leaders envision the Southern Ohio Agricultural and Community Development Foundation program without state funding
