03-24-2026MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES

The most innovative companies in economic development for 2026

Fast Company’s 2026 list of the 10 most innovative organizations in economic development includes the state of New Mexico, the Next California/WWF, the San Diego Unified School District, Greater Hartford Gives Foundation, and more.

Traditional economic development tends to focus on investments made and jobs created. For this year’s group of Most Innovative Companies—or in many cases, foundations or governments, in this case—the key performance indicator isn’t dollars spent, but connections made. Growth comes not from directing resources, but finding a better way to nurture what you already have. 

Governments found creative ways to unleash the potential of their residents, workers, and civil servants. The state of New Mexico, for example, made a first-in-the-nation move to subsidize childcare for all, giving working parents and families a leg up. In Illinois, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act offered a pathway for low-income residents to electrify homes and cut their bills, while the San Diego Unified School District used one of their underutilized assets—land—to help launch an effort to build thousands of units of housing for their staff. And in St. Louis, the Arts Place Initiative eases the path towards owning a place to live for local artists, giving creativity a new home.

Other organizations took a different approach to preserving local economics. Surfing nonprofit Save the Waves started the study of “surfonomics” and launched an insurance product to protect local economies built around key breaks. The Next California, an effort by the World Wildlife Foundation, seeded an agricultural shift in the Mississippi Delta, offering farmers a new opportunity amid a changing climate. And Brazil’s re.green tapped AI and high tech to restore Amazon rainforests, in part by bringing back sustainable, profitable hardwood harvests.

Sometimes, the best impact comes from simply bridging a gap. Ox Delivers, which makes electric trucks for shipping goods in rural Africa, gives small businesses a better route to market (and money). Nevada’s Lithium Loop initiative seeks to build a full-circle mining, processing and development pipeline to make batteries in the U.S. And the new Greater Futures Scholarship Fund from the Greater Hartford Gives Foundation offers a more comprehensive model of college scholarships hoping to give students a real leg up on getting into, and graduating from, college.

1. State of New Mexico

For making one of the most stubborn and trying costs for working parents disappear

From San Francisco to New York City, municipal support for subsidized childcare have become a buzzed-about big city policy. In New Mexico, the goal of universal childcare has already been achieved, addressing a key pillar of the affordability problem plaguing families and helping working parents get some breathing room. In the words of a state official, it’s “putting families at the center of your policymaking.”

Starting last November, every New Mexican family qualified for free, subsidized childcare, funded by an Early Childhood Trust Fund, currently paid for by oil and gas revenue. That’s a huge deal: it’s estimated that families in New Mexico spend $12,000 on average every year for childcare, and families nationwide can spend up to 16% of their income on childcare for a single child, according to the department of labor. 

Most Innovative Companies 2026

Expedia CEO Ariane Gorin on Turning AI Into a Competitive Advantage

© Fast Company