The Industrial Commons (TIC) is a women-led 501(c)3 organization based in Morganton, North Carolina. It is revitalizing economic opportunities that emphasize worker ownership and shared governance as an antidote to generational poverty and disempowerment for the Southern working class in rural Western North Carolina. The Industrial Commons incubates cooperative and employee-owned enterprises, provides education, training, and workshops, and creates opportunities for people to learn about Morganton’s diverse and complicated history. To build on its momentum, TIC is redeveloping a 28-acre brownfield site in Morganton to become an Innovation Campus. It builds on regional assets to create shared services and spaces for small – to midsize firms working in textile and furniture manufacturing. AmbitioUS provided a $100,000 one-year general operating support grant in 2023. This grant comes at a time when they need flexible financial support to expand the financial team’s skills and expertise in managing complicated investment deals as well as support the work of the architectural and engineering team at a critical stage of planning and design for its new campus.