GLUE was seeded in its infancy by the Brookings Institution's Great Lakes Economic Initiative, which has in turn received financial support from:
- The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation,
- The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan,
- DTE Energy,
- The Ford Motor Company Fund
- The John R. Oishei Foundation
- The Joyce Foundation,
- KnowledgeWorks Foundation
- Michigan State University - Land Policy Institute
- The University of Michigan;
as well as the general support of:
- The George Gund Foundation,
- The Heinz Endowments,
- The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
- and The Rockefeller Foundation for the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program.
