LEHI — The Children's Miracle Network may move its world headquarters from Utah if it is unable to get government funding to relocate to a building in downtown Salt Lake City.

Meeting at IM Flash Technologies on Friday, the Governor's Office of Economic Development's Business Development Board rejected helping CMN because of its long-standing policy against providing financial incentives to nonprofit organizations. After a closed-door session, the board said it will work with the governor and legislative leadership and have its own staff explore other grant options.

"It's a good possibility," Scott Burt, CMN's chief operating officer, said after the meeting about a move of the headquarters out of state.

"It's not imminent because we have not been looking anywhere else. We have a board that's made up of individuals from across the country, all of which are not from Utah. We were hoping that we could demonstrate there was some support at the state level for CMN and the good things we're doing in Utah, and take that to our board to encourage them to stay here."

Children's Miracle Network raises money for 170 children's hospitals across North America that provide medical care, research and preventive education for children. The charity helps 17 million children annually. CMN has raised more than $2.7 billion since 1983.

CMN has about 100 employees worldwide, including 79 in Salt Lake City. But it has outgrown its building at 4525 S. 2300 East, and it plans to grow to 130 Utah employees during the next year and eventually about 300.

Its state request was for $200,000 to $400,000, which would be used along with a Salt Lake City low-interest loan of $1.5 million to renovate and relocate to the downtown building.

"We're growing," Burt said. "We like Utah and want to stay in Utah, and that's why we were hoping we could get some help to make this work out."

But during Friday's GOED board meeting, acting chairman Mark Howell noted that the board has turned down several proposals from nonprofits in the past.

"We are not opposed to this. ... We like what they (CMN) are doing. We just have not felt that you want to open up to all these nonprofits. ... We've not dealt with them. In most cases, they have gone to the Legislature and government entities directly and gotten the funds," Howell said.

After the board's executive session, Howell read a statement supporting CMN, saying that its contribution to Utah "has been profound and greatly appreciated." The statement said the governor, legislative leadership and GOED staff will work on finding a grant alternative for CMN.

"We will be back with you within the next few days," Howell said, reading the prepared statement. "We'd like to express our gratitude to you for the contribution of your organization and all other nonprofits in the state in terms of the economic development they've given to the state of Utah."

Burt said later that CMN was looking forward to working with GOED to find a funding option. CMN's next board meeting is in July.

"We'll just keep plugging forward," Burt said. "They mentioned some other granting opportunities, and we will fully explore those."

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