Resource
Racial Equity in Rural Communities
Publication date:
03/2021
Forum members share racial equity resources that rural philanthropy has been using. Responses are compiled below by known organizations.
Rural Philanthropy
Across America, rural communities face big challenges as economies change, populations shift, and government resources and subsidies dramatically decline. But rural residents are responding with resilience and innovation, harnessing hidden resources to create permanent assets for the future of their communities.
Rural communities build philanthropy from the ground up, using strategies that tap into core values and engage everyone – not just the wealthiest residents. They get support and assistance from community foundations and private philanthropic foundations.
Rural areas of America have little in the way of endowed assets: according to a 2004 study by the Southern Rural Development Initiative, only about 3% of the nation’s foundation assets are found in rural places. Rural residents find that building community-based philanthropy from scratch organizes a community around its assets and connects long-term vision to concrete action. While community-based philanthropy is only one component of systemic social and economic change, it can be the lead component—the spark that ignites a community around positive dialogue and financial investment toward a common vision of the future.
Most of the first community foundations started up in large metropolitan areas, and that trend continued for years. Statewide community foundations sprouted up next, but focused most of their efforts for years on larger cities and towns, where they could find the most people. Together, these two trends left vast swaths of rural America essentially unserved by community foundations.
Around 1980, rural areas started setting up their own community endowments—and today this trend is accelerating. Some of these community endowments are being structured as brand-new, freestanding community foundations; others are established as affiliate funds of existing community foundations. Each of these routes has pros and cons, its own set of merits and challenges. Every rural community must determine for itself which choice makes the most sense in its situation.
We all benefit from rural philanthropy whether we live in a rural place or not. What affects one small, rural place can spill over to help – or hurt – an entire region. When a farm worker in Kansas benefits from better health care, so do the farmer, the miller, the baker, the trucker, and the child, many miles away, who carries the sandwich to school. Whether we care about our water supply, the environment, education, business development, or just about anything else, urban and rural places are tied together.
The momentum to build local rural philanthropic resources is growing substantially. The market for knowledge about how to do this well is growing along with that momentum.
Resource
Programming on a Blank Slate
Publication date:
08/2008
Imagine starting a new grant-making program from scratch —no prior grantees, no established procedures, no set objectives. Read about one grantmaker's experience in establishing a rural poverty program in a casestudy from Grantcraft.
Resource
Rural Philanthropy Knowledge Center
Publication date:
11/2007
The Rural Philanthropy Knowledge Center contains practical information on how to start and manage a rural fund, and other useful resources on how to grow philanthropy in rural areas.
Resource
Rural Fund Development 101:Starting and Growing Rural Community Endowments
Publication date:
03/2007
Across rural America, people are joining together to do something new and different. They are launching and growing community endowments. Community endowments resemble savings accounts that grow over time. Local residents are using the interest earned on these community endowments—and the local energy and leadership that come from building them—to improve the quality of life for people, organizations and the places they call home.
Resource
Rural Philanthropy: Building Dialogue From Within
Publication date:
03/2007
In this report, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy explores the disparity in giving between urban and rural nonprofits, and how geographical isolation and capacity-building needs greatly reduce the ability for rural nonprofits to secure funding. The report offers substantive recommendations on ways to make philanthropy more responsive to rural America.
Resource
The Power of Rural Philanthropy
Publication date:
03/2005
A report commissioned in 2005 by the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers that examines trends in rural philanthropy-building.
News
United Philanthropy Forum Offering PSOs Mini-Grants for Rural Philanthropy Programming
Release Date:
10/07/2021
The Forum will offer mini-grants to regional and national PSOs to support programming around rural philanthropy practices as well as activities and projects that engage rural leaders and practitioners. The grants can also be used to incorporate rural data and key messages into national and regional PSO programming.
News
New Releases Roundup: August 2021
Release Date:
09/07/2021
Check out the latest resources from around the nonprofit sector featuring items from Candid, the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, NCRP, ABFE, PRE, Northern California Grantmakers and Philanthropy Northwest.
News
New Releases Roundup: July 2021
Release Date:
08/02/2021
Check out the latest resources from around the nonprofit sector featuring items from Council of Michigan Foundations, Philanthropy Ohio, Philanthropy Northwest | The Giving Practice, PEAK Grantmaking, Media Impact Funders, Virginia Funders Network, Fund the People, Candid | Human Rights Funders Network, Philanthropy Southwest, Council on Foundations, The Center for Effective Philanthropy, and PolicyLink | The Bridgespan Group.
News
New Releases Roundup: June 2021
Release Date:
07/01/2021
Check out the latest resources from around the nonprofit sector featuring items from Asset Funders Network, BoardSource, Center for Effective Philanthropy, The Communications Network, Economic Opportunity Funders, Fund for Shared Insight, Hispanics in Philanthropy, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, and Philanthropy West Virginia.