Rural Grantmaking & Program Activities

The key question:

How can community foundations use grantmaking and program activities to enhance the economic security of low-income rural families and communities?

Don't miss:

Building Rural Livelihood: A Thinking and Action Framework—a study of how community foundations can design effective grantmaking and program efforts to help build the economic vitality of their communities.

Margins to Mainstream: Community Foundations Advancing Family Economic Success—a roadmap of decision points in your work to improve the economic success of families in your service area.

The Six Whats (or Strategies)

Community foundations engaged in RDP have fielded many dreams with their rural CED program and grantmaking practices. A review of this practice surfaces six main Whats?—or community and economic development strategy choices—that CFs have pursued in RDP program and grantmaking efforts. These are discussed in more detail in Building Rural Livelihood: A Thinking and Action Framework but, briefly, they are::

Strategy 1: Improve employment

Identify worker training needed by local businesses and workers
Provide or package worker skill training specified to region's needs
Match workers with employers
Improve benefits options for working poor
Provide or package business hiring incentives for underemployed or unemployed workers
Increase viability/competitiveness of businesses/ sectors that employ the working poor
Increase viability of microbusinesses
Develop market connections between goods producers or suppliers, business users of those goods, and the end consumers
Conduct regional development visioning, planning, information, monitoring
Other: ___________________________

Strategy 2: Strengthen families

Help low-income families and individuals develop financial assets
Redesign social service provision around meeting the holistic needs of low-income families (as opposed to delivering services in “silos”)
Improve and increase connections between parents, children and extended family
Improve quality of and increase access to health care for the underserved and uninsured populations (including physical, mental, preventative and wellness health services)
Address domestic violence
Provide emergency economic and crisis assistance
Connect the community’s generations
Other: ___________________________

Strategy 3: Strengthen nonprofits

Provide grants for nonprofit operations
Provide project grants to key rural nonprofits that build their capacity, reach or impact in providing essential or transformational services to rural communities and families
Improve or increase professional development of nonprofit staff and board
Improve information systems and analysis capacity of nonprofits
Provide organizational development assistance (strategic planning, mentoring)
Serve as network hub/knowledge broker for area nonprofits
Establish a revolving loan fund for nonprofits
Match donors with nonprofits
Establish agency endowments and donor advised funds
Other: ___________________________

Strategy 4: Increase civic capacity

Provide community visioning services
Engage a broad range of community residents in leadership development programs
Build community endowments (one fund/many donors)
Offer community crisis intervention
Develop youth philanthropy initiatives
Establish rural advisory committees/task forces
Sponsor and/or host community celebrations, festivals, arts and culture events
Mount community beautification projects
Increase participation of traditionally underserved, uninvolved in community activities and decisionmaking
Involve target beneficiaries in design of programs
Other: ___________________________

Strategy 5: Steward natural and cultural resources

Convene resource stakeholders for constructive purposes (including those perceived as responsible users, abusers, preservers or conservers)
Build local business capacity to add value to local resource-based products and services
Support recycling and conservation and resource trust organizations/efforts
Conduct environmental education and awareness
Preserve and nurture traditional and indigenous cultures
Host community conversations about resource development values and tensions
Other: ___________________________

Strategy 6. Address potential necessary conditions (to enable the other 5 strategies)

Water/air quality and availability
Sewers
Telecommunications availability and access
Information and research
Development districts (e.g. Main Street)
Schools/training systems
Effective associations
Transportation
Finance
Government programs
Childcare
Eldercare
Healthcare
Housing
Other: ___________________________

Building rural assets to build rural livelihoods

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