Volume 2, #1: Spring 2003

In this issue:

Assembling Engines for Rural Endowments

The third RDP Peer-Exchange Workshop was held in Washington, DC, January 29-31, 2003. Engines for Building Rural Endowments gathered a group of 60+ participants representing 36 community foundations, 24 states, Kenya and South Africa. Several private foundations and researchers also joined in this exploration of rural endowment building and its role in improving the economic security of rural families and communities.

A draft version of the RDP Thinking and Action Framework on endowment building, Engines for Building Rural Endowments, is available for download. The Framework served as the centerpiece for the workshop, offering a toolkit for developing rural endowment building strategies. Break-out sessions led participants through a range of rural endowment building how-to's (and not-to's).


Use the links that follow to obtain presentations and materials from the workshop, or view the full list of "Assembling Engines for Rural Endowments" resources that are now online.



Getting to Know Your Rural "Wealth:"
Tools and Rules from the Field

Along with the Framework above, other materials from Engines for Building Rural Endowments are also now available online, examining some of the following questions: How can community foundations find rural donors? What is "wealth" in rural areas? How do we find out who has the real money in our rural county when no one will talk about it? How can we encourage rural folks to give to endowment? And so on...

1. The Transfer of Wealth Analysis

  
 Jeff Yost of the Nebraska Community Foundation described NCF's use of national transfer of wealth research. NCF has projected when and how much will transfer in each of Nebraska's 93 counties over the next 50 years.

2. The Philanthropy Index

  
 Alan McGregor of Southern Rural Development Initiative offered an overview of The Philanthropy Index for Small Towns and Rural Areas. Developed by the Southern Philanthropy Consortium, it combines "hard" data and a subjective process for measuring a community's charitable giving potential.

3. Rural Donor Survey

  
 Elizabeth Banwell, former Director of Marketing and Communications for the Maine Community Foundation, described in Identifying & Working with Rural Gatekeepers how donor surveys helped MCF assess and set rural endowment-building goals and strategy.

4. Identifying & Working with Rural Gatekeepers

  
 Judy Sjostedt of Parkersburg Area Community Foundation in West Virginia shared her methods for finding and engaging the rural "gatekeepers"—folks who occupy the space between individuals of wealth and the foundation.


Tactic and Strategy Break-outs

1. Low-Touch to High-Touch:
Rural Donor Services from Basic to Bodacious

  
 Even more so than in urban areas, rural endowment building can sink or swim based on how deftly donor relationships are handled. This session offered stories and guidance about how rural-focused foundations handle basic to bodacious rural donor services.

2. Honoring Rural: Choosing Language, Message and Methods to Market Rural Endowments

  
 We hear it over and over again—"No one in our rural area knows what an endowment is." In this session, presenters shared an overview on message development and tactics for building endowment acumen in rural areas.

3. Turning Rural Agency, Field of Interest, Advised and Scholarship Funds into Endowment Engines

  
 How do we efficiently service our scholarship funds? How do you make a rural field of interest fund grow beyond its first major donor? Should we promote agency funds or not? Presenters shared how rural community foundations organize themselves to grow endowed funds.

4. Expanding Rural Endowment Pie:
Private Foundations, Government & Other Partnerships

  
 We often hear: If we could only get that private foundation interested in helping us build our rural endowments, it could make a real difference. RDPLN members shared how they leveraged outside resources for rural endowments.

5. Endowment for What? Using Good Rural Programs to Produce Great Rural Endowments

  
 Good program equals good development. This session offered rousing stories from community foundations that have effectively utilized rural grantmaking and program efforts to spark and spur rural endowment building.

6. Many Donors, One Fund:
Developing Area Funds in Amazing Rural Places

  
 Find out how some very rural communities have managed to build broad-based community endowments using a variety of tactics, including matches, community events and alumni appeals.


Other New RDP Resources and Web Content

Workshop materials from "Building Rural Livelihood" and "Covering Rural Territory" are also now available online.

Keep the learning going—consult your peer experts (and friends) using Talkin' RDP!, the Learning Network's listserv and learning archive.



Start Talkin' RDP! The Talkin' RDP! Listserv aims to deepen peer connections and spread useful information throughout the Rural Development Philanthropy Learning Network... without waiting for in-person meetings, travel and telephone costs.

Use Talkin' RDP! to:

  • Ask and receive: Just e-mail the listserv to post an RDP question or challenge to the entire Network

  • Answer and assist: Help your colleagues and build connections by responding to questions

  • Share and adapt: Share and compare foundation materials... fund guidelines, job descriptions, grant criteria and more

  • Dialogue and delve: Propose a topic for a moderated discussion at a specific date and time

  • Seek and Find: Access archived discussions, searchable by key word, in the Talkin' RDP! Learning Archive. The Learning Archive banks exchanges and archives a wealth of practical, just-in-time counsel on RDP topics.
Subscribe now.


Up and Coming...

Peer-Learning Institute Will Explore Family Economic Success (FES)

For the past three years, the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) has been working to advance this key premise: Children do better when their families are strong, and families do better when they live in supportive communities. To assist AECF with their efforts to work to support rural family economic success, the RDP Learning Network is exploring the ways rural-focused community foundations work either directly or indirectly to enhance economic success for families in rural communities.

Last May, a questionnaire asked Learning Network members to consider how their foundation's grantmaking worked to increase rural families' financial assets and ability to earn a living. From this sample, we learned that many rural-focused community foundations seek to strengthen and connect rural families to essential community services.

To begin to harvest and analyze this support, a group of rural-focused community foundations will gather at the Aspen Institute's Wye River Conference Center in early June. Participants will include Central Carolina Community Foundation (SC), East Tennessee Foundation, Humboldt Area Foundation (CA), Maine Community Foundation, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, New Mexico Community Foundation, West Central Initiative (MN) and Wyoming Community Foundation.

One product of the institute will be Rural Family Economic Success: A Thinking and Action Framework for Community Foundations. The tool will augment Building Rural Livelihood: An RDP Learning and Action Framework rolled out last summer at the Building Rural Livelihood Peer-Exchange Workshop.

A second product will be a more expansive FES Framework aimed at both rural and urban community foundations, which will serve as the centerpiece of the next Peer-Exchange Workshop (see below), in Baltimore, MD, from October 24-25, 2003—just before the Council on Foundations Annual Fall Conference for Community Foundations.


Collaborative Effort Will Culminate in Peer-Exchange Workshop

Workshop scheduled for October 2003. The Learning Network's next peer-exchange workshop will be a joint effort with the Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth (CCFY) and the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF).

The 1.5-day workshop will delve deeply into program and grantmaking issues first addressed during last July's Building Rural Livelihood workshop, focusing specifically on improving the success of families struggling to get ahead.

Where? AECF offices in Baltimore, MD
When? Fri., Oct. 24 - Sat., Oct. 25

The workshop is open to all community foundations, but space will be limited. The workshop will be held just before the Council on Foundations Annual Fall Conference for Community Foundations (Oct. 27-29, 2003). So, if you will be attending the Fall Conference, be sure to plan to arrive in Baltimore early! Stay tuned for email announcements for registration and workshop details and...

MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR OCTOBER 24-25!


Biennial RDP Survey Planned For Summer/Fall 2003

Back in summer 2001, the entire community foundation field was asked to participate in the first-ever Rural Development Philanthropy Baseline Survey. Seeking a "snapshot" of RDP efforts throughout the U.S., the survey was disseminated to 685 community foundations in July 2001, and again, in November, 2001. As of early 2002, we had received 240 surveys for a 35% response rate. (See the analysis of the response.)

At the time of the baseline survey, we warned you that the field would be re-surveyed every other year to help us note changes and look for opportunities to enhance the role and efficacy of the Learning Network. This summer, the entire field will be asked to participate in the Biennial RDP Survey.

We learned a lot from our first experience! Similar questions will be asked to allow logical comparisons with the baseline data, but we will also strive to have survey results better capture the complexity of your work in rural areas.


Your participation in the Survey—as a member of the Learning Network—will be critical, so look for the Biennial Survey this summer and please participate!


This April: RDP In Indiana

RDP staffer Elizabeth Myrick will travel to Indianapolis on April 3, to conduct a session at Savvy Stewardship, the Indiana Grantmakers Alliance Spring Conference for Community Foundations.

Elizabeth will lead a session called "Setting Outcome Measures: Evaluating and Learning from your Program Efforts." For information on the workshop or sessions, contact Indiana Grantmakers Alliance.


Member News


RDP in South Carolina Receives Boost

In spring 2002, RDP staffers met first with a small group of South Carolina community foundation leaders first in Washington, DC, and later, with a group of eight South Carolina community foundations in Camden, South Carolina. These community foundations gathered to address a key question: How can the South Carolina community foundations work together to build philanthropy to improve the quality of life in the entire state of South Carolina?

RDP staff helped the group work through their individual and collective goals to develop a shared vision for serving the philanthropic needs of the most rural and diverse area of South Carolina. South Carolina Gives! is the name collaborators gave to this burgeoning enterprise.

In December 2002, the work paid off, when the South Carolina Gives! Program was one of four organizations awarded three years of funding through the New Ventures in Philanthropy Initiative of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers. The project was chosen from a highly competitive pool of 37 applicants from around the country.

The newly formed Community Foundation Alliance for South Carolina includes:

  • The Community Foundation Alliance for South Carolina
  • The South Carolina Bar Foundation
  • The South Carolina Grantmakers Network
  • United Way of South Carolina
  • South Carolina Association of Nonprofit Organizations
  • The Jim Self Center on the Future at Clemson University

South Carolina Gives! will promote the development of new philanthropic resources, with particular emphasis on nontraditional donors, and build statewide philanthropy to improve the quality of life for all South Carolinians by:

  • Conducting statewide public outreach and a communications campaign to reach non-traditional donors, including: women, African Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, workplace donors, rural donors and young donors
  • Conducting an outreach program on charitable giving tools for attorneys
  • Developing an analysis of charitable giving trends to measure the impact of philanthropy in South Carolina

A statewide website with links to other New Ventures programs, foundations, best practices, and real-life illustrations will also be in the works. For more information about South Carolina Gives! contact Dianne Garnet, president/CEO of the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry, and chair of the Community Foundation Alliance for South Carolina.


Montana Community Foundation
Celebrates Passage of Tax Legislation

Montana's Governor's Task Force on Endowments and Philanthropy, of which the Montana Community Foundation (MCF) is a member and fiscal agent, announced recently that Montana's HB616—the tax credit bill—was passed by the senate by a vote of 45-0! After a long battle in which Montana nonprofits, MCF, lobbyists and other partners played vital roles, the bill now moves to Governor Judy Martz for signing.

Originally enacted in 1997, amended in 2001 and 2002, the Montana Tax Credit for Endowed Philanthropy encourages charitable giving to qualified endowments by offering incentives to Montana taxpayers. HB616 will re-establish tax credits for residents that give to any established nonprofit in the state. Under HB616, an individual would receive a tax credit totaling 40% of his or her gift to an endowment; businesses would receive a tax credit of 20%—in both cases, up to $10,000. Over the past two years, the tax credit fluctuated from 50% to 40% to 30%, leading to unpredictability and confusion. The new bill will create consistency for donors and nonprofits.

The 40% tax credit for individuals and 20% credit for businesses create a real incentive for participation—meaning Montana's endowed philanthropy will reap substantial rewards. Montana is one of only a few states that provide a tax incentive for individual or business giving to charitable purposes (others include Michigan and West Virginia). To learn more about the Task Force and legislation, visit www.endowmontana.org or email Linda Reed, MCF's executive director.


West Central Initiative Releases Infrastructure Study Results

West Central Initiative (WCI), headquartered in Fergus Falls, MN, serves rural central Minnesota as the region's community foundation and primary economic development organization. In its "hybrid" role, WCI offers traditional community foundation donor and philanthropic services while also conducting programs—many with state and federal funding—that in other regions more often fall under the aegis of economic development agencies.

Most recently, WCI played this role by commissioning a study to assess the condition of the physical infrastructure systems that sustain the region. Suspecting that current systems would prove inadequate not only for a growing economy, but for current needs as well, WCI believed its mission and neutrality made it the best institution to commission the assessment.

WCI's study investigated existing municipal water, wastewater and storm sewer systems and estimated the level of repair and maintenance these systems will require over the next twenty years. The study is intended to develop and disseminate data that will help the region make informed and cooperative decisions about its future while also making a case for state and Federal assistance needed to avoid potential crises.

As highlighted in Building Rural Livelihood: An RDP Thinking and Action Framework, economic security and community development often hinge upon systems that undergird one's community—transportation, water, sewer, food supplies, healthcare, and so forth. In west central Minnesota, housing, business attraction and job development strategies will be influenced by that region's infrastructure. Learn more online about the WCI study and its findings and about WCI, or contact president Nancy Straw.


A Bountiful Harvest for Nebraska Community Foundation

The Nebraska Community Foundation (NCF) counts 2002 as a particularly successful year for both the foundation and the most rural communities of Nebraska. While NCF has always emphasized community development programming and promoted philanthropy as a vital resource for rural Nebraska, the past year saw NCF successfully unite the community endowment, community building and operational goals that characterize NCF's unique role in Nebraska.

NCF operates as a "service bureau" community foundation. In this model, the central staff's primary job is to help individual communities or regions in the state set up area funds or mini-community foundations. NCF then provides all "back office services" (finance, accounting, investment, administration, capacity building) for those component funds. Much less emphasis is placed on developing statewide endowed funds.

In 2000, NCF projected the 50-year intergenerational transfer of wealth likely to occur in Nebraska and in its 93 individual counties. Because of its aging population and agricultural economy, the peak transfer in many Nebraska counties will take place over the next 10-20 years. NCF used this analysis to begin discussing ways communities might "give back to themselves" by establishing community endowments.

After promoting this message for more than a year, NCF found that communities started calling—and calling. NCF realized it could not meet the demand for staff assistance to service all the funds. Staff and board responded by developing a strategy to support both the operations of the statewide foundation and local community endowments.

The strategy? More field staff and more operating resources. NCF rolled up its sleeves and went for it. The pay off? Having started this effort in 2000 with a total pooled endowment of under $5 million, NCF now has 153 affiliated funds or donor-advised funds in 69 of Nebraska's 93 counties, many of them in very low-income communities. As of December 2002, NCF had $16 million in assets and $15 million in expectancies. Here are a few highlights from 2002:

  • Board members are actively involved in NCF's $300,000/year campaign to fund their development strategy

  • Last fall, NCF hired two new full-time development staff members—Development Director Doug Friedli of Nebraska City and Assistant Development Director Jana Jensen of Bingham

  • A 3-year funding commitment from Consolidated Telephone Company (serves 30+ towns in rural Nebraska)

  • A $30,000 bequest to Shickley (pop. 376) to help them match a $100,000 "Legacy" challenge grant from a local donor to build an unrestricted community endowment fund

  • A $1,000,000 bequest for an endowment for Spencer (pop. 541), located in Boyd County (pop 2,438), where 46% of county residents are low income, nearly double the Nebraska average

  • Four new expectancies for Burwell (pop. 1,278), which likely will total $1,000,000 or more

According to Jeff Yost, NCF's Executive Vice President: "These gifts truly confirm the power of grassroots community-based fundraising and the probability of moving our efforts toward long-term endowment building." For more information about NCF and their vision for rural Nebraska, visit www.nebcommfound.org or contact Jeff Yost, Executive Vice President.


Do you have news (a-ha!) or success (yippee!) you'd like to share with your RDP Learning Network peers? Don't be shy! Send it to either rdpinfo@aspencsg.org or jt@aspeninstitute.org.


Learning Clusters Gather at Fall Learning Institutes

Cluster A Learning Teams from Humboldt Area Foundation (CA), Nebraska Community Foundation, West Central Initiative (MN) and CREATE Foundation (MS) met last September at the Aspen Institute Wye River Conference Center for a third and final learning institute. The foundations explored issues of board development and other topics to help the foundations sustain their commitment to RDP.

Last October, a one-time Learning Cluster for Start-ups convened four young and ambitious rural-focused community foundations in a one-time peer learning institute in Washington, DC. The Community Foundation for the New River Valley (VA), the Greater Rustenburg Community Foundation (South Africa), Northwest Arkansas Foundation and The Foundation for Appalachian Ohio explored ways to build RDP into the very DNA of their still-forming organizations.

In November, Cluster B Learning Teams from the Foundation for the Tri-State Community (WV-KY-OH), Foundation Northwest (WA-ID), North Carolina Community Foundation and Wyoming Community Foundation gathered at the Lied Conference Center in Nebraska City, Nebraska—home of Arbor Day. The teams delved into marketing and branding issues for foundations serving rural regions. Staff and volunteers from Cluster A's Nebraska Community Foundation joined Cluster B, serving as perfect Midwestern hosts for this meeting.


Peer-learning doesn't have to end! Be on the look-out for follow-up interviews and progress reports from Learning Cluster members in future editions of Zest!


What is RDP?

Rural Development Philanthropy is the process and practice of creating and strengthening locally controlled endowment, grantmaking and community programs to improve rural livelihoods, economies and community vitality.

The RDP Learning Network is a diverse group of community foundations and philanthropic organizations learning from one another innovative strategies to improve RDP practice and outcomes.

With support from its philanthropic partners, The Aspen Institute's Community Strategies Group (CSG) manages the Network and collects and disseminates RDP tools, stories and strategies to the community foundation and community development fields.


Contact Us!

The RDP Team includes CSG staffers: Janet Topolsky, Elizabeth Myrick, Diane Morton and Mridulika Menon, as well as a cadre of national and international peers and consultants equipped with hands-on RDP expertise.

Email us with suggestions and questions about anything RDP. Or write or call us:

Community Strategies Group
The Aspen Institute
One Dupont Circle, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 736-5804


Join the Learning Network Today!

What's free to join, connects and celebrates rural leaders and friends and disseminates valuable tools, ideas and strategies for building philanthropy in and for rural communities?

The Rural Development Philanthropy Learning Network—that's what!

Membership in the Learning Network is free and open to any organization or individual committed to advancing innovative strategies aimed at improving RDP practice and outcomes.

Members receive:

  • First notice of RDP events
  • Connections with peers—best practices and advice using Talkin' RDP listserv and learning archive
  • Access to technical assistance from RDP staffers and consultants
  • And, opportunities for RDP learning and funding!

Become a member today!


Zest is produced and published for the Rural Development Philanthropy Learning Network (RDPLN) and its friends by The Aspen Institute's Community Strategies Group (CSG).



Zest archive

Look for our next issue in Summer 2003!