Aspen CSG partners with Rural Development Hubs across the country to strengthen local leadership, align funding, and build regional capacity. Through research and peer learning, we support Hub leaders to refine strategies and apply what works across regions.
In Kentucky, we work with Hub partners that coordinate across sectors, align resources, and connect communities to advance long-term regional strategies.
Appalachian Community Capital
Service area: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Appalachian Community Capital is a nonprofit community development financial institution (CDFI) focused on attracting new sources of capital for small businesses, including minority- and women-owned businesses, in underserved places across Appalachia and similar energy communities nationally.
Visit organization: appalachiancommunitycapitalcdfi.org
Featured in Aspen CSG resources: Resources for Rural Communities, Aspen CSG in Action, How Can We Secure Enduring Capital for Equitable Rural Prosperity?, and more.
Appalshop
Service area: Kentucky.
Appalshop operates a radio station, a theater, a public art gallery, a record label, an archive, a filmmaking institute, a reproductive justice program, a community development program, and an array of other initiatives, all from Letcher County, Kentucky.
Visit organization: appalshop.org
Featured in Aspen CSG resources: Support Local Efforts for Eastern Kentucky.
Fahe
Service area: Alabama, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Fahe is a purpose-oriented network of 50+ diverse community-based nonprofits serving the Appalachian states of Alabama, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. With a focus on leadership, housing, education, health and social services, and economic opportunity, Fahe empowers the people and communities of Appalachia with the resources, opportunities, and tools needed to build a better life.
Visit organization: fahe.org
Featured in Aspen CSG resources: Support Local Hurricane Recovery Efforts, Support Local Efforts for Eastern Kentucky, Funding Rural Futures: A Call to Action, and more.
Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky
Service area: Kentucky.
By supporting communities, growing assets, and strengthening leadership, the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky is rising where they’re rooted. Their mission is to empower Appalachian Kentucky communities to thrive through collaboration, asset building, and leadership development.
Visit organization: appalachianky.org
Invest Appalachia
Service area: Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Invest Appalachia works to improve how communities can connect to funding in a region that has long been overlooked. By combining different types of funding to meet project needs, they help investment-worthy projects become investment-ready, unlocking opportunities for equitable prosperity in underserved communities.
Visit organization: investappalachia.org
Featured in Aspen CSG resources: Balanced Development Outcomes, Learnings on Rural Migration and Displacement, and How Can We Secure Enduring Capital for Equitable Rural Prosperity?.
MDC
Service area: West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas.
MDC equips leaders, institutions, and communities with the necessary tools and strategies to advance equity, particularly racial and gender equity, and economic mobility. For over 50 years, MDC has shared deep knowledge and proven tools to design, demonstrate, and sustain what works to boost everyone, particularly those who’ve been left behind, to higher rungs on the economic ladder.
Visit organization: mdcinc.org
Featured in Aspen CSG resources: Q&A with MDC’s Brandy Bynum Dawson, The Power of Connection: Rural Development Hubs in Action, Funding Rural Futures: A Call to Action, and more.
Mountain Association
Service area: Kentucky.
The Mountain Association is a nonprofit, established in 1976, that invests in people and places to build a new economy in Eastern Kentucky. It advances this mission through flexible lending for businesses and organizations, hands-on business support services, expert energy consulting, and partnerships that drive research, advocacy, and innovative projects across the region.
Visit organization: mtassociation.org
Shaping Our Appalachian Region
Service area: Kentucky.
Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) is a nonprofit serving the 54 Appalachian Regional Commission counties of Eastern Kentucky. Born from the economic fallout of the coal industry, SOAR’s mission today is to solve the deep-seated issue of population retention and growth in Eastern Kentucky.
Visit organization: soar-ky.org
Featured in Aspen CSG resources: Through Natural Disaster to Prosperity: A Call to Action, Mapping a New Terrain: Call to Action, Rural Development Hubs: Strengthening America’s Rural Innovation Infrastructure, and more.
