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 Mississippi, 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 business owners, in underserved places across Appalachia and similar energy communities nationally.
Appalachian Community Capital is featured in these Aspen CSG resources: Resources for Rural Communities, Aspen CSG in Action, How Can We Secure Enduring Capital for Equitable Rural Prosperity?, and more.
Communities Unlimited
Service area: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.
Communities Unlimited connects rural Americans to solutions that sustain healthy businesses, healthy communities, and healthy lives. They believe that access to opportunities should not depend on where you live, how much you have in the bank, or what you look like.
Communities Unlimited is featured in these Aspen CSG resources: Measure Up: A Call to Action, Rural Development Hubs: Strengthening America’s Rural Innovation Infrastructure, Ten Podcasts Focused on Rural Community and Economic Development, Four Principles for Fostering Community Well-Being with Asset-Based Development, and more.
CREATE Foundation
Service area: Mississippi.
The CREATE Foundation serves as a philanthropic resource for charitable planning and community investment across northeast Mississippi, supporting individuals, nonprofits, businesses, and communities. Working together with fund donors, grant recipients, organizations, and communities, the Foundation is a powerful catalyst for building charitable resources for its region.
Higher Purpose Hub
Service area: Mississippi.
The Higher Purpose Hub is a regional nonprofit intermediary based in Clarksdale, Mississippi, launched in 2016 to improve intergenerational economic opportunity across the Mississippi Delta. HPH advances its mission through education, grantmaking, storytelling, and programs spanning business ownership, arts and culture, food and agriculture, health and wellness, and capital access.
Higher Purpose Hub is featured in these Aspen CSG resources: The Power of Connection: Rural Development Hubs in Action.
Hope Enterprise Organization
Service area: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
Hope Enterprise Corporation (HEC) is a community development financial institution (CDFI) dedicated to strengthening communities, building assets, and improving lives in under-resourced communities throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
Hope Enterprise Organization is featured in these Aspen CSG resources: Funding Rural Futures: A Call to Action and Thrive Rural Theory of Change Working Group (2019-2021).
MDC
Service area: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
MDC equips leaders, institutions, and communities with the necessary tools and strategies to advance equity, particularly racial and gender equity, and economic mobility. For more than 50 years, MDC has shared deep knowledge and proven tools to design, demonstrate, and sustain what works to boost opportunity for everyone, particularly those who have been left behind.
MDC is featured in these 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.
Sipp Culture
Service area: Mississippi.
The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production is an approach and resource for cultivating thriving communities. Based in the rural South, “Sipp Culture” is honoring the history and building the future of its community of Utica, Mississippi. Sipp Culture supports community development from the ground up through cultural production focused on self-determination and agency.
Southern Bancorp Community Partners
Service area: Arkansas and Mississippi.
Southern Bancorp Community Partners (SBCP) is a certified nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution that provides lending, financial development services, and public policy advocacy in economically distressed communities. Part of the Southern Bancorp family of financial organizations, SBCP works in tandem with Southern Bancorp, Inc., a bank holding company, and Southern Bancorp Bank, one of America’s largest rural development banks, toward a shared mission of creating economic opportunity for all.
Southern Bancorp Community Partners is featured in these Aspen CSG resources: A Few Things to Know About Rural America.
Sustainable Forestry & African American Land Retention Network
Service area: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
The Sustainable Forestry & African American Land Retention Network (SFLR Network) creates a system of support for African American and rural forest owners that significantly increases the value of forests, land retention, and asset development for rural families in the U.S. South. The SFLR Network has improved forest management and forest retention by connecting African American landowners with established networks of local forestry support. This includes federal and state government programs, businesses, nonprofit conservation, legal, and community development organizations.
The SFLR Network is featured in these Aspen CSG resources: Using Relational Leadership to Build Power Together and more.
