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 North Carolina, 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 non-profit community development financial institution (CDFI) that is focused on attracting new sources of capital for small businesses, including minority and women-owned business owners, in underserved places in 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.
Black Family Land Trust
Service area: North Carolina.
The Black Family Land Trust, Inc. (BFLT), incorporated in 2004 and based in North Carolina, is one of the nation’s only conservation land trusts dedicated to the preservation and protection of African American and other historically underserved landowners’ assets. BFLT works primarily in the Southeast and provides families with the tools necessary to make informed, proactive decisions regarding their land and its use.
Visit organization: bflt.org
Featured in Aspen CSG resources: Building Power Together: Sustainable Forestry and African-American Land Retention Network and Four Principles for Fostering Community Well-Being with Asset-Based Development.
Eagle Market Streets Development Corporation
Service area: North Carolina.
Eagle Market Streets is a nonprofit organization serving western North Carolina with a focus on community support, property, and economic development. They do this through attainable housing, commercial leasing opportunities, and capital injections into developing businesses.
Visit organization: eaglemarketstreets.org
Invest Appalachia
Service area: Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Invest Appalachia (IA) is a collaborative impact investment platform created by and for the people of Central Appalachia working to make the region’s collective potential greater than the sum of its parts. They are a regionally representative fund that leverages deep relationships and investments from our partners in philanthropy community finance, and community economic development.
Visit organization: investappalachia.org
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.
NC Rural Center
Service area: North Carolina.
The NC Rural Center’s mission is to develop, promote, and implement sound economic strategies to improve the quality of life of rural North Carolinians. They serve the state’s 78 rural counties, with a special focus on people with low- to moderate-incomes and communities with limited resources.
Visit organization: ncruralcenter.org
Featured in Aspen CSG resources: Reinventing Rural Policy and Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design.
The Industrial Commons
Service area: North Carolina.
The Industrial Commons (TIC) is based in Morganton, North Carolina. As a nonprofit, it focuses on launching and nurturing community-owned, for-profit businesses. These enterprises contribute to a vibrant local economy while engaging in a cycle of mutual support and reinvestment that enhances the overall resilience and prosperity of the community.
Visit organization: theindustrialcommons.org
Featured in Aspen CSG resources: From Competition to Cooperation: Rural Wealth Creation and Four Principles for Fostering Community Well-Being with Asset-Based Development.
