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 West Virginia, 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.
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.
Highland Community Builders
Service area: West Virginia.
Highland Community Builders (HCB) is a non-profit serving the people of Randolph, Upshur, Lewis, Tucker, and Barbour counties in North Central West Virginia. They were founded in 2005 by the Randolph County Housing Authority (RCHA) to provide and support an array of programs and projects that meet housing, workforce development, and social service needs in the region.
Visit organization: highlandcommunitybuilders.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.
West Virginia Community Development Hub
Service area: West Virginia.
The West Virginia Community Development Hub supports West Virginians with the tools and training they need to lead and spark positive change in their hometowns and across our state. The Hub’s purpose is to: coach volunteer community leadership teams to help them build sustained development in rural communities; and grow the overall community economic development system in West Virginia through collaborative partnerships that use innovative approaches to address systemic challenges for rural development.
Visit organization: wvhub.org
Featured in Aspen CSG resources: Communicating to Connect: Moving Beyond Neutrality.
