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Introduction

Rural and Indigenous communities are building vibrant, sustainable futures. By drawing on local leadership and strengths and working across sectors, rural regions are solving problems, filling gaps, and creating the systems they need to thrive. Rural Development Hubs (Hubs) make this transformational work possible. Hubs are rooted in asset-based development, which focuses on community strengths rather than what’s missing. This means Hubs do rural development differently.

For example, while traditional models might prioritize attracting a new major employer, Hubs often support local entrepreneurs to build a sustainable, locally-owned economy. Across the country, rural and Indigenous communities are responding to long-term disinvestment, economic transition, and short-term shocks. Hubs support this work by building relationships, aligning efforts, pooling resources, and helping regions rebuild the systems they need.

As a rural development convener, the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group (Aspen CSG) brings Hub leaders together to learn from each other, share insights, and deepen understanding of this critical work.

What is A Rural Development Hub?

Rural Development Hubs bring a region together for action. Hubs do what needs to be done to fill gaps and repair systems.

Shining a Light on Rural Development Hubs

Aspen CSG’s 2019 report Rural Development Hubs: Strengthening America’s Rural Innovation Infrastructure,
identified, described, and unified Rural Development Hubs.

Across the country, diverse organizations were already doing rural development differently, using a flexible,
systems-based approach grounded in local needs and opportunities. The report helped these organizations
recognize themselves as Hubs and as part of a broader movement.

As a result:

• Hub leaders found each other—both informally and through Aspen CSG convenings— to exchange ideas and learn as peers and mentors.
  
• The report and the relationships it fostered encouraged new ways of working and inspired leaders to take on new challenges.
  
• It also gave Hubs language, visibility, and a framework to describe their work internally and to community members, partners, public officials, and funders.

Shortly after the report’s release, the COVID-19 pandemic tested Hubs’ adaptability. Across the country, Hubs
quickly mobilized—shifting roles, making new connections, and building systems to meet urgent needs. Some
new Hubs even formed in response, as communities and regions came together to support one another.

Through the pandemic and beyond, Hubs have played an essential role in securing resources for their communities—through coalition building, technical assistance, project design and implementation, fiscal sponsorship, and direct funding. Hubs have supported experimentation and risk-taking, enabling local leaders to test solutions and demonstrate what works, advancing the field of rural development.

Hubs are rooted in relationships. Their connections—within and across regions—have deepened over time, with Aspen CSG as a national connector linking leaders across the country

Why Work as a Hub?

A Rural Development Hub is a way of working, rather than a specific type of organization. Across the country, many kinds of organizations operate as Hubs—including foundations, financial institutions, and community groups. They adopt this approach because it fits how rural communities work and what they need.

• Flexibility and responsiveness: Rural communities vary widely—even within the same region. Hubs grow, adapt, and restructure organically in response to community needs, staying true to core values without relying on one-size-fits-all strategies.
  
• Inclusivity: Hubs reflect the identity and spirit of their region. They center local people in decision-making and define community broadly. In places where residents often feel excluded from the larger culture and economy, this approach can be transformative.
  
• Connection: Hubs rely on trust and long-term relationships. In rural areas, where histories run deep and relationships are layered, this relational work is essential—and often challenging.
  
• Bridging: Hubs connect within and across regions, at both local and national levels, moving knowledge and resources across boundaries and breaking down silos.
  
• Pooled resources and capacity: In rural communities, funding, time, and expertise are often spread thin. Hubs coordinate across organizations, enabling shared capacity, stronger collaboration, and better stewardship of limited resources.
  
• Local ownership and livelihoods: Hubs prioritize economic development strategies that build local wealth and strengthen communities. This is especially important in rural regions that have been affected by generations of extractive and exploitative economic models.
  
• Experimentation and learning: Hubs’ flexibility, responsiveness, and grounding in local knowledge allow them to take risks, test new ideas, and share what works with others in the field.
  
• Measuring what matters: Hubs take the long view of their work, building momentum over time and focusing as much as possible on transformation rather than transaction. They negotiate with funders to focus on metrics that reflect local priorities and realities.
  
• Building trust and capacity: The Hubs model strengthens trust and capacity in communities and regions beyond immediate project results. This makes Hubs a powerful alternative to fragmented, short-term efforts that can leave communities worse off than before.

Meet Four Hubs:

MDC (North Carolina)

MDC is a regional nonprofit organization that envisions a South where all people thrive. It equips Southern leaders, institutions, and communities with the necessary tools and strategies to advance equity—particularly racial and gender equity—and economic mobility.

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Change Labs (Navajo Nation)

Change Labs is a Native-led organization rooted on the Navajo Nation, created to help Native entrepreneurs strengthen and grow their work. Change Labs helps Native entrepreneurs build what their communities need. To achieve this, the organization invests in the ecosystem required to support and sustain entrepreneurial activity.

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Main Street Skowhegan (Central Maine)

Main Street Skowhegan is a nonprofit organization focused on the ongoing revitalization of historic Skowhegan, Maine. The organization actively collaborates with and engages hundreds of volunteers and dozens of partner organizations and businesses in its region through a variety of economic and community development activities.

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T.L.L Temple Foundation (East Texas)

The T.L.L Temple Foundation is a place-based funder rooted in East Texas communities. The Foundation works alongside rural communities to build a thriving East Texas and to alleviate poverty, creating access and opportunity for all. The Foundation serves as a convener across its region (23 counties in Texas and 1 in Arkansas) and actively facilitates the development of other Rural Development Hubs.

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Learning From Each Other: Hubs in Rural & Indigenous Communities

While many Native nations are rural—and many rural communities include, connect with, or relate to Native nations—their contexts differ in important ways. Native nations face unique administrative and legal challenges related to their relationships with federal, state, and local governments. At the same time, both rural and Indigenous communities benefit from an asset-based approach that builds on strengths rather than focusing on perceived deficits. Hubs working in and across these communities can strengthen their efforts by sharing experiences and learning from one another. This requires deep listening and understanding of history, context, and current practice. For example, rural communities of all types can learn from Indigenous worldviews that center connection and relationship, acknowledging links between economies, ecosystems, well-being, and prosperity.

Advancing the Rural Development Hub Model

In March 2025, Aspen CSG convened Hub leaders from across the country to discuss the future of Rural Development Hubs. Over two days of productive conversation, practitioners identified key questions that need to be answered to advance our understanding of Hubs and their work.

• The state of rural economies: How are rural economies changing? What sectors and approaches are driving sustainable growth? Where should Hubs focus?
  
• Rethinking rural economic development: How can Hubs shift towards relational and regenerative ways of thinking while building wealth for their communities? How can Hubs identify metrics that are broader and reflect foundational drivers of community well-being?
  
• How Hubs work: What models and life cycles define Hubs in different contexts, including Native nations? Is “Hub” the right image for the work these organizations do?
  
• Impact of Hubs: How do Hubs drive change in their communities? How are Hubs affecting the rural development field as a whole? What are the best metrics to assess Hub-driven rural community and economic development?
  
• Communication: What is the best way for Hubs to develop and promote accurate, nuanced, and forward-looking narratives of rural America? How can Hubs tell the stories of their communities that reflect complexity and foster connection?

Aspen CSG’s Role

As a convener and supporter of Hubs and the rural development field, Aspen CSG plans to:

• Further define the Hub model and life cycle
  
• Create tools to help rural regions build and strengthen Hubs
  
• Facilitate peer learning opportunities for Hub leaders
  
• Research and communicate Hubs’ impact

PRACTITIONERS: Join us in shaping the future of Rural Development Hubs. Share your experience to build the next generation of tools and frameworks.

What’s Next: Building Support For Rural Development Hubs

During Aspen CSG’s March 2025 Learning Exchange, participants were asked: What will it take to actively strengthen and build support for Hubs? Aspen CSG’s forthcoming report will share what we learned and provide recommendations for local, regional, and national funders and policymakers on how they can support Rural Development Hubs.