Funding Rural

Rhodes Scholar, lifelong Portlander, and community visionary JT Flowers draws the parallels between urban and rural communities. Born and raised in NE Portland’s historic Black neighborhood, the Albina District, Flowers recently served as Senior Advisor and Director of Government Affairs at Albina Vision Trust, the largest community-led redevelopment effort in America. The Trust was created to buy back land, rebuild community...

Mel Butterfield asks, ‘if adults aren’t modeling healthy behaviors, why does it surprise us when youth behavior suffers?’ She is a fourth-generation Central Oregonian and the director of Central Oregon YouthLine, a peer-to-peer crisis, help and support line nationally available. 

Young people don’t always want to talk to adults when it comes to their mental health, so YouthLine is staffed by young people...

Rev. Dr. Ryan M. Eller is a ninth-generation Appalachian who deeply understands his region—and where generations of their wealth went. As Executive Director of Appalachia Funders Network, Eller leads a coalition of more than 80 funders who are committed to socio-economic transition in Central Appalachia. Eller began his career in community organizing and wishes more funders had that valuable experience, which taught him that ...

When people don’t know where to begin when it comes to funding rural America, collaborative funds are a great way to start. Charlie Brown is the executive director of the Trust for Civic Life, which is an example of one of those funds. They’re made up of 20 different funders from across the country all working together to empower people to get involved in shaping the future of their communities and everyday democracy. T...

Funding for disaster response is much needed in the American West where vast rangeland ignites quickly under dry conditions. In Eastern Oregon, innovative Rangeland Fire Protection Associations (RFPAs) bring together local ranchers and state resources to work collaboratively when fires break out. Derek Burkhardt is a 4th generation rancher and farmer from Vale, Oregon who is in a leadership role with his two local RFPAs, and Alliso...

Meeting the mental and behavioral health needs of rural communities, where people are dispersed and remarkably self-reliant, can be a challenge for a variety of different reasons. In Northeast Oregon, Community Counseling Solutions serves an area of more than 60,000 square miles, in which just 100,000 people reside—the sheer distance can stretch resources thin. Kimberly Lindsay is their director and she cofounded the David Ro...

There are so many folks who want to age in place but live far away from the care they need, and that can present challenges for their health, happiness and the social fabric of their communities. Dr. Jordan Lewis is the director for the Center on Aging at the University of Hawaii at Manoa with the Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health. He’s Alaska Native on his mother’s side and got his PhD in Community Psych...

When massive wildfires swept through Oregon in 2020, Dee Anne Everson helped hundreds of people who had just lost everything, and five years later, she’s still helping them. She’s CEO of United Way of Jackson County Oregon, and has a special leadership philosophy that’s evident in her work. Everson leads a staff of 7 and they partner with hundreds of volunteers across south-central Oregon to help folks with everyt...

Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology in Northern Michigan is an artist residency that aims to build community through farming, ecology and economy. The Northern Michigan Small Farms Conference is a program of theirs that brings farms together to learn and connect in the height of summer. Led by Brad Kik and his wife, Amanda, Crosshatch was also a key partner behind a recently completed new building near downtown Traverse City call...

Philanthropy has long been a champion of public radio, providing grants for everything from infrastructure and new buildings to special reporting projects. Recent federal cuts have made philanthropic support even more critical to keep public radio stations afloat: across the country, in rural and remote areas, and especially on Tribal lands. Sue Matters is the station manager at KWSO 91.9 FM, which is a non-commercial radio station...

In rural and remote Oregon, where populations are low and the need for educators is high, there’s Rural Teacher Corps, a Grow Your Own program that is implementing new approaches to identifying, supporting, and training tomorrow’s teachers. Dave Dallas, who runs the program, teaches in the College of Education at Eastern Oregon University and he’s the Director of Teach Rural Oregon. He shares how philanthropy can ...

Native American Tribal communities are a blind spot for philanthropy with just .4% of funding going to Native organizations—but some philanthropic organizations are trying to change that. Stone Hudson, a citizen of the three affiliated tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara) of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota shares his experience as Program Officer at Meyer Memorial Trust where he oversees the Tribal Nations Partn...

Luke Shaefer, PhD is one of the nation's foremost scholars of poverty and social welfare policy. He is a professor at the University of Michigan and is the inaugural director of Poverty Solutions, an interdisciplinary initiative that partners with communities and policymakers to find novel ways to alleviate poverty. In 2015, he co-authored the book, “$2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America”, which was named one of...

Green River, Utah (population 900) can be seen as a waypoint in the desert with more hotel rooms than residents. Or it can be seen through the eyes of locals like Maria Sykes. She’s the director and co-founder of Epicenter, a nonprofit in Green River that focuses on housing and fosters creativity and art in the community. Maria did not grow up in the region, instead she came by way of Americorps, and in the 16 years she&rsquo...

Libraries are vital to rural communities—they do so much more than just check out books. They provide internet access, heating and cooling centers, early learning, nutrition, STEM programs, story time and more. Dr. Regina Washington-Arthur is the managing director of the Rural Library Network for Partners for Rural Impact. With a background in public health, Washington-Arthur explains that libraries contribute to the overall ...

More than 50 million Americans face food insecurity. And in the U.S., 9 out of the 10 counties with the highest rate of food insecurity are rural. To offset this disparity, Roundhouse Foundation recently launched a 6 million dollar investment which will support local food purchase over the next three years. Carly Auten is food program director at NeighborImpact, a grant recipient that distributes more than 4 million pounds of food ...

Josh Davis began his career in the nonprofit world by working for the Delta Health Alliance, which is a nonprofit that works to improve access to healthcare and education in the Mississippi Delta. He then made the shift into the philanthropic world and now serves as the vice president of policy and partnerships at StriveTogether, leading national efforts to build civic infrastructure and influence public policy that puts more young...