NFG Rural Funders Working Group Newsletter, Vol. III, No. 1
February 2001

Site visits

The RFWG site visits have been possible because of the tremendous work done by the local community groups and grantmakers who have organized and sponsored them. Special thanks to Joe Belden and Michelle McDonough for their work on the Chesapeake Bay (DelMarVa) site visit and to Jerry Hoffman of School at the Center and Jack Hills from the Rural School and Community Trust for their work on the site visit to Nebraska. Many thanks also to Bob Agres and Chris Van Bergeijk for all of their work preparing for the Hawaii Learning Tour.

For each visit, a case study was commissioned to document what funders learned and develop ideas for innovative rural grantmaking strategies. Information about each of the visited groups is included in the case studies. They are posted on NFG's Web site at www.nfg.org, where they can be downloaded. Hard copies are available from NFG's office. We urge you to share them with other grantmakers who may be interested in thinking about ways to fund rural.

In an unexpected turn, the site visits have drawn some media attention. A local TV station covered the site visit in Maryland and Foundation News & Commentary reported from one of the case studies. In March, the Working Group's site visit subcommittee will undertake an evaluation of the site visits. To share your thoughts about them, e-mail Teri Yeager at tyeager@hearstfdn.org.

2001 Activities

This year we are taking on one new project - developing a "curriculum" about rural funding that can be used at RAG and other meetings. Would you like to help think about and work on this project?

We will also be holding the third Fall Rural Funders Forum. Would you like to work with other grantmakers to organize this event?

We're also going to be reaching out to other organizations, including affinity groups, to see where we can work together. If you belong to another affinity group, please let us know.

If you can help out in 2001 or have other ideas for activities that we should be involved in, please fill out and return the enclosed FAX-back sheet and we'll get back in touch with you with more details.

RURAL ROOTS
by Jeff Pryor

The eastern Wyoming sky is brightening and it's chilly. Cowboys on cutting horses separate calves and cows for the yearly branding. The heat around the brandingfire draws some to warm their hands around a cup of "cowboy" coffee (grounds included). I'm seven and am drinking hot chocolate - it will be my last branding for I am off to live in the city.

Advance forty plus years and I hunker down behind a computer in a high rise in Denver working for a foundation. My days of coats and ties are far from my Wyoming roots. My experience is not unique, for many in philanthropy trace their history back to rural within one or two generations.

What is philanthropy's role in supporting rural endeavors? Twenty-five percent of our nation's population lives in rural America, but is 25% of philanthropy invested in rural? Why should philanthropy invest in rural when most of the population lives urban and suburban? Most of American philanthropy has city addresses, do folks who work in philanthropy have city "leanings"?

In the late 80s, nonprofit organizations in Western Colorado and the Community Resource Center invited funders to the first "Philanthropy Days". The success of this two-day familiarization meeting spawned the development of similar events in other regions of Colorado. Twelve years later Philanthropy Days continue to be held twice a year and feature different regions of the state.

Imagine yourself in one of these Philanthropy Days. You've left your suit behind to don more appropriate rural attire. You're meeting in the county fair barn or at a community college. You're attending workshops on the challenges of rural communities, meeting local elected officials and other community stewards. Most of the people you meet will come from towns with populations ranging from 100 to 25,000.

Grantmakers learn about rural communities, are introduced to nonprofit representatives and meet local elected officials and other community stewards. Rural communities would suffer without the composite contribution of nonprofit organizations and citizens who volunteer. Philanthropy Days showcase funding opportunities and help to keep rural nonprofits vibrant - a recent Philanthropy Day resulted in $750,000 in grants.

Jeff Pryor, Ed.D.
Anschutz Family Foundation
555 17th Street - Suite 2400
Denver, Colorado 80202
(303) 299-1334
JeffPryor@TAC-Denver.com
www.AnschutzFamilyFoundation.org

Jeff Pryor received the 2000 Trailblazer Award from the Colorado Rural Economic Development Counsel and the 1999 Outstanding Professional in Philanthropy for National Philanthropy Day - Colorado. Beyond his duties at the Anschutz Family Foundation, he teaches at Regis University's Nonprofit Masters Program.

Rural Funders Working Group

Linetta Gilbert, now an independent consultant with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Teri Yeager of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation are the RFWG's steering committee's co-chairs.

The other members of the steering committee are Sharon Baranofsky, Rural LISC; Rick Foster, W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Gloria Guerrero, Rural Development and Finance Corporation; Susan Jenkins, The Hitachi Foundation; Sharon King, F.B. Heron Foundation; Alan McGregor, Southern Rural Development Initiative; June Otow, Rural Community Assistance Corporation; Bob Starks, New Mexico Community Foundation; Fred Wacker, Fannie Mae Foundation; and Gayle Williams, Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. Please feel free to contact them with your ideas and comments.

Thanks to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Fannie Mae Foundation, Ford Foundation, F.B. Heron Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation for their continuing support of the activities of the Rural Funders Working Group and the planning grant on a National Rural Funders Collaborative.

National Rural Funders Collaborative planning update

A transition team of funders is working with consultant Jim Richardson to formalize the National Rural Funders Collaborative's structure. Efforts are also underway to solicit first round commitments to the ten-year initiative. There will be an informational meeting on the Collaborative in Philadelphia on April 30, from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. as a pre-meeting to the Council on Foundations Annual Meeting.

A demonstration round of grantmaking for 2001 will be announced later this spring. The purpose of these grants will be to begin the work of the Collaborative in one or two areas of persistent rural poverty. The success of this early demonstration round will help to establish how quickly the Collaborative can expand its work to other areas as it launches a ten-year effort to expand the resource base for and enhance the sustainability of community-based efforts to strengthen rural areas of persistent poverty.

Funds will be made available for efforts where there is a strategic opportunity to support, galvanize and strengthen the work of area funders and community leaders to collaborate more effectively in addressing rural poverty and support sustainable rural community development. The Collaborative will not define regions or prescribe grantmaking strategies, but will rather look to the leadership of regional funders and community partners to self-define their region and to articulate their approach to and strategies for grantmaking for sustainable change. For more information, contact Jim Richardson at jamesarichardson@netzero.net or 214-946-9250.

Rural Funders Working Group listserv

Participation in the Rural Funders Working Group listserv continues to grow. It is the place for regular updates on the RFWG and other rural activities and programs. The steering committee thanks Chuck Bean of the EZ/EC Foundation Consortium for his work on the listserv. He continues to gather information for regular postings about stimulating topics and we appreciate the time and effort that he has put into making the listserv work. For information on how to subscribe, e-mail nfg@nfg.org.

Rural Funders Working Group
Our mission is to increase the awareness of funding needs in rural communities and to foster greater involvement and partnership efforts in responding to the needs of rural communities. Over 200 funders and intermediaries belong to NFG's Rural Funders Working Group. We encourage funders with suggestions for issues that the RFWG should be addressing to contact us. For more information, contact NFG. After March 1: One Dupont Circle, #700 Washington, DC 20036 202-833-4690 (t)

1301 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 500 • Washington, DC 20036 • Phone: (202) 833-4690 • Fax: (202) 833-4694 • nfg@nfg.org
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