The American South faces a number of pressing issues, including struggling local economies, lack of access to affordable healthcare and other resources, underfunded schools, and more. And while some funders have stepped up to provide funding, the South remains underfunded relative to other regions, according to Grantmakers for Southern Progress.
At the same time, the majority of private grants go to urban or metropolitan areas, with rural America receiving approximately 7% of all philanthropic dollars in the U.S. This puts rural communities in the South at a disadvantage, even as they face outsized needs.
At Inside Philanthropy, we’ve been mapping the landscape of rural funders in the country, funding nationally and regionally. This time around, we’re turning our attention to the South. The region has its own set of challenges, and even when it does draw philanthropic dollars, funding is not always applied in a way that works for its rural communities. That’s largely because funders from outside of these communities fail to understand their specific needs, dynamics and leaders on the ground.
A 2017 report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) noted the crucial work done by organizations in the South, while outlining common missteps and best practices for funders. “Southern nonprofits are dynamic, innovative and resilient,” the authors wrote. “By necessity, they work at the intersections of identity and issue, building on the South’s tradition of mutual aid, relationship-building and radical hospitality to change their communities for the better — often without much in the way of philanthropic resources.”
NCRP also pointed out that although Southern communities have many dynamic leaders and organizations, funders often take them for granted due to a perceived lack of educational credentials or capacity. Instead, foundations often choose to work only with established leaders across political, business and social sectors, to the detriment of both the region and the funder itself. As NCRP’s report notes, “Southern leaders who come from and are deeply connected to those affected by poverty, racism, sexism and other injustices are the most well-equipped to lead positive change in their communities.”
While funders clearly have work to do in the region, there are a number of placed-based foundations that support rural communities in the South. Experts often recommend that funders coming from outside of these areas provide funding to regional foundations, which in turn can better support the nonprofits working in their communities.
With that in mind, here are some of the place-based funders working to support rural communities in the South.
Carolyn Watson Rural Oklahoma Community Foundation
This foundation was created in 1995, and strives to improve the quality of life for rural Oklahomans. Its funding areas are arts, culture and history; libraries and literacy; health and safety; and economic development. The foundation provides two types of funding: classroom enhancement grants and community grants, as well as an opportunities scholarship program. And the foundation focuses its grantmaking efforts on communities with populations under 6,000.
Recent grantees include Choctaw County Ambulance Authority to support an initiative that provides emergency medical services and CPR training in Choctaw, Pushmataha and McCurtain counties. The foundation has also backed Hobart Public Library to add an e-book service; and Checotah Public Schools.
Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust
This North Carolina-based funder works to create equitable healthcare, education and economic opportunity in the state. The trust focuses its efforts on Forsyth County, as well as the state as a whole. It provides two types of grants: outcomes-focused grants, which are tied to specific goals and strategies; and responsive grants.
One of its special initiatives is Healthy Places NC, which is dedicated to improving the health of residents in some of the most rural and underresourced communities. Its goals for the initiative include increasing healthy eating and active living in low-income communities, reducing the rates of overdose deaths, and addressing childhood trauma for children from low-income neighborhoods.
Some of its rural-specific grantees include Rural Health Group, Inc., Rural Development Center, Green Rural Redevelopment Inc., and the Center for Rural Health Innovation.
Wellspring Foundation of Southwest Virginia
The Wellspring Foundation of Southwest Virginia serves the predominantly rural counties of Washington, Grayson, Russell and Smyth counties. A relatively new foundation, Wellspring was launched as a local, independent private foundation in late 2021 after selling its minority ownership stake in Johnson Memorial Hospital. Such rural health foundations offer an important entry point for even the largest of funders looking to get closer to rural communities.
The foundation’s focus areas include health, children and families; workforce development; and education and economic development. The foundation offers two types of grants: The HOPE (Helping Others Pursue Excellence) grant is for organizations looking for one-time funding for up to $25,000 for a project. The IMPACT (Investing in Meaningful Projects Advancing Community Transformation) grant is for organizations looking for single-year or multi-year support for projects that are more than $25,000.
Recently, Wellspring announced it was partnering with United Way of Southwest Virginia and provided a $4 million grant for workforce development and to create a regional child care center. Other grants have included a collaboration with 17 other Virginia-based foundations to expand behavioral health training for primary care providers who treat children, adolescents and young adults; and a grant to Appalachian Highlands’s Community Dental Center, which provides affordable oral healthcare to underserved and uninsured Virginians in Southwest Virginia.
Sapelo Foundation
This funder works to create a just Georgia for everyone, focusing especially on marginalized communities, communities of color and rural communities. As part of its strategy, Sapelo works to apply a statewide lens across Georgia’s rural-urban continuum to consider just systemic change. The foundation supports statewide efforts that provide meaningful inclusion and perspectives from rural communities and smaller cities.
Grant examples include support for BMV Capacity Building Institute with an extra focus on advancing its work in smaller cities and rural areas, and support New Georgia Project to deepen the organization’s work in rural areas and smaller cities by regranting the funds to more local organizations.
Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi
Community foundations are important backers of rural communities, and this one is no exception, managing more than 300 donor-established funds and having distributed more than $35 million to 835 nonprofit organizations and activities. The foundation serves 11 counties in Mississippi, many of which have large, rural populations.
In addition to managing donor-established funds, the foundation prioritizes its own grantmaking on education, health and children. Its four grantmaking pillars are: endowment for the future of Northwest Mississippi, place-based education and civic entrepreneurship, technology in education, and early childhood education. CFNM’s grants and programs have totaled $3.1 million.
One of its programs is the Box Project, which has been working to help people living in rural poverty in the Mississippi Delta since 1962. The project matches a sponsor volunteer family with a rural-based family living in need. Sponsors offer encouragement, advice and boxes of needed supplies.
Black Belt Community Foundation
This funder works to support community efforts that contribute to the innovation, strength and success of the 12 Alabama counties it supports, most of which are either largely rural or entirely rural.
BBCF has three main areas of operation: grantmaking, encouraging giving from individuals, and offering leadership training, organizational capacity building, and community collaboration. It works across several issue areas, including healthcare, education, economic development and environmental justice. Its volunteer network works across all 12 counties and to address issues like lack of broadband, rural hospital closures, healthcare service disparities, food insecurity and more.
Rapides Foundation
Rapides is focused on improving the health of central Louisiana residents, working across three strategic areas: improving access to healthcare and promoting healthy behaviors; increasing educational attainment and achievement levels to improve economic, social and health status; and improving economic, civic and community opportunities to to develop stronger leaders and more effective organizations. Last Year, the Rapides Foundation received a $14 million grant from MacKenzie Scott.
The foundation offers a number of grants, including the District Grant for Effective Schools, Healthy Behaviors School District Partnership Grant, Youth Volunteer School District Grant, Healthy Behaviors Initiative Program Grant, Workforce Opportunity Grant, and Integrated Behavioral Health Implemental Grant, among others.
An example of its work are two grants provided to Central Louisiana Technical Community College to establish the Central Louisiana Rural Nursing Network and the Central Louisiana Rural Allied Health Network. Through its education arm — the Orchard Foundation — the foundation established its Central Louisiana Instructional Partnership (CLIP) alongside the U.S. Department of Education. CLIP works to recruit, train and support STEM teachers in nine rural school districts. The program was implemented over a five-year period and will be completed this summer.
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Other funders working in the rural South include the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, Arkansas Community Foundation, Greater New Orleans Foundation, Bernard McDonough Foundation, Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation, and Arkansas Community Foundation, among many others.
Any outstanding rural funders we’re missing? Email me at marthar@insidephilanthropy.com.
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