We’re always on the lookout for funders backing rural areas, an overlooked segment of the country when it comes to philanthropy. And while there are some national funders backing rural areas, most of rural philanthropy is done on a regional basis. So far, we’ve explored some of the regional funders operating in the Midwest, the South, New England and the Mid-Atlantic.
Although regional funders often don’t have the same amount of money or reach as national funders, generally speaking, they tend to be much better equipped to help rural communities, as they are far more familiar with the issues and people on the ground. Experts even suggest that national funders who are interested in supporting rural America may want to consider providing funding to these regional institutions, which can be more effective in regranting the funds.
One such regional funder is the LOR Foundation, which is dedicated to working alongside people who live in rural locales to improve the quality of life in their communities. LOR stands for livability, opportunity and responsibility.
The foundation serves several communities across the Mountain West: Cortez, Colorado; Monte Vista, Colorado; Lander, Wyoming; Libby, Montana; Questa, New Mexico; and Taos, New Mexico. All of the communities LOR serves are small, with populations ranging from 2,671 in Questa, New Mexico to 8,742 in Cortez, Colorado. This year so far, LOR has awarded close to $2 million across its six communities, and anticipates the annual figure to grow as new communities are added and as more ideas come in. This Fall, LOR will add Weiser, Idaho, to the list of communities it serves.
Funding comes from a familiar source, the family of a prominent billionaire philanthropist with a strong affinity for the American West himself. LOR was launched in 2007 by Amy Wyss and her husband, Edward Jaramillo in Taos, New Mexico. Wyss is the daughter of Swiss businessman Hansjörg Wyss, who made a home in Wyoming and has given hundreds of millions toward environmental conservation and other causes over the years.
Amy Wyss and Jaramillo are carrying out their own philanthropy, but with a different focus and approach. The vision behind the LOR Foundation, according to Executive Director Gary Wilmot, was to create a private foundation that would be accessible to people, simple to understand, and quick to take action.
“When you work in rural places and small, sometimes off-the-map places, there’s not a big universe of funders waiting to help,” Wilmot said. “For us, we are super excited to be in these places.”
Listening to communities
The foundation takes a unique approach to its grantmaking. “We don’t come to a community believing that… our solution might be able to improve livability in a place,” Wilmot said. “Instead, our mission is to come ready to listen.”
To do so, LOR hires community officers, who play a critical role in connecting individuals with ideas to the grants they need to carry them out. “If you’re an organization like ours that wants to move quickly and help in lots of ways, it helps to have somebody who understands the lay of the land and that understands the community right away,” Wilmot said.
Wilmot noted that trust is really important when working in small communities. Bringing in someone from the outside might slow the process down and make things more difficult, as they likely would need time to understand the community and build relationships with its residents.
Community officers do more than sit in an office. In the small communities LOR serves, they need to get outside and connect with people. LOR officers strive to be where the people are, according to Wilmot, and every place becomes a place for a conversation.
The foundation also strives to simplify the grant request process. “We are trying to make that really easy,” Wilmot said. “We don’t have a formal application and we don’t have a deadline. Our work is structured by a local person living in the community.”
Instead of relying on onerous and often complicated application processes, a request for funding could be as simple as chatting with a community officer over a cup of coffee.
“If the idea is fully formed, you’ve got a plan, you know how much it costs, your coffee could turn into a funding request, could turn into an approval tomorrow, could turn into a check in your hand next week,” Wilmot said.
Reaching people
LOR recently celebrated its two-year anniversary of working in Cortez, Colorado, where it has, to date, awarded a little more than a million dollars across 165 community projects. “Our hope and understanding is that if we had funded 10 solutions, maybe we’re affecting this many people in a community. If we’re funding 165 solutions with community benefit, we’re probably engaging with a greater number of folks in the community on matters of quality of life and livability.”
An example of a recent project LOR funded in Cortez is the No Fixed Abode program, in which local gallery owner Mary Fuller provided space for local unhoused artists to showcase their work. One such artist went to Fuller’s gallery and asked if he could hang his art there. Fuller not only agreed, she decided to go a step further, having already been interested in helping unhoused artists showcase their work. As Fuller began reaching out to shelters and soup kitchens to find people who may be interested, she realized that in order for the project to work, the artists would need supplies to create their artwork.
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