New Findings Show Philanthropic Efforts Are Growing in Rural Areas

Philanthropy in rural America is growing, as community foundations increasingly establish special funds to serve remote geographic areas and new grass-roots efforts are getting under way to encourage greater giving in rural parts of the country, two new reports have found.

More than 3,000 so-called geographic affiliate funds now operate across the country, according to a survey by the Aspen Institute, a think tank in Washington, and three-quarters of them make grants to groups in rural areas. The report said the affiliate funds have grown in number by 132 percent since 1999.

Geographic affiliate funds operate like freestanding community foundations, and most have local boards that promote fund raising and oversee grant making. By affiliating with a community foundation, such funds are responsible for substantially less legal and financial paperwork than if they operated on their own and are able to keep overhead costs relatively low.

The survey was based on online interviews conducted last year with 241 community foundations that collectively ran 1,079 geographic affiliate funds that hold a total of $1.12-billion in assets. Nearly 70 percent of the community foundations surveyed said they plan to add new geographic affiliate funds soon.

“This survey tells us that communities are taking philanthropy into their own hands,” says Janet Topolsky, director of the Aspen Institute’s community strategies group. “In rural places they want to do more than grow endowment, they want to help change their community’s future.”

In addition to the Aspen Institute report, New Ventures in Philanthropy, a Washington organization of grant makers, has also released a report that examines trends in rural giving and highlights successful tools that people in rural areas are using to assess the state of their philanthropic resources and increase them.

Identifying Resources

Among the efforts that the New Ventures report notes:

• The Philanthropy Index for Small Towns and Rural Communities, developed by the Southeastern Council of Foundations, in Atlanta, and the Foundation for the Mid South, in Jackson, Miss., offers 12 indicators of philanthropic potential to help communities identify the resources available in rural counties. The index is being used to develop local philanthropy efforts across the South, such as “giving circles,” in which small groups of resident donors pool resources to support charities.
• The Nebraska Community Foundation, in Lincoln, has developed an analytical tool that helps people in rural areas estimate the amount of wealth that will transfer between generations over the coming 50 years, down to the county level.

Charities are using the data to help figure out how to encourage people to create bequests and set up other planned gifts. The effort has helped the number of planned gifts triple in the state in the past three years.

The report shows that rural communities are starting to “change their mindset,” says Paula Shoecraft, communications manager for New Ventures in Philanthropy.

“They are starting to think of themselves as not just communities that have needs, but as communities that have assets and that can help themselves grow,” she says. “Even people in places of modest means can be philanthropists.”

“The Power of Rural Philanthropy” will be available free on the New Ventures in Philanthropy Web site as of September 20. Go to: http://www.givingforum.org/newventures. A copy of the report may also be obtained by calling (202) 467-1120.

The Aspen Institute survey, “The Growing Local Philanthropy: The Role and Reach of Community Foundations,” is available free on the Aspen Institute’s Web site, http://www.aspeninstitute.org/, or may be obtained by calling Diane Morton at (202) 736-5804.