About Resource Rural

Resource Rural is an initiative to mobilize resources, enabling rural communities and Native Nations to access once-in-a-lifetime federal funding and create positive and groundbreaking change in their communities. We believe rural people know what’s best for themselves and their loved ones, and can create the future they envision when equipped with the necessary resources. That’s why we’re leveraging this generational funding opportunity to bring the tools directly into the hands of local partners and communities.

Adam Schaller celebrates the completion of a REAP-funded solar array at Lakeshore Die Cast in Michigan.

National Hub and Network

Resource Rural’s National Hub is working with partners across the country to enable rural and Indigenous communities to access federal dollars. 

Resource Rural works locally. To us, that means collaborating with the folks who are already doing the work, so we can accelerate existing efforts and avoid duplication. Our network of local resource partners — community-based organizations, community development financial institutions, regional hubs — knows their communities best and is ready to dive in and drive with project design, partnership development, grant proposals, and implementation. With the support of the National Hub’s experienced and knowledgeable staff, we build lasting partnerships that we can all return to year after year.

Advocacy and Organizing

Rural community members understand better than anyone else what their own communities need to thrive. But without advocacy and organizing, their voices are not always heard. 

New federal programs create enormous opportunities to bring communities’ visions for lower utility bills, good jobs, affordable housing, and much more to life. However, it can be difficult for local organizations to stay on top of new federal programs and track their implementation.  For many federal programs, states will be making decisions about how the funding gets allocated. 

Without a concerted engagement from community members, some states and local governments may not participate in funding programs. Or if they do — they may structure programs in a way that makes it hard for rural communities to benefit. 

Resource Rural provides organizations and coalitions with the advocacy resources and organizing support they need to ensure that federal funding is invested in rural communities, especially those most in need.

Storytelling and Communications Support

In small towns and cities, Native nations, and rural counties, people are working together to use federal funding to make good things happen in their communities. A berry farmer in Minnesota installs a solar array on his barn roof using Rural Energy for America Program funding. A coastal community in Mississippi creates a flooding mitigation plan with funds from the Inflation Reduction Act. A college on the Navajo Nation uses American Rescue Plan Act funds to create a mill to process Diné wool using traditional methods. Across the country, rural people are looking out for each other and towards the future, while federal funding provides them the tools to see projects realized. 

These stories don’t often get documented and shared. Resource Rural will address this gap by working directly with local organizations to identify stories and talk with local people to hear in their own voice why they’ve taken on this work and what they’ve achieved in their community. By documenting and sharing these stories, Resource Rural will ensure communities and local people see that their contributions are recognized and valued, and that more people learn about the inspiring ways in which rural and Indigenous people are using federal investments to make the places they live in and love stronger. 

In addition to storytelling, as Resource Rural grows, it will provide support to its partners and build their communications capacity.

High-Leverage Climate Opportunities

With close to 40% of emissions created from rural geographies, and 90% of the scaled clean energy projects needing to be sited in rural places, we know the road to climate progress runs straight through rural America. There is an urgent opportunity and responsibility for philanthropy to lean into rural innovation and leadership. The results of a failure to invest in rural-led climate solutions pose a far greater risk than the cost and effort to resource small towns across our nation’s countryside.

In partnership with leadership at the Rural Climate Partnership, Resource Rural climate strategies energize rural-led climate solutions. This partnership stimulates a virtuous cycle in which people learn about and access the tools and opportunities provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS and Science Act to create jobs, diversify local economies, generate energy security, and strengthen resilience. 

  • Enabling community-led clean energy projects.
  • Growing regenerative agriculture practices for robust food systems. 
  • Accelerating electrification and energy efficiency efforts to save rural folks money on their energy bills. 
  • Unlocking the power of the IRA’s direct-to-consumer incentives for cost-saving electrification and efficiency improvements for drivers, home owners, and small businesses.