Rural Causes Get Small Share of Foundation, Corporate Aid, Study Finds

Rural areas get a disproportionately low share of foundation money, a report released last week charges.

Although 20 percent of the population of the United States — about 55 million people — lives in rural areas, less than 1 percent of the $300-billion in foundation grants distributed annually goes to programs that encourage rural development, according to a study on which the report was based.

The study, conducted by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a watchdog group in Washington, also found that corporations give a similarly low percentage of their total philanthropy to rural causes.

“What these figures show is that philanthropy hasn’t done all it can to deal with undercapitalization in rural America,” said Rick Cohen, president of the watchdog group.

Ford, Kellogg Are Leaders

In 2000 and 2001, the median sum foundations gave to rural causes was $75,000, meaning that half gave more and half gave less. That figure does not represent the real situation, however, Mr. Cohen said, because grants made by the Ford Foundation, in New York, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in Battle Creek, Mich., made up 42 percent of the $101-million U.S. grant makers awarded to groups that spur economic development in rural areas. More than 80 percent of rural-development grant dollars were awarded by 20 foundations.

Over all, foundations made grants of $323-million to rural causes of all types, the report said. That amount is slightly above 1 percent of the total of grants made. By contrast, more than $1-billion in grants was made to human-services groups nationwide in 2001.

States with high percentages of rural populations — such as Alaska, North Dakota, and Wyoming — often fare worse in garnering private grants than states with mostly metropolitan populations, Mr. Cohen added, because few grant makers have their headquarters in those states.

A separate study released this month by the Southern Rural Development Initiative, a research group in Raleigh, N.C., found that one-third of all rural counties in the United States have no foundations or foundation assets, such as real-estate holdings.

The report recommends that the philanthropy world develop more strategies for funneling grant dollars to rural areas, promote the use of institutions that have proved effective in channeling small sums to rural groups — such as community foundations and community-development banks — and increase grants for donor-education programs in rural areas to take advantage of the intergenerational transfer of wealth.

Copies of “Beyond City Limits: The Philanthropic Needs of Rural America” are available free from Naomi Tacuyan, director of communications, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, at naomi@ncrp.org. The Southern Rural Development Initiative report is available free from Jason Gray, the organization’s policy director, at jgray@srdi.org.