Frank Sietzen: Sen. Max Baucus calls for increase in rural philanthropy

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The nation’s nonprofit industry should double the amount of grants made to rural communities, according to Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.

“When it comes to grant-making, many people in rural America feel they are in the wilderness,” Baucus said May 8 in a speech before the Council on Foundations in Pittsburgh.

Baucus called the gap between grant amounts for urban efforts and programs in rural communities “the rural philanthropic divide.” According to data compiled by his office, the 10 states that receive the least funding from foundations are all rural states like Montana and Nebraska. The same disparity exists in foundation resources. The top 10 states where foundations were located, all largely in urban areas, reported an average of $32.5 billion in grant-making assets. The 10 rural states had an average of $600 million in such assets.

Rural America has the need, Baucus said, but does not receive the grants. “But rural America and urban America need each other,” he said.

To begin addressing the problem, Baucus asked that members of the council provide him with detailed plans on how to raise the level of rural grant funds.

If successful, those plans would be a major reversal of current funding trends.

“Only 5 to 7 percent of the philanthropic dollar goes to rural communities, while rural America is 20 percent of the nation’s population,” says James Richardson, executive director of the National Rural Funders Collaborative. “What we would do [with more grants] is target those things that are working now with additional resources.”

But there are other problems that hamper rural philanthropy. Getting nonprofit professionals to work in rural areas, for example, is a major challenge.

“High-level staffing needs are difficult to fill in rural areas,” says Nurys Harrigan, general manager of Professionals for NonProfits, a placement firm that works to fill philanthropic jobs in D.C. and New York City. Harrigan says her office receives requests for employees to staff nonprofits in rural areas every week. But few residents of larger areas want to move there.

Have information about area nonprofits? Contact Frank Sietzen at fsietzen@yahoo.com.