Guidelines and Grant Policy
We support Rural Education, Rural Human/Social Services, Rural Conservation and Preservation, Rural Health, and Rural Arts and Humanities projects. Read our Overall Guidelines.
Overall Guidelines
The criteria that follow relate to each of the program areas listed above and offer guidance to prospective applicants. Proposed projects should:
- Serve rural areas
- Help people to help themselves
- Be modest and direct in aim
- Be narrow in function
- Be based on experience
- Demonstrate community financial, in-kind, or other support
- Be essential, rather than merely desirable
- Yield a direct and measurable, rather than a remote, benefit to people
- Be conducted by competent, practical organizations and managers and demonstrate strong leadership capacity at both the organizational and program level
The Foundation will not consider proposals for support of projects to assist with any of the following:
- Endowment funds
- Emergencies
- Community funds and charity drives
- Conferences and workshops or their related travel
- Documentaries
- Efforts to influence elections directly or indirectly
- Planning, research, experimental, or untested projects
- Athletic or academic competitions, or related travel
- Summer camps
- Efforts to promulgate religious or political beliefs or agendas
Capital Improvements and Campaigns
In all program areas, the Foundation makes a limited number of grants for capital improvements, fixtures, and remodeling, retrofitting, and building new structures. In projects involving the building of a new facility or other large-scale capital endeavors, we typically make these grants only during the closing phases when a substantial portion of the required funds are already in hand.
Applicant Organization Type
No grants are made to individuals or to entities that have not been recognized as federally tax-exempt by the Internal Revenue Service. The Foundation considers requests from 501(c) 3 organizations and from governmental entities or agencies such as schools, fire departments, and libraries.
Grant Amounts
The minimum grant awarded by the Foundation is $5,000. We rarely make grants of up to $50,000 for a single year or make multi-year grants.