Rural poverty persists because of decades and generations of Environmental & Economic Disinvestment; Cultural & Social Isolation; and Barriers of Race & Class.
NRFC believes that changing these longstanding, generational patterns can only occur through regional, community-based, and sustainable strategies for achieving the opposite outcomes of Building Community Wealth; Creating More Inclusive Leadership Structures; and Increasing Family Self-sufficiency.

Discerned from its early work to learn from strategic investments, NRFC understands that the tools and leaders for implementing these strategies for bringing about Rural Community Transformation are found within rural communities themselves – namely, within the six capitals upon which this asset-based theory of change is built.

NRFC’s work to verify this theory of change occurs through its Regional and National Partnerships, Grantmaking, and engagement of a national Learning Network.