| Knowledge Base, Volume 1
2002-2003
A PUBLIC-PRIVATE ENDOWMENT FOR RURAL AMERICA
June 12, 2003
Washington, DC
Welcome
Dianne McSwain, DHHS Office of Intergovernmental Affairs,
opened the meeting with a word of welcome from the Department of Health
and Human Services, host for the meeting. She emphasized that DHHS Secretary
Tommy Thompson is committed to improving the department's capacity to
serve rural America and supports efforts to insert the "rural voice"
into government programs and policy.
Opening comments
Luis Luna, Deputy Administrator, Office of Community Development,
USDA-Rural Development, stressed the need for strategic partnerships
today. He noted that the public-private partnerships we are developing
include intellectual as well as financial capital, both important for
successful collaboration. He pointed out that rural America is very
diverse and that we will not be able to meet every need. We need to
find areas with commonalities and assemble resources to build self sufficiency,
leadership, and capacity for locally-led development. We also need to
develop performance measures that are widely applicable and can generate
a shared language for gauging success. Luis also encouraged us to bring
additional people to the table. For instance, the National Rural Development
Partnership and the National Rural Development Coordination Council,
now being established, can provide a strategic focus for our efforts.
Introductions
Representatives from seven federal agencies, five private
foundations, five non-governmental organizations, and three land grant
universities participated in the meetings. Participants gave a brief
introduction to their agencies, interests in a public-private endowment,
and resources they bring to the table. A list of participants is attached.
National Rural Funders Collaborative (NRFC) overview
Jim Richardson, Executive Director, described the purpose
and history of NRFC. An important innovation in private philanthropy,
NRFC is a vehicle through which multiple funders pool resources for
investments to revitalize rural communities, especially in areas of
persistent poverty. Jim reviewed the process of establishing the NRFC
and discussed its efforts to develop models of regional strategic change,
raise rural policy issues, and leverage new or untapped financial resources
to support sustainable development and improved quality of life for
rural families and communities.
Developing a platform for an endowment fund
Kathy Moxon, Humboldt Area Foundation and NRFC consultant,
discussed NRFC activities through its first two funding cycles, the
goal of leveraging regional resources in rural areas, and the need for
an endowment fund. She described the geographic distribution and funding
tiers of groups NRFC is supporting. In its first year, NRFC awarded
four three-year grants to regional community collaboratives (Alaska,
South Carolina, New Mexico, and Appalachian Ohio) and five one-year
seed grants (Central Valley California, Nebraska, western Maine, Arkansas,
and Community Alliance of Interdependent AgriCulture). These groups
are working on diverse priorities including critical health and wellness
issues, community wealth creation, entrepreneurial development, housing,
new agricultural cooperatives, new and expanded businesses, housing,
and community ownership of natural resources and infrastructure. These
collaboratives, twelve other finalists, the NRFC funders, and other
partners now constitute a Learning Network working to broaden knowledge
of rural economic and community development practice and policy.
The regional collaboratives vary in the degree to which
they are prepared to meet various opportunities. "Mixes of money" currently
available for their activities come from a labyrinth of private philanthropy,
federal to local governments, and the private sector. As communities
attempt to assemble resources to support their strategic objectives,
they struggle with "deal flow," unfundable gaps in their work, a lack
of debt instruments and equity products, undercapitalized rural-serving
community capital institutions, few intermediary or secondary resources,
and difficulties identifying and capturing competitive public and private
funds. In short, rural communities need assistance accessing resources,
and rural investment markets are underserved and ripe for development.
General discussion
Several themes ran through the general discussion as participants
responded to opening remarks and shared their ideas about the journey
of making a public-private endowment fund a reality.
"Coalition of the willing and able" - How many penguins do we
need?
- We are forming a new community of the willing and able.
Everyone doesn't have to participate.
- We need to articulate principles
of our collaboration.
- Following Thomas Jefferson's instruction, we
can change institutions to better serve the people.
- Use our mandate
to collaborate as a "cover" for leaving inertia behind.
- Who will be
the first penguin in the water? Will we hold hands and jump in together,
following the NRFC model?
What is the NRFC role - "Let's Make a Deal"
- NRFC can make the process of working with funders transparent. Resources
need to be accessible and technical assistance ever present.
- NRFC
is a broker: connect communities to broader financial markets, leverage
resources, and get information to funders and communities.
- NRFC can
help federal agencies and other entities recognize the impacts their
programs have on the broader rural and tribal community, including unintended
negative impacts and engage them in an effective policy of practice.
- NRFC can help strengthen organizations on the ground and build readiness
to meet opportunities and to inform policy.
Community readiness
- Many leaders and community organizations in low-wealth rural and native
communities need help accessing and using financial tools.
- Over time,
the NRFC regional coalitions are moving toward "strategic readiness,"
a desired end to community capacity building. It is a concept the NRFC
learning partners developed at their January 2003 meeting.
- Sustaining
capacity building is an issue, as in Indian Country.
- We need "circuit
riders." Technical assistance must be on going.
- There is a dramatic
need for easy access to funding information.
- Capacity building includes
community learning, not just individual.
We need a "Wizard" - soon
- an information platform - with overlays of resources and ways to sort
- that is a comprehensive source of information;
- multiple ports of
entry;
- covering the full spectrum of agencies and community capital
sector;
- tied into developing e-government resources;
- meets serious
accessibility issues for many rural and tribal communities.
Working with federal agencies and other funding entities
- Budgets are shrinking;
there is pressure to do things differently, better.
- Federal policymakers
need help removing the "urban criteria" problem.
- Raise the "rural
voice" (i.e. SBA query: "Is anyone working on rural? No!").
- Federal
agency line staffers face real restrictions directing public dollars
guided by legal authorities and congressional mandates for project-specific
activities. o Strategic partnering offers a way to use federal funds
more flexibly (i.e. fund regional partners who innovate).
- Strategic
partnering depends on proper local connections. NRFC is building local
capacity that expands this opportunity.
- Collaboration and rural investments
need to be an agency priority and have strong leadership. Discretionary
funds exist and can be used for innovation.
- Constraints for other
funds include idiosyncrasies of large suppliers and restraints on pension
funds.
- Reward behavior change that includes rural and collaboration.
Working with state and local governments
- State governments are in
fiscal crisis and need to leverage scarce funds.
- Local governments
are overwhelmed by complexity of federal grants and need a broker. Officials
are part-time and largely volunteers.
- NACo can carry messages to congress.
- NACo can link to local communities.
Working with higher education and the land grant university
system
- A wealth of often-untapped resources
is available through the land grant universities. The USDA Regional
Rural Development Centers can help tap them: intellectual capital, outreach
education and training networks that reach to the local level, and applied
research and practical information. They can coordinate and convene
to mobilize diverse resources around program related investments.
- Partnering with universities can institutionalize investments and support
an "exit" strategy for public and private funders (i.e. Rural Community
College Initiative of the Ford Foundation).
- By bringing the academy
into the process, NRFC is developing an evaluation strategy to help
communities identify and apply regional and national indicators and
guide their own development activities.
- The land grant community can
help bring the big picture to the table - leading to wise grants and
applications rather than those that hurt rural America.
Inclusive language, infrastructure, and technical challenges
- Native communities
and tribes don't identify and see themselves in the picture when we
refer to "rural communities," "local and county governments," and the
"federal government" without including tribal governments and native
communities.
- Indian country faces a severe lag in technology for accessing
web-based resources for collaboration and funding.
Build on creative models and existing resources
- Start via the New Markets Tax Credit;
CDFI could be a sister fund.
- First Nations is a model for Community
Development Financial Institutions in Indian Country: tribes control
assets and own their economic future.
- Participate in and strengthen
the public-private partnership Ford Foundation is supporting between
universities and rural and tribal community colleges.
- Build up technical
assistance and capacity building by capitalizing on and coordinating
resources at local level: Extension Service, county agents, Resource
Conservation and Development Councils, SBA's SCORE program for small
businesses, consultants.
- R-CAP's small flows infrastructure exchange
is an innovation to slow the individual community hunt for dollars to
meet the "plausible association" match requirement.
Structuring a "Rural Opportunity Investment Fund"
- Calvert Foundation is a possible
intermediary to establish and administer fund.
- NRFC can serve as broker
with funders, public partners, grantees.
- Staffing will be needed to
support the work at both Calvert and NRFC.
- Motivated local leadership
is essential.
- Fund can become an exit strategy for funders as the
investment strategy is fully capitalized.
Take aways and next steps
Demonstrate a "reverse RFP": Whose obligation is it
to conform to whom? Granters should complete for opportunity to fund
communities! Next step is to develop a prototype of collaboration,
test, and demonstrate it. Keep the focus on rural and tribal communities
- "What helps rural?" Add others - bring potential partners and investment
institutions to the table. Discover resources in our own agencies
and organizations. Keep a comprehensive focus and hold to the principle
of community-as-leader Insert the "rural voice." Identify strategic
partnerships to link federal dollars to local innovations. Visit the
NRFC Learning Communities for priorities and connect general ideas to
specific community needs. Create the wizard/central repository and
include best practice sites and models. Assemble profile sheet for
participants and a participants list and circulate.
New chapter to our collaboration
Jim Richardson closed the meeting by observing that we
have launched a new chapter in collaborative efforts between public
and private partners. The economic context has changed since the years
when the Rural Working Group of the Council on Foundations began work
toward a funders' collaborative. As relative prosperity falls away,
every state faces economic crisis with particularly severe impacts in
rural places. Even in this context, the meeting today demonstrates that
we have new opportunities and new synergy for moving forward together.
We can move together, in increments, toward a more collaborative approach
and demonstrate how we can resource these opportunities.
Additional resources
A resource profile of participants, maintained at the
Southern Rural Development Center, is available through the SRDC web
site at http://SRDC.MSState.edu/assetprofile03.htm
and NRFC website at http://www.nrfc.org.
See the NRFC website at http://www.nrfc.org
for the Collaborative's history and approach. Click the "Rural Connections
Online" tab and see Issue 2, Spring 2003, for current work.
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