Rural Philanthropists needed to shine a spotlight on rural community needs

Shining a Spotlight on Rural Community Needs

Great news! Northamptonshire Community Foundation is 'Shining a Spotlight on Rural Community Needs' and is looking for philanthropists to help support this campaign. More information below from Rachel McGrath, CEO of NCF:

Nearly a third of the county live within rural communities, including rural towns. At Northamptonshire Community Foundation, we are developing a focus on rural philanthropy to ensure that these communities get their fair share of funding. This in turn will help tackle urgent needs such as poverty and access to services across our local villages and countryside. We have recently been working with local donors and partners to raise and distribute funds in order to support a number of projects to tackle food and fuel poverty during the current energy crisis. From this work, we have recognised the need to ensure funds are directed to tackle poverty in rural communities.

A recent report from the Rural Services Network evidences how the cost of living crisis is hitting people living in rural areas harder than those living in towns and cities; people living in the countryside have to pay much more on essentials such as heating, housing and transport.

We invite you to get involved across the coming weeks and months.

We are delighted that we have £100,000 to kickstart a match fund appeal to boost grant awards to rural community projects, thanks to the generous support of the Constance Travis Charitable Trust.

Every pound you donate will release funds to make grants to projects supporting rural communities in 2023.

We will also collaborate with partners including Northamptonshire ACRE and other rural networks, to ensure we can help fund and support local groups and charities doing good work to help sustain and revitalise rural communities. Find out how you can help below.

You can help by:

• Donating to our match fund appeal supported by the Constance Travis Charitable Trust, so we can boost the number of grant awards we make to rural-focused projects and charities
• Taking part in our Community Conversations: where we will look at local need and community solutions with donors, partners and charities, highlighting facts and data about need across our rural communities, the good work taking place to provide activities and services, and our work in partnership with charities and networks championing rural needs in Northamptonshire.
• Sharing our information and news on rural community needs and charities addressing need throughout the year

If you would like to support our work on Shining a Spotlight on Rural Community Needs, please contact our CEO, Rachel McGrath: [email protected] or our Head of Giving and Development, Dean Jones: [email protected]