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Community Development Philanthropy Update 
May 2015
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We began spring here at the Center by traveling to Texas with our partners from the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group to share our learning around the transfer of wealth opportunity in the South Plains region. Find out about our work in Texas below and our other work in Pennsylvania, Ohio and  New Mexico!
South Plains of Texas 

For the past three years, the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship in partnership with the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group (CSG) has been working with the Lubbock Area Foundation in support of the development of the region's rural communities. This work is being supported by several donors including the CH Foundation based in Lubbock. The South Plains region represents 15 counties including the hub city of Lubbock (home to Texas Tech University and the Lubbock Area Foundation).  

 

The transfer of wealth opportunity is massive--projected at nearly $4.1 billion between 2011 and 2020. If just 5% of this transferring wealth was gifted to community endowments, over $200 million could be capitalized with the capacity to generate more than $10 million annually in community betterment grants. Imagine what $100 million could mean to the South Plains region and its communities in the coming decade!

  

The Center, CSG and the Lubbock Area Foundation just completed a second round of rural community visioning town hall meetings. In these meetings, we asked five key questions:

  1. Who is living in the community?
  2. How are the residents doing?
  3. How is the economy doing?
  4. How is the community doing?
  5. How can transfer of wealth and community philanthropy fund community betterment?

We have found that these five questions provide a wonderful architecture for a community to explore itself and begin the process of dreaming up a better future. For a sample community report, read our report on Terry County, Texas. For more information on this initiative or how the Center works with foundations seeking to work with communities more effectively and impactfully, contact Don Macke at [email protected].

Other Center News

America's Best Communities Competition.

Quarter finalists have been selected in the national competition, America's Best Communities, which invited communities to demonstrate their entrepreneurial spirit and potential for community revitalization. The communities were judged based on commitment, community identity, potential for economic development, clear vision for the community's future and their prospects for future impact. Click here to see if your community is one of the 50 quarter finalists that could win up to $3 million to continue building a resilient and vibrant future.

 

Pennsylvania TOW Update.

In 2008, the Center completed our first Transfer of Wealth™ Opportunity Analysis for the Pennsylvania Commonwealth through the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. We are pleased to announce that the Center for Rural Pennsylvania has retained the Center to update the Commonwealth's TOW analysis. This update is driven by fundamental changes in PA including new population forecasts, energy development and recovery following the Great Recession. Analysis results are projected to become available in the fall of 2015.

 

Partnership with Philanthropy Ohio.

The Center has been a partner with Philanthropy Ohio over the past several years. We are excited to announce a new partnership with them to work with its members on how to employ research and analysis in support of mission accomplishment. Research resources to be addressed through this engagement range from our Transfer of Wealth™ Opportunity Analysis to Donor Development Analysis to Working with Affiliated Funds. For more information on the Center's Community Development Philanthropy Empowering Research Resources, check out our website here.

 

Philanthropy Southwest.

Don Macke will be addressing the 67th Annual Conference of Philanthropy Southwest October 22-24, 2015 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Don will be addressing how foundations can best work with rural regions and communities. Don was invited by Karin Gerstenhaber with the Tocker Foundation on behalf of Philanthropy Southwest.

For more information about anything you've read in this newsletter, please contact 
Dana Williams,  [email protected].
The Center for Rural Entrepreneurship's mission is to help community leaders build a prosperous future by supporting and empowering business, social and civic entrepreneurs. With our roots and hearts in rural America, we help communities of all sizes and interests by bringing empowering research together with effective community engagement to advance community-driven strategies for prosperity. Our Solution Area teams empower community leaders to find their own answers to the economic development challenges and opportunities they face. 

 

www.energizingentrepreneurs.org