2020 Vision: US National Census

Pleased to be part a comprehensive look from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota at the history and challenges of getting the Census right with emphasis on the movement to a dominantly on-line system—leaving rural communities with a potentially disastrous financial loss due to census undercount. You can read the article titled 2020 Vision on…

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Brief Recap of the Rural Philanthropic Analysis Project on Washington State

A piece from Inside Philanthropy that features our report on the innovative rural philanthropy of the Empire Health Foundation in Spokane, Washington along with references to our other three case studies and the larger Rural Philanthropic Analysis Project. The Inside Philanthropy article is available at https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2019/10/15/a-study-drilled-deep-into-rural-philanthropy-in-washington-state-heres-what-it-found. You can find links to the Washington study as well…

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Investing in Rural America – Innovation for All Podcast

Dr. Sheana Ahlqvist asked Allen to appear on her national innovation and social psychology podcast with the opening line of “I live in Los Angeles. I don’t know anyone who voted for our current President”. So listen for a wideranging conversation about dispelling the urban myths about rural America; the opportunities for rural investment and…

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Rural Philanthropy in Washington

washington rural barn

This is the fourth of a series of four field studies from the Rural Philanthropic Analysis Project (RPAP) here at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. The regions selected—eastern New Hampshire/southern Maine; eastern Washington; northeast Iowa and rural New Mexico—were included in the studies in recognition of the important local funder commitments to those…

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Rural Philanthropy in New England

new england farmhouse

This is the third of a series of four field studies from the Rural Philanthropic Analysis Project (RPAP) here at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. The regions selected—eastern New Hampshire/southern Maine; eastern Washington; northeast Iowa and rural New Mexico—were included in the studies in recognition of the important local funder commitments to those…

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Family Funders – Always Important in Rural Communities

nebraska plain

The history of the United States is marked by wealth created in rural America. Timber and wood products in the northwest and northeast; fossil fuels in Appalachia, the southwest and Rocky Mountains; textiles in the south, among others. Related philanthropic funds have been created alongside these rural industries—often from multi-generational family commitments to these rural…

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