Philanthropy West Virginia

During economic downturns and international crisis, rural communities (especially West Virginia and broader Appalachia) are historically the first to experience economic and community declines and the last to recover.  Prior to the pandemic, economic inequities and lack of philanthropic resources to support economic transition and community capacity building were already a major challenge in Appalachia. Now, the pandemic and economic downturn has compounded these challenges and inequities creating even greater hardship for the people, nonprofits/NGOs, small businesses, and communities in this region. Philanthropy WV’s is applying for the Elevate Prize to propel us from ‘pandemic response’ mode into that of ‘recovery and rebuilding better’. That is, we would use the prize to assist us in developing long-term sustainable resources and practices to help rural WV communities build back better than they were prior to the pandemic. Using the Elevate prize, Philanthropy WV would convene our 150+ partners among nonprofits, philanthropy, business, government, and the public to create sustaining investments from locally and nationally based philanthropy, federal government resources, and corporations supporting the rebuilding efforts in rural communities in areas such as economic development, education and workforce development, substance use disorder response, food insecurity and health access, and nonprofit capacity building. 

Have you ever had plans and partnerships, but there is a missing critical element? The missing element for rural communities is a systemic lack of sufficient financial, philanthropic, and venture investments. Personally, I experienced these challenges since 12 years old when I assisted my rural community of West Union, WV (pop. of 800) address food insecurity, economic decline, loss of public funds for schools, and community revitalization.   My experience 30 years ago with ongoing civic and career experiences turned into a career working for Philanthropy West Virginia. This includes growing local community foundations, new private foundation creation, and engaging national foundation and government funders.  In coming from a rural community with limited resources, my lived experience was focused on innovative collaborations and leveraging new investment among public-philanthropic-private partners to create solutions. Philanthropy WV is a vocation. We are focused on our mission of strengthening philanthropy in the Mountain State.   Our vision is that West Virginia has thriving communities, due in part, to a strong and vibrant philanthropic sector. We see our purpose is to build up immediate and long-term financial resources to advance solutions for our rural communities and share that expertise with other rural communities across our country. 

Our focus is on the long-standing economic and financial inequities experienced by rural communities across our country.  The majority of rural communities experience low levels of available philanthropic, financial, and venture investments to support business, nonprofit, and community vitality.  The scale is national. We will work local and state level to model practices for new solutions to replicate in other communities.   Rural communities are resourceful people, but we need to develop long-term solutions to the pandemic recovery as well as embedding long-term financial and human capital resources.   West Virginia is recognized as one of our nation’s ten states identified on the “Philanthropic Divide”. This means that reviewing the number of grantmaking foundations, their endowment sizes, and grants made in West Virginia that we fall in the bottom ten in the country per capita with a lower of level of funds available compared to need.  We address the systemic under funding by building up local community foundations, partnering with national foundations, CDFIs, and federal funders with short-term and long-term vehicles. 

Amidst the unbelievable struggles and life lost this past year West Virginians especially those in philanthropy and social impact sector have fostered incredible collaborations during crisis to bring equitable access to federal resources, philanthropic, supplies (food, PPE, small business survival funds, healthcare response, etc.), broadband, and sustaining funds for nonprofit response.  Our work is innovative for we are using integrity driven partnerships with immediate and long-term investments with philanthropy, federal partners, and venture capital. Our innovative work is using West Virginia as a learning laboratory to then model and adapt in other rural communities. Our primary areas include:

• Create a statewide challenge fund for locally based community impact and economic development investments 
• Engage partners across sectors noted above to build their capacity (operations, financial, and public policy related) to increase their reach and achieve their goals 
• Tracking and sharing the replicable models and practices with other rural communities across the country and globally 
• Improve our storytelling, brand and thought leadership that elevates our past and present work locally, nationally, and internationally to benefit others

These areas would be an injection of financial, intellectual, and human capital to advance the impact and service in our state and those across rural communities. 

Our in-depth work the past five years, especially the past year with COVID, has increased economic stability and survivability for the thousands of nonprofits serving West Virginia, leveraging new investments for small businesses, and creating partnerships across all sectors.  Our network and partners benefits in excess of 200,000 lives annually. Our steps include:

Building off the tremendous collaborations among all sectors to:

- Create a national partners council

- Identify community and state based needs

- Track our progress (success and failures) to work with other rural communities

- Engage trust based philanthropy practices among philanthropy to focus on beyond response to pandemic recovery

These steps have resulted in over $12 million in new investments in the past 9 months and this will increase as we focus on recovery to build up rural communities better after the pandemic.  We have seen lower pandemic infection rates, increase economic recovery, and models that we can share with other rural places.