The Heartland Fund
Our country is stronger when we invest in rural people and organizations bridging across differences to drive tangible solutions. The Heartland Fund is building power toward a thriving democracy, healthy climate, and shared prosperity across diverse communities in rural areas and small cities.
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Building power to shape decisions about the places we call home
Heartland Fund supports and connects rural leaders working to transform their lives and communities. We invest in year-round civic engagement, issue advocacy, community organizing infrastructure, and rural leadership in statewide and national coalitions. In addition to grantmaking, Heartland Fund also supports rural leaders and organizations through convening, research, and communications.
Our Network
Heartland Fund invests in over 200 organizations across 30 states to work alongside hundreds of thousands of people in rural areas, small towns, and small cities to improve their lives and communities.
Communications
Heartland Fund drives effective communications by establishing local trusted messengers, reaching people through local press, and showing the connection between national talking points and local impacts.
Policies
We work to advance policies that improve the lives of rural people and ensure democracy works for us all. The Heartland Fund network has fueled a historic surge of rural progress, profoundly affecting numerous recent policy successes.
Featured Report
Rural Policy Action Report
Featuring priority legislation and executive action that supports working families and strengthens rural communities. The report also highlights numerous policy successes and the ongoing challenges people in rural communities face.
Support Rural Progress
Invest in the potential of our small towns and rural communities.
Heartland Fund Programs
Right now, we have an urgent imperative to make sure public and private funding goes to support rural-led solutions for economic prosperity, climate, and quality of life.
Rural Climate Partnership
Build hometown prosperity through a rural-led, place-based and benefits-forward approach
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Resource Rural
Mobilize resources to enable rural communities and Native Nations to unlock public and private investment to create positive economic change in their communities
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Heartland Fund provides tools and original research to benefit rural communities
Rural Map and Dashboard
Rural classifications to the country’s census tracts, counties, congressional districts, and states.
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Rural Voter Polling
The polls explore rural attitudes and point toward ways to engage rural communities.
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The Latest
News from the Heartland Fund
Rural Organizers Are Building Power by Fighting Cuts to Federal Funding
Resource Rural and Down Home NC share how rural grassroots organizers in North Carolina are fighting cuts to public funding.
Rural Democracy Co-Authors Op-Ed for America’s 250th
A 250th anniversary op-ed shows how rural organizers are reclaiming power and keeping “We the People” alive.
Calling on Philanthropy to Partner with Rural America
At the 2026 GEO Conference, Heartland Fund’s Peter Martin joined a panel on how philanthropy can reclaim and renew democracy.
Winning Critical Funding for Rural Schools
After federal cuts stalled needed school repairs, rural Michigan organizers built a local strategy that won 20.5M in long-overdue repairs.