Heartland Fund Grantees

Supporting rural people in rural America

Heartland Fund supports the ongoing transformative work of hundreds of groups and local leaders in rural communities across the country.

By joining national funding with growing local and state-level funder networks, we support groups to build consensus and implement the policies required for rural and small-town communities to have a vibrant, successful future. We invest deeply in places where rural action will impact communities, protect core freedoms, and create momentum local, state, and federal change. Heartland Fund grants help build sustainable organizational infrastructure and effective multi-organization partnerships to increase our effectiveness and long-term success.

Heartland Fund is building capacity in three areas to support rural civic infrastructure.

Grantee Stories

Increasing Civic Engagement

We support grantees to register voters, develop leaders, and mobilize them to participate in elections and civic life. We know that when rural communities get organized, we can create changes that have national impacts.

Heartland Fund Network

Bolstering Communications

Our network performs influential research, develops effective communications, and delivers messages that resonate. Our grantees combat misinformation in rural areas while amplifying the work being done to improve the lives of the people who live here.

Advocating for Meaningful Policy and Implementation

Heartland Fund grantees research, create, and support policies that make a difference in the lives of rural people and communities. Their education campaigns ensure that rural people can advocate for policy that benefits their communities. And they provide robust implementation programs to maximize benefits for rural people.

Heartland Fund Grant Guidelines

Heartland Fund grants build power in small cities, towns, and rural areas and strengthen broad-based, multi-racial coalitions. The grants support organizing that delivers concrete solutions that make a real difference in the lives of rural people.

Heartland Programs

Heartland Fund provides grants to organizations through four programs.

Rural Democracy invests in groups that protect and expand nonpartisan civic participation across rural areas and combat narratives and policies that harm our democratic institutions and infrastructure.
Rural Youth Voter Fund, part of the Rural Democracy program, mobilizes rural young people, who are among the least contacted voters of any demographic group.
Rural Climate Partnership engages rural working people, small businesses, and family farmers to realize the economic and community benefits of clean energy, regenerative agriculture, and other climate solutions. To submit a Rural Climate Partnership Letter of Interest, visit Rural Climate Partnership grantmaking.
Resource Rural is an initiative to mobilize resources, enabling rural communities and Native Nations to unlock public and private investment and create positive economic change in their communities.

Learn about Heartland Fund's Rural Democracy grantmaking

Grantmaking Criteria

We evaluate Rural Democracy grant requests based on the following criteria.

Geographic Fit: Is the work deeply rooted in rural areas, small cities, and towns? Is the organization committed to building power in these communities for the long term? Is the work in a Heartland Fund priority state?
Impact: Would Heartland Fund’s investment have a high impact on civic and/or community outcomes? We are interested in scaling up new organizations and projects as well as funding long-standing organizations.
Racial Equity: Does the organization have an anti-racist analysis and commitment? Is racial equity incorporated into the organization’s leadership, staff, and membership?
Collaboration: Is the organization connected to broader networks of civic infrastructure? Is the work uplifting rural priorities in state-wide, regional, or federal efforts?
Strategic Alignment: Does the organization work on priority issues for rural communities, including democracy, economic justice, narrative change and communications, and policy change?
Leadership: Does the organization have strong leadership? Does the organization have a theory of change or realistic plan to achieve key goals?
Learning and Movement Analysis: Is the organization generating knowledge or tools that will benefit other groups in the Heartland Fund network?

Grantmaking Examples

Our Rural Democracy nonpartisan 501(c)(3) grants fund:

Leadership development and training
Nonpartisan deep canvassing and relational organizing
Nonpartisan civic engagement and get-out-the-vote
Multi-issue organizing and policy change
Communications: messaging, media, platforms
Grassroots organizing and community education

Funding requests may include:

Existing local projects with proven track records
High-potential new civic engagement programs
National or state organizations with programs based in rural areas
Media platforms that reach rural communities (e.g., a communications hub)
Experiments – new ways to engage rural communities
Organizational support, tools, training, and leadership development

We are prioritizing funding for our existing network and are not accepting letters of interest for prospective new grantees for our Rural Democracy program.