There are thousands of non-profits working hard to fight poverty in rural communities across America. Right now there is not a national association or coalition that pulls them together and helps them organize around an assets focused and holistic approach to alleviating poverty. To build that coalition, we have divided the 338 counties of persistent rural poverty as defined by the USDA into 5 ethno-geographic regions: The Delta (97 counties), the Black Belt (80 counties), Appalachia (63 counties), Native Lands (44), and Rio Grande Valley (25 counties). We are building regional offices headed by Regional Vice Presidents that will identify every non-profit in our service counties in the regions. Once these non-profits are identified, they will be vetted through our assets philosophy and our priorities of hope. The non-profits that intersect with our ideals, and others that may grow towards our ideals, will be recruited into our coalition.

In order to recruit organizations into the coalition, we will provide resources such as a Rural Development Academy, a professional network of rural practitioners, as well as national and regional programming, e.g. workshops, conferences, youth camps, etc. Our goal is to have 1,000 organizations in rural America who are members of the coalition.

With a coalition representing such a large constituency, we will be able to engage the Federal Government as well as major foundations regarding major grants. We will expedite these large grants directly to our rural practitioners who are working at the grassroots level and increase their capacity for impact, thereby changing the landscape of rural America.