We reported in the last issue of CR about the plight of black farmers and the nonprofits that were fighting on their behalf to secure justice. Even though a positive court decision supported the farmers’ rights, the federal government’s lack of diligent follow-up on the case has attracted the attention of Senators Barack Obama and Chuck Grassley in the Senate, and Congressmen Bobby Scott and Steve Chabot, in writing and supporting a bill that would extend the opportunity for black farmers to file for restitution for discrimination suffered at the hands of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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If he has achieved anything, Senator Max Baucus has galvanized the attention of the foundation community to talk about rural philanthropy. In 2006, Baucus challenged foundations to double their grantmaking to rural America over the next 5 years. By the end of the year, he was the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, the Congressional body in charge of nonprofit and foundation oversight, and the foundations snapped to attention.

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Inequities in foundation grantmaking are sometimes geographic, with communities, regions, or even entire states sometimes receiving significantly less than they merit. Rural philanthropy is that kind of issue. The shortcomings in institutional philanthropy’s approach to rural needs should motivate nonprofit leaders in rural and urban communities to take action. This August, an important venue for action will take place in Missoula, Montana, thanks to the intercession of Montana’s senior senator, Max Baucus, who has taken on the cause of American foundations’ inadequate grantmaking to rural nonprofits.

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