Fundraising in rural and exurban communities (those on the outskirts of well-developed suburban and metropolitan areas) has long meant balancing community passion for local arts and culture with challenging economic realities. Over the past fifteen years, the population of many of these rural places has shifted, resulting in more diverse communities. As rural communities change over time, fundraisers have the opportunity and responsibility to adopt culturally informed strategies to garner support for their local arts and culture organizations.

Changing Ethnic and Racial Demographics in Rural Communities
The conversation around racial diversity in rural America is complex and acknowledging the social and political histories of different regions is essential when speaking about the changing demographics of these communities. According to the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), a 501(c)3 “focused on closing the rural opportunity gap,” the process of comparing demographics of rural communities to urban and national statistics “has the effect of making rural Black, Hispanic and Latino, Asian, and Native populations invisible, and contributes to the stereotype that rural America is homogeneously white.” Despite the common narratives that “rural” is a synonym for “white,” 24% of rural Americans were people of color (meaning they claimed their racial and ethnic status as anything other than white, non-Hispanic) according to 2020 census data. While the overall rural population has decreased, Hispanics or Latinos now make up the largest portion of the non-white rural population, accounting for about 9% of the rural population compared to 16% of the national population, followed by non-Hispanic Black people (7.7%).

Historical Trends in Black and Hispanic Philanthropy
Considering that Hispanic (a pan-ethnic term used to refer to individuals who have ancestry from a Spanish-speaking country or culture) and Black (the term used to describe individuals who have ancestry in any of the Black racial groups of Africa) are the two largest minority populations in rural communities across the United States, the following section speaks broadly about national trends in Black and Hispanic philanthropy. However, just as rural communities cannot be spoken about as a monolith, nor can Black or Hispanic philanthropists.

Historically, black philanthropy has been oriented around mutual aid and social change. “Black philanthropy is characterized by a collective sense of responsibility to the community, driven by historical experiences of oppression and a desire to uplift and support each other,” says Dr. Rahsaan Harris, CEO of Citizens Committee for New York City. This is no different in a rural community, where philanthropy through churches, regional chapters of National Pan-Hellenic Council member organizations, and community organizations supports community resilience by focusing on creating solutions, not just by financially supporting organizations.

Comparatively, Hispanic and Latinx (a pan-ethnic term used to describe people who have ancestral or cultural roots in Latin America and Spain) philanthropists are more likely to support their families and communities of faith according to recent research by Hispanics in Philanthropy and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. However, like their Black counterparts, Hispanic philanthropists tend to give informally and spontaneously to issues and causes like mutual aid for fellow Latinx and immigrants and involve their immediate and extended family members more than non-Hispanic donors of other races.

Black and Hispanic communities have participated philanthropically in the United States for hundreds of years despite some fundraising community members' inclination to refer to them as an “emerging demographic.”

Culturally Informed Fundraising Must be the New Norm
Fundraisers naturally use their experiences with and perception of community members to identify prospective donors and cultivate those prospects  (this is not a bad thing; observation is a fundraiser superpower). Adopting a culturally informed fundraising plan means actively considering (and honoring) an individual community’s changing racial and ethnic makeup by keeping in mind it can be a central asset in crafting a development plan. This includes:

  • Using the preferred language of the donor when conducting meetings and providing multilingual materials.
  • Being sensitive to differences in how different communities speak of or don’t speak of financial matters.
  • Recognizing if and how a donor’s philanthropy intersects with their religious or spiritual identity.
  • Building an awareness of how intersectionality impacts the donor’s relationship to philanthropy.

While culturally informed fundraising should be a priority for fundraisers of all identities in all communities, due to the socioeconomic and historical relationships between racism and classism in the United States, a higher level of intentionality and dedication may be needed from white fundraisers in rural communities to forge the strong bonds needed to ensure community-wide organizational support.

Acknowledging even subtle demographic shifts is the first step to developing and sustaining donor relationships. This acknowledgment and embracing of changing demographics can inform how we might identify prospective donors. Culturally informed fundraising, the way that fundraising professionals can work and communicate well with people of different cultures by being respectful of and responsive to philanthropic beliefs, practices, and linguistic needs, is relevant because it uses the resources already present within a community to achieve the goal. Fundraising in this way must be supported by an organization-wide commitment to the practice of cultivating community because consistency is key when building new connections.

Steps Toward a More Culturally Informed Fundraising Practice
Cultural consciousness is “an individual’s recognition, respect, and tolerance that they demonstrate towards other cultures, including their own culture and those cultures that are not represented in their environment.” Cultural consciousness is the foundation of culturally informed fundraising because fundraising is reliant on the cultivation of relationships between donors and the organizations they support through consistent interactions and experiences. If these experiences are culturally uninformed, cross-cultural mishaps and misunderstandings can become more likely. Cultural scholar Debra Deardorff recommends building this mindset through a three-pillar “Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes” approach.

The first pillar, knowledge, can mean a wide range of things that lead an individual to consider their own experiences, biases, and cultural framework through interaction with cultures outside of their own. Reading books, attending seminars and workshops by people about their culture, learning a new language, or attending cultural or religious services are all great ways to increase your cultural knowledge. For fundraisers, this can mean observing the ways that different racial and ethnic communities in your region gather and support each other and attend public events.

Deardoff uses the second pillar, skills, to talk about how people activate and put these new learnings into practice. Building on cultural knowledge, individuals then hone listening and observation skills, patience, and develop resilience. This work is done in the context of relationships and will, at some point, result in miscommunications. Natalie Page, Ed.D., chief diversity officer at Saint Xavier University, recommends, “If you make a mistake, simply apologize and let the person that you may have offended know that you are learning and be open to any suggestions they may have.” Sometimes, even acknowledging your positionality and desire to learn upfront can mitigate some of this.  “The key is to be sincere in your conversations and always open to learning from others,” she says.

Through these practices, attitudes begin to change, and new understandings of the world and people in communities begin to take shape. This process is life-long, and it requires humility and dedication from rural fundraisers to do the individual work of assessing and working through their assumptions and then actively seek to have those assumptions challenged. In doing so, the possibility of forming lasting connections with minority residents in rural communities increases while the fundraisers learn more about the things that make their community special.

As rural communities continue to change over time, there will be a more pressing need for fundraisers to reevaluate and reconnect with their communities through inventive, culturally conscious strategies. Working from this framework will allow rural fundraisers to embody an expansive view of philanthropy in their community and better engage minority philanthropists by understanding why and how they already support the community. A dedication to culturally informed fundraising coupled with an expansive and inclusive definition of philanthropy will lead fundraisers to a new set of strategies and ensure community-supported arts and culture continue to be a cornerstone for rural communities across the country.

Written by Ashley Cooper, a graduate student in the M.F.A. in Theatre - Arts Leadership program at Virginia Tech.