Nebraska Hosts Rural Philanthropy Gathering

Nebraska Community Foundation (NebraskaHometown.org) president and CEO Jeff Yost welcomed 36 rural development philanthropy practitioners from 15 states to the Lied Conference Center in Nebraska City on April 19-21. The purpose of the convening was to create a space for people with deep experience and wisdom in practicing rural philanthropy and community development to learn from each other.

“We wanted to encourage the creative intelligence in the room as much as possible so we intentionally created a minimalist structure to support knowledge sharing and relationship building,” said Fisher Qua, senior advisor with Philanthropy Northwest in Seattle. Throughout the event participants shared their personal stories about unleashing energy, power and vitality in rural communities across the U.S. Everyone had the opportunity to give and to get practical advice on meeting rural development challenges and acting on emerging issues.

Nebraska Community Foundation (NebraskaHometown.org) is heralded nationally and internationally as a leader in rural development philanthropy through its work with more than 200 affiliated funds benefiting communities across the state. In the last five years more than 36,000 contributions have been made through the Foundation and more than $124 million has been re-invested to build stronger more prosperous communities.