The organization, created in 2017, specifically focuses on “strengthening rural Texas” through philanthropic projects related to health care, education, economic development, infrastructure and natural resources.
In addition to these projects, the group also looks to help funders generate resources while illuminating issues impacting rural communities, resulting in its new grants hub.
Currently listed on the webpage are 61 federal and state grant opportunities and 17 grant writers that can assist rural governments or organizations with grant applications.
The idea for the hub was inspired by a monthly newsletter offered by the group, according to Kelty Garbee, Texas Rural Funders’ executive director.
“We realized there was an opportunity to provide a monthly set of resources, and there’s a lot of funding about to come down from the federal government for broadband, water and a number of other areas,” she said. “We wanted to be able to bring attention to those opportunities and move our website from something that was a little more static in the past to a more dynamic and interactive resource.”
Users can access the hub through the website’s events and resources tab. Once there, users can share their information to gain access to a list of grant writers and state and federal grants.
For example, currently listed on the website is information regarding a $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to improve job quality and availability for historically marginalized communities within the state’s climate resiliency, clean energy transition and hospitality sectors.
“There’s a ton of resources; we want to make sure that rural communities know about these,” Garbee said. “We’re updating the list on a monthly basis, and you can either download it yourself if you want to be able to manipulate the data in an Excel spreadsheet, or you can visit the website and search for information using hashtags.”
