Sen. Max Baucus, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, urged foundations on Monday to double their grants to rural areas within five years, charging that grant makers have shortchanged regions that need help.
"Rural America has the need," Senator Baucus, who represents Montana, told the Council on Foundations annual conference here. "But rural America has not received the grants. That just does not seem fair."
Citing statistics showing that 10 rural states received $35 per resident in foundation grants in 2005, compared with a national average of $104 per resident, Senator Baucus asked foundations to review their grant making and to commit by Labor Day to increasing their rural giving.
"When you conduct this examination and make this commitment, please send me a letter telling me about it," he said. "I would like to hear from you."
Senator Baucus, whose committee oversees regulation of charities and foundations, said median family income is lower, poverty is higher, and the population is older in rural America than in metropolitan areas. Furthermore, it is harder to deliver social services in rural areas because people live farther apart, he said.
He said the states that receive the least money from foundations — Alaska, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Vermont, and Wyoming — have created wealth in other states by providing coal, timber, food, and other resources. But they all lack big cities, which have "a wealth of people, expertise, and money" that can benefit rural areas.
The 10 rural states had an average of $0.6-billion in foundation assets in 2005, compared with an average of $32.5-billion in the 10 states with the most foundations, Senator Baucus said. The statistics were provided by the Big Sky Institute for the Advancement of Nonprofits in Helena, Mont.
While some foundations are required to restrict their giving to a particular metropolitan area, all others should double their grants to rural regions or — if they have previously done little or no such grant making — devote at least 5 percent to 10 percent of their grants to rural America within five years, he said.
Senator Baucus said he would work with the Council on Foundations on ways to coordinate government-private efforts to revitalize rural regions of the United States, noting that a meeting was scheduled on this topic for October in Montana. He said he would also help foundations cut through red tape when they work with federal programs on rural projects.
He praised several foundations for rural grant making, including the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in Battle Creek, Mich., which awarded a grant for "Tax Help Montana," a program to help low-income Montana residents apply for tax refunds that are due to them under the Earned Income Tax Credit program.
The senator's call to action was endorsed by a group of 11 foundations, the National Rural Funders Collaborative, in Dallas, which was created in 2001 to attract more money to help rural areas overcome poverty.
"We look forward to having other funders join us as we work together to respond to this timely challenge," Jim Richardson, the group's executive director, said in a statement.
Hurricane RebuildingGrant makers also heard a pitch for money from Donald Powell, who is overseeing the federal government's effort to rebuild the Gulf Coast region devastated by last fall's hurricanes.
Mr. Powell asked foundations to contribute to the long-term reconstruction of cities and towns that were damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, by helping museums, community organizations, and religious organizations.
"The government can provide bricks and mortar, but it cannot refresh culture and restore souls," he said.
He urged the foundations to "think big" and consider the Gulf Coast region to be a "laboratory for social innovation."
"In three months, I'm going to come back and ask Steve [Gunderson, president of the Council on Foundations] for a full accounting of the council's response," he said.