With a wide variety of issues facing rural America—ranging from rebuilding after last year’s natural disasters to providing health care and education over the long term—rural funders face a unique set of challenges. Yet there is also enormous opportunity from a $75.2 trillion transfer of intergenerational wealth expected to take place over the next 50 years. It begs the question: Is philanthropy succeeding in rural America?

Special guests included Chris Beck of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship's Ahmet Binerer, Linda Reed from the Montana Community Foundation, and Paul Daugherty from West Virginia Grantmakers.

The topics that were covered can be highlighted by several key questions:

1.    What are some common goals rural funders seek to achieve?

2.    What are some of the common challenges rural funders encounter?

3.    Do these challenges prevent rural funders from rallying around common interests?

4.    Do rural funders too closely identify with their own geographic communities, thus limiting their ability to collaborate and create one national voice?

5.    Should rural funders increase their engagement in public policy and public-philanthropic partnerships advocating for rural issues and communities?

6.    Are the necessary resources in place to fully capture the expected transfer of wealth?