Shining a Spotlight on Rural Community Needs

Nearly a third of the county live within rural communities, including rural towns. Northamptonshire Community Foundation is developing a focus on rural philanthropy to ensure that these communities get their fair share of funding. This in turn will help tackle urgent needs such as poverty and access to services across our local villages and countryside. We invite you to get involved across the coming weeks and months.

We are delighted that we have £100,000 to kickstart a match fund appeal to boost grant awards to rural community projects, thanks to the generous support of the Constance Travis Charitable Trust.

Every pound you donate will release funds to make grants to projects supporting rural communities in 2023.

We will also collaborate with partners including Northamptonshire ACRE and other rural networks, to ensure we can help fund and support local groups and charities doing good work to help sustain and revitalise rural communities. Find out how you can help below.

Throughout 2023 we will be holding a series of Community Conversations to look at local need and community solutions with donors, partners and charities. We will be highlighting: facts and data about need across our rural communities, the good work taking place to provide activities and services, and our work in partnership with charities and networks championing rural needs in Northamptonshire.

Our match fund appeal will see the launch of a Northamptonshire rural Communities Fund, so we can start tackling the needs highlighted in our Community Conversations.

We will publish an updated Hidden Needs Report in 2023, which will also highlight needs across rural communities in the county.

You can help by:

Donating to our match fund appeal supported by the Constance Travis Charitable Trust, so we can boost the number of grant awards we make to rural-focused projects and charities
Taking part in our Community Conversations
Sharing our information and news on rural community needs and charities addressing need throughout the year

We have recently been working with local donors and partners to raise and distribute funds in order to support a number of projects to tackle food and fuel poverty during the current energy crisis.

From this work, we have recognised the need to ensure funds are directed to tackle poverty in rural communities. A recent report from the Rural Services Network evidences how the cost of living crisis is hitting people living in rural areas harder than those living in towns and cities; people living in the countryside have to pay much more on essentials such as heating, housing and transport.

If you would like to support our work on Shining a Spotlight on Rural Community Needs, please contact our CEO, Rachel McGrath: rachel@ncf.uk.com or our Head of Giving and Development, Dean Jones: dean@ncf.uk.com