• Connecting with local leadership

In rural areas, connecting with a local school superintendent, sheriff, director of social services, or other key community leaders may be as simple as emailing and asking for a meeting. However, the same course of action in an urban setting will likely take months or even years of trying before successfully communicating with officials. 

This is because in rural areas, leaders serve a smaller population, often leaving more breathing room to help community organizations and build relationships with them. Urban officials often have large populations to tend to, making them less accessible to nonprofit organizations.

• Access to resources

Generally, compared to rural settings urban settings have access to many important resources. Urban organizations often receive more funding from investors and have larger populations to assist with their needs. In fact, only 3% of philanthropic dollars are allocated to rural communities in the US. However, when so much is at your fingertips, you might overlook opportunities to learn from others. This can mean your organization could miss out on collaborating with other organizations who share similar missions and could share helpful insights with you.

Rural settings, however, create more constraints for organizations. Smaller populations and fewer resources mean that organizations must think outside the box to achieve their goals. This means they must often lean on fellow organizations for collaboration. As a result, these constraints often lead to positive outcomes as community organizations pool their resources and learn to work toward the same goal together.

(We do want to note that resources are often inequitably distributed in urban settings, resulting in many communities thinking creatively about how to leverage the resources they do have access to).  

• Connection to community issues

Urban settings are often home to people of all income levels. However, they are often highly segregated. Affluent folks may never set foot in low-income neighborhoods, insulating them from the real impacts of inequality on families in their city. This can create a disconnect in where residents may have little context for or connection to community issues. The lack of connection that folks of privilege experience often leads to their lack of engagement in grassroots initiatives.

In contrast, rural settings often expose residents of all incomes to these issues on a daily basis. While facing these harsh realities may be tough, it can help us gain a deeper understanding of the needs of a community through firsthand experience. In that way, rural communities can be grounding—they make us confront the problems we are trying to address head-on.

• Differences in scale

Urban organizations often take a traditional approach to scale, focusing on growing their organization by increasing customers, sales and profits. Since they have access to a large population, they have many potential customers in their own community. Without these resources, rural communities must think creatively about scale. Rural communities may think more regionally; they may work to help many towns instead of just one, and work with other organizations to expand their network and reach.

• Growth through partnerships

Urban organizations typically grow from within; meaning that they build upon their existing assets by expanding their reach. They strive to build a community where one does not already exist. Rural organizations, however, may grow by networking and collaborating with existing communities in other cities, counties, and groups. By building networks with church groups, after school programs, and public agencies, they can share insights to help improve their existing programs.

As you can see, both urban and rural areas have pros and cons when it comes to building successful organizations. However, with creative problem solving and building connections, both settings can bring opportunities to make positive change. To learn more about working in rural or urban settings, send your questions to our co-founder, Seth Saeugling, at seth@ruralopprtunity.org.