Southern Rural Development Initative is closing next week, after 16 years of rural advocacy

The Southern Rural Development Initiative, a non-profit organization aimed at combating poverty and racism in the South and creating economic opportunities in rural communities, will be closing next Friday after 16 years. The organization not only helped communities find areas where economic development were possible , but built "connections among them and to federal and national resources, both public and private," writes Todd Cohen for Philanthropy Journal.

The problem "wasn't as much driven by the economy as by the priorities in philanthropy at this point," says Alan McGregor, the executive director of the Raleigh-based organization. "As we got more focused on a strategy and more focused on community-based organizations, we seemed to have fewer places to go for money," he says. "There are fewer funders who have that specific focus, working on grassroots community-based change in poor rural places." (Read more)