Appalachia – the next great investment

This year’s legislative session was wrought with cuts to an already-frail state budget. Cuts that create a kind of impact that is hard to combat, especially in Kentucky’s Appalachian communities already stumbling to recover from declines in the coal industry.

The total population across Appalachian Kentucky counties is 1.2 million people, more than a quarter of the entire state. Perhaps it’s time to pay a bit more attention to a region that is home to more people than Lexington and Louisville combined.

Especially because good things are happening in the southeastern corner of the Commonwealth. While many families have been forced to leave, others have stayed or come to join in as communities work together to transition to a new economy. Our path forward may not be completely clear, but we do know that one million people won’t simply go away.

The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky and the Appalachian Impact Fund, both headquartered in the heart of the coalfields, provide opportunities for people from all walks of life to participate in our new economy. To contribute their time, talent and financial resources into bold new efforts in education, economic development and the transformation from a learned culture of scarcity to one that anchors resilient, creative communities that can thrive.

It’s not happening quickly, and it’s not going to be cheap. But it is happening. We are pooling resources, leveraging private dollars with public funds, and tackling entrenched systemic issues with people in communities they have loved for generations, or have come to love as their new home.

But the fact is, Kentucky’s antiquated tax system isn’t the only place revenue falls short. Recent research from the National Center for Responsive Philanthropy shows that only 6 percent of grants from foundations in the U.S. goes to rural places.

National foundations spend $4,000 per capita annually in places like New York and San Francisco. In Appalachia, that number goes down to $12 per capita annually.

Last year, our foundation distributed $3.4 million across southeastern Kentucky. We didn’t do it because we have a lot of financial resources. We did it because we have a lot of grit. We did it because we have enough courage to believe there is a future for a big swath of our nation that does not exist in urban centers or on the coasts.

But we also know we can’t do it alone.

Funds invested responsibly, in and with the people who will be impacted the most, are what will transform southeastern Kentucky and subsequently the entire state. The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky and the Appalachian Impact Fund, our new impact investment fund serving some of our toughest to work in communities, provide a vehicle for all of us to do just that.

Last month, over 100 funders dedicated to investing in a sustainable economic transition in Appalachia gathered in Pikeville for the Appalachia Funders Network’s ninth annual gathering. Our colleagues have boldly stated that Appalachia is the next great investment opportunity in America.

We believe in a future where Eastern Kentucky is a place of unique thriving local economies that enhance the existing natural and cultural assets of the region and offer economic opportunity for all people while keeping ownership, assets and wealth rooted in local communities. We invite all to invest in creating that future with us.

This story was originally published May 4, 2018 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Appalachia – the next great investment."