In 2025, The Appalachia Funders Network released its “State of Funding in Appalachia.” What the study revealed made the members of the RURAL Initiative take notice – when compared to a comparable population in the San Francisco Bay area (7.6 million people), Central Appalachia (9.5 million) received $6.7 billion less in grant dollars, contained 2,296 fewer foundations for regional support, and recorded 16.39% fewer nonprofits. You can visit their interactive map and learn more here.

While this is an important funding issue for the region, our own assessment of grants and research administrators’ experiences within the region indicate that it is a grants training issue, too. Many active grants writers and administrators enter into the profession via other careers, and they learned the skills of grant writing, management, and research compliance along the way.

Thanks to a 2026 consortium award from the Appalachian College Association, the RURAL Initiative for Grants Administrators has begun to test how we can address that issue by training student interns who not only will expand the capacity of our own institutions’ offices, but who will leave their positions with knowledge of grant fundamentals. In this way, we intend to inject knowledge and support back into our Central Appalachian communities.

RURAL Initiative Interns meet once a month for nine months via Zoom for a one hour session. With a curriculum based on experience and feedback during the RURAL Initiative award period, Natalie Sweet, Grant Professional Certified (GPC),created a program that introduces the interns to the knowledge and competencies represented on the GPC examination while providing practical grant-development experience and professional career preparation. Completion of the program does not confer the GPC credential or independently establish eligibility for the GPC examination. However, it does create a firm foundation for the students to understand the ethics of the grant profession via the Grant Professionals Association and the research administration profession via the National Council of University Research Administrators. It also educates them on how they can pursue a career in grant writing and/or grant management, and/or how they can use the skills acquired to benefit their own communities.

The quiz below was developed by the RURAL Initiative to aid grants offices in assessing where interns might best fit into their offices while they learn more about the grants process adn profession. More tools will be added as the the program progesses. If you are a member of the Appalachian College Association and would like to learn about how you can participate in the 2027-2028 school year, please reach out via the contact box below.