Communications & Narrative
Engaging and listening to rural people
Cultivating Trusted Messengers
Rural Democracy Initiative helps rural and small-town advocates unite our communities in shared values while leveraging the expertise of local messengers. We provide grantees with the latest communications research, best practices, and training opportunities to ensure local leaders are doing all they can to build trust and activate their neighbors, families, and friends. Putting rural people and working families front and center, we support community spokespeople to have everything they need to advocate for solutions in our communities.
Featured Program
Winning Jobs Narrative
The Winning Jobs Narrative and Toolkit provides a blueprint for compelling messaging about jobs, work, and the economy.
Grantee Spotlights
Rural Democracy supports grantees uniting our communities with shared values and engaging, factual information.
Our Grantees
Pro-Democracy Digital News
By prioritizing factual, local coverage and elevating rural stories, COURIER is building trust in rural communities and changing the landscape of rural media.
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Supporting Local Papers
Through our investment in the Georgia Trust for Local News, more rural Georgians have robust local papers that cover their interests. With a portfolio of 18 newspapers, they serve 900,000 Georgians in communities across Middle and South Georgia.
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Community-Led Rural Journalism
Because of historical disenfranchisement and ongoing discrimination perpetrated by media sources, some journalists have caused substantial harm to the communities they should be representing. Our support of The Pivot Fund offers a different way to bolster news media that truly benefits rural communities.
Learn moreConversations Create Change
Rural conversations create ripples that impact national policy, and with the right tools and support, our grantees have made progress across the country. Effective communicators listen to the issues and opinions of their friends and neighbors, and compelling narratives paint real-life pictures that show how voter turnout improves rural lives. Our communications partnerships and storytelling investments help make sure those real‑life stories reach local media, digital platforms, and decision makers well beyond a single conversation. This helps build momentum for future policy action in rural communities across the country.
Community Messenger, Community Message
The best spokesperson understands the experiences of your community. This is especially true in rural communities where relationships are highly valued. We look to small business owners, family farmers, and other working people who understand the specific local challenges while also making significant contributions. Our grantees know how to engage people across the political spectrum and use language familiar to their friends and neighbors. With Rural Democracy’s communications support, these local leaders leverage their unique skillset to become persuasion experts, well-positioned to secure beneficial outcomes for their communities.
Rural Democracy grantees also help trusted messengers connect national talking points to local issues, and communicate those issues to local reporters and editors who are often seeking local content. In addition, our grantees communicate directly with their audiences through social media, culturally relevant art, texting, email, yard signs, and billboards.
Seeing Rural
We are changing the conversation about who lives in rural communities and what we can achieve.
Rural Communicators Cohort
For rural organizations, communications is often held by small teams with limited time, training, and resources. Our Rural Communicators Cohort (RCC) provides a supportive space for grantees to build skills, sharpen strategy, and learn with peers. Now in its third year, our cohorts bring together 25 communications staff for six months of training sessions, coaching, guided discussions, and opportunities for peers to exchange ideas and solve problems together. In this hands-on training, participants implement what they learn and leave with a toolkit they customized for their organization. We’re equipping grantees to engage rural audiences, grow staff leadership, and further their organization’s long-term impact.
Empowering Tools for Rural Success
Access practical resources and tools designed to empower rural communities and drive positive change.
Rural Map and Dashboard
Rural classifications to the country’s census tracts, counties, congressional districts, and states.
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Rural Policy Action Report
Featuring priority legislation and executive action that supports working families and strengthens rural communities. The report also highlights numerous policy successes and the ongoing challenges people in rural communities face.
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Rural Battleground Polls
The polls explore rural attitudes and points toward ways to engage rural communities.
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Rural Democracy Network
We invest in a network that creates real change for rural communities. We work alongside thousands of rural folks in rural areas, towns, and small cities in over 23 states.
Learn morePolicies
The Rural Democracy network helps local conversations lead to local, state, and national policies that improve the lives of rural people and ensure democracy works for us all.
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