Rural arts organizations like us are always hunting for resources. Sometimes it’s a treasure hunt.  Sometimes it’s a scavenger hunt. Sounds like fun. That must be why we just can’t stop searching out ways to support ourselves!  (Trumpets sound.) 

Resourceful is near the top of the list of most admirable traits of rural Americans, followed unfortunately but necessarily by self-reliant and thrifty.  We have to use as much imagination and skill to support arts opportunities as we do to create them.

You have license to go resource hunting within the territory defined by this circle of support and creation. Your carefully crafted mission and its resulting programs and projects come from there. They make your map, but there are no x’s to show where the hidden treasures lie.

Stray too far in your hunt for support and you risk losing your way in the real work of art.  Your role as an arts organization in your rural community is complicated in ways that belie the apparent simplicity of size and setting. Best be clear in your purpose.

As hunters and gatherers for the arts, we have to stand in that clearing and think about that purpose. If you are having trouble finding support, it is good to figure out what is the matter. So start with what really matters:

            What good does it do?                                                        

                        Who cares?

                                    What does it take to do it?

                                                What do you have now?

                                                            What are you looking for?

                                                                        How much do you need and when?

If you know the answers without thinking, you are probably wrong.  Take the time to explore the answers in full. If you go off half-cocked by making assumptions, you might hunt up some help and simultaneously create some problems you don’t need.

Getting and understanding the answers can lead to your best resources. You may be looking for support for general operations, a major program or a small project -- starting up, sustaining, or starting over, you make your case successfully if you know. 

Look close. Everything rural is local and personal. Everyone is related, one way or another. All that Every means one treasure leads to the next in your hunt. Or if you are in scavenger mode, your pot of Stone Soup will soon be bubbling with everything, if you can find the right rock, whatever art is bedrock in your community.

Use this rural advantage for all it is worth – which can be a lot. Working interestingly and locally is very direct and sure.  Determine what good you want to do and who cares about that good, and you move a long way toward your goal.

Direct communication with your known market is cheap to free in rural areas. Unheard of! This budget item can be a major ongoing expense for arts organizations competing for attention in an ocean of information and asks. That is not you.

So get that message ready -- about how you make the arts work for your community-- and use it, use it, use it. You can make a contact list on Monday and have a public awareness and fund raising campaign going by Friday.

And it could backfire and blow up in your faces by the next Monday if you haven’t done your homework. Rural communications circle quickly. Your message, like everything else, is an invitation to talk. Be ready to listen as you hunt for support.

Keep it local and personal for as long as you can, building community support from individuals, businesses, other organizations, and local government. No outside support will ever be as consistently sustaining as the public you serve directly.

People will have something to contribute to this greater good, this thing that makes life better. Some will even give money! Caring others will give something you need more, and that leads to more. Ask for their stories and tell them to others.

Financial contributions often come from those who wish they had more time and talent to give and from businesses who know how much the arts can mean to their employees and to their success. Help them remember the value of the arts in our lives.

Rural arts groups need local support at first and then throughout their existence. Without significant interest and investment from your community, it is nearly impossible to find outside support. Local enthusiasm can open those doors like nothing else can.

Look around.  Outside public and private support is out there for you at state, regional and national levels, of course. It is generally indispensible to the arts. These are just not the first places to look.

Federal, national funding has to be competitive. If you think your city council is tough, take a look at our national arts agency, which has to serve all American citizens on the yearly income of the equivalent of one postage stamp per capita. Cheap 4 U.

There are excellent outside opportunities for innovation and growth in rural programs and services, once you have fully established local support. If you are already there, make that story the basis of all proposals to any potential funder.

The right outside financial and technical support is specific to each organization. Every rural circumstance is unique and requires some storytelling to relate your vision, needs and the local wherewithal to carry it all forward.  Take care of that first.