GATHERING REGISTRATION IS OPEN!
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It’s that time again - registration for AFN’s 2026 Annual Gathering in Ashland, Kentucky is officially OPEN!
Our theme for 2026 is...
Forging Forward: Fortitude, Renewal, and Hope in Appalachia
Early bird registration is live for a limited time! Grab your ticket, reserve your room, and book your travel to join us on Appalachia’s Front Porch this April 13 - 15.
Our Call for Participation is also open! Learn more about the Gathering, submit your session ideas, and explore all event details at the buttons below:
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All AFN members were sent 2026 membership invoices in November. If you have questions or have not yet received yours, please contact Kalista.
Dues payments are due by January 31, 2025.
Interested in becoming a member in 2026? Fill out our membership application form and we’ll be in touch!
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AFN is organizing a delegation to Foundations on the Hill (FOTH), hosted annually by United Philanthropy Forum, Council on Foundations, and Independent Sector, from March 16-19, and registration is open now.
If you'd like to get involved, simply register for the event and we'll get connected. If you'd like to support the coordination of AFN's delegation as a Captain alongside Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky's Kristin Walker Collins and the Just Transition Fund's Rachael Young, send us an email! The responsibilities include:
- Thought partners in developing our materials for the Hill - above the matters of concern for the national funder field, what additional stories, concerns, or priorities should we be sure to name in those meetings? What information do we want to offer our delegation in their packets so they feel confident advocating for Appalachia?
- Help determine which federal agencies and offices we should prioritize for meetings.
- Attend a few preparation meetings leading up to the event (no more than 2, 45 min 1 hr prep calls leading up).
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Join us on January 16 at 10 AM EST for our network-wide Hurricane Helene Response Call. This is a space for sharing updates, ideas, and organizing around Helene Recovery and Community Resilience.
Use the button below to register and add the call to your calendar. We look forward to seeing you there!
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Our new programs are officially live! Curious about what this new programmatic structure looks like and how you can plug in? Watch the recording of our rollout or explore our refreshed programs webpage.
Ready to get involved? Sign up today for one of our upcoming programs or submit your ideas for future offerings.
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→ Communities of Practice: Ongoing, member-only, and practice-based peer-learning circles.
Existing or upcoming communities of practice are:
- Cappalachia | Wednesday, January 14, 2026
- Arts & Culture | Tuesday, January 20, 2026
- CEO’s Circle | Launching January 2026
- Communications | Launching Winter 2026
- Workforce Enabler Funders | Summer 2026
- Funders of Infrastructure and Civic Support | Summer 2026
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→Learning Journeys: Time-bound, cohort-based learning experiences on a focused topic.
Existing or upcoming learning journeys are:
- The Art of Everyday Civics | Kicking off January 28
- Blended Capital for Program Staff | In Development
- Funding for the Moment We’re In | In Development
- Appalachia 101
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→Action Teams: Collaborative, action oriented formations focused on producing concrete outcomes (like a playbook, new fund, or solutions to regional challenges).
Existing or upcoming action teams are:
- Rural News Fund | ongoing
- Appalachian Helene Fund | ongoing
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Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund
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$115,000 to organizations addressing hunger
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In direct response to the withholding of SNAP benefits, the Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund donated a total of $115,000 to three Appalachian organizations addressing increased hunger within their communities in early November.
Grantees include Grow Ohio Valley, Boys & Girls Clubs of Appalachia /Harlan County Boys and Girls Club, and Boys and Girls Club of Somerset /Glasgow-Barren County. Learn more here.
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Fahe Awards $2.4M to Strengthen Appalachian Nonprofits
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Fahe awarded $2.4 million in Maximizing Appalachian Capacity (MAC) grants to support nine projects led by 11 nonprofit Members across Appalachia. The awards will leverage $19.4 million in additional funding, build staff capacity, increase housing production, create job training opportunities, create new jobs, and serve over 600 households.
Click here to learn more.
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Berea College Appalachian Fund, Mountain Association, Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky
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READY Grants to Grow Award
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Brushy Fork Leadership Institute announced the launch of Strengthening Central Appalachia’s Nonprofit Ecosystem—a three-year initiative to help nonprofits serving economically distressed communities across 46 counties in KY, TN, VA, and WV!
Funded in part by a $390,410 READY Grants to Grow award from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), this project will deliver technical assistance, leadership coaching, and organizational assessments to strengthen nonprofit sustainability and impact.
Brushy Fork will collaborate with our partners Berea College Appalachian Fund, Mountain Association, and Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky in this regional effort.
Learn more here.
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After Helene, Dogwood Health Trust focuses on ‘cultivating active hope’
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On Oct. 16, Dogwood Health Trust, a private foundation dedicated to improving the lives of western North Carolina (WNC) residents, held its annual meeting in Asheville. The convening brought together more than 400 attendees representing 270 organizations, with an additional 300-plus community members participating virtually.
This year’s theme, “cultivating active hope,” was particularly timely given recent challenges, including shifts in public funding and ongoing recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene.
Dogwood’s CEO, Dr. Susan Mims, explained that active hope is not optimism. Instead, it is a way of being — a practice.
Click here to learn more.
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JTF selected by Yield Giving for a significant new investment in their work
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When the JTF was founded nearly ten years ago, the goal was simple and urgent: ensure that the communities that powered this country for generations were not left behind as the economy shifted.This recognition from Yield Giving strengthens the JTF’s ability to meet that ambition. It affirms the national importance of community-led economic transition and reinforces the model we’ve built alongside our local partners. For JTF, this also kicks off a multiyear strategy—based on what they know works—to invest over $100 million in coal communities across the country.
Click here to learn more.
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Kentuckians could save billions if utilities moved beyond fossil fuels, study funds
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A new study says Kentucky ratepayers could save billions of dollars through 2050 if electric utilities invested more in renewable energy and energy storage, retired “uneconomic” and aging coal-fired power plants, and avoided overbuilding natural gas-fired power.
The 65-page study, published Thursday and written by the consulting firm Current Energy Group, also says two Kentucky laws passed by the General Assembly in recent years restrict the retirements of aging coal-fired power plants and could “reduce or eliminate potential savings and lock Kentucky into a higher-risk, fossil-fuel-dependent future.”
The report was commissioned by the environmental legal groups Kentucky Resources Council and Earthjustice along with the Berea-based Mountain Association and the Louisville-based Metropolitan Housing Coalition.
Click here to learn more.
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“Investing in Locally Led Development in Central Appalachia,” an ARC ARISE pre-application from Appalachian Community Capital
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This project is a partnership between two successful initiatives focused on locally-led real estate development and downtown revitalization: Opportunity Appalachia (a program of ACC) and the Appalachian Downtown Developers Initiative or ADDI (whose ARISE planning phase was led by Invest Appalachia). This project has the potential to transform the Region's downtowns for decades to come, by supporting not only promising individual projects but also building the capacity of the local developers and support systems that can advance downtown revitalization in small towns, rural communities, and neighborhoods across Appalachia. If you would like to learn more about the project and how to support, reach out to Invest Appalachia!
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Invest Appalachia is adding a new team member: Rural Resilience Specialist.
This role strengthens community-based resilience networks, climate adaptation efforts, and the investment readiness of projects across the region.
Through a new partnership with the NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership/Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (CAP/RISA) program, this position will coordinate and strengthen a regional network of funders, practitioners, academics, and community partners to advance climate resilience and disaster recovery.
The priority deadline is 12/15. Learn more here.
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Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund
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Calling all artists: Join HHARF in shaping the future of Appalachian relief - through art! Submit your design for a chance to have your work featured on official HHARF merch, with all proceeds going to a variety of causes.
Click here to submit your design.
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If you have news, an opportunity, grant, or webinar you would like for AFN to share in its next newsletter, please submit it here and contact Kalista Pepper at kalista@appalachiafunders.org with any questions.
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WHJL | SWVA United Way awarded $150k grant for disaster recovery, preparedness
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The United Way of Southwest Virginia received a $150,397 disaster recovery grant from the Appalachian Helene Fund, the organization announced Monday.
“We are deeply grateful for this investment in our region,” Megan Parks, Executive Director of United Way of Southwest Virginia, said in a news release. “Because of opportunities like this, we are able to continue showing up for our neighbors in the ways they deserve, both in moments of crisis and throughout the long process of rebuilding.”
According to a news release from the United Way, the funds will be used to enhance disaster response infrastructure and support ongoing Hurricane Helene recovery.
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This will be a bi-monthly Special Edition: What’s Good in Appalachia series, highlighting Opportunity Appalachia projects to demonstrate the deep interconnectedness of our region and AFN members’ roles in shaping the future of development in our region. In matters of the capital that powers projects on the ground, Appalachian communities are actively building with steadfastness in mind, ensuring that the choices we make now will endure, and are rooted in local ownership and shared decision-making.
This orientation is especially important in a region like ours, which suffered generational disinvestment. Extractive, mono-economies stripped communities of not only resources, but community wealth and ownership. Today, though, we see that through creative capital and resilient funding mechanisms, funders are helping create long-term, systemic change. Each edition of this series will spotlight a different OA project and lift up the AFN members investing in Appalachia’s future - trusting communities to lead the way while providing the financial footing to get there.
Be sure to drop by bimonthly as we share the successes, strategies, and stories of Appalachian heart and persistence: what it looks like to own your future, build community-owned wealth, and strengthen the ties that bond our region together.
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We’re kicking off the series strong with a fan favorite: West Marion Inc., the first and only Black-led nonprofit in McDowell County, North Carolina. Their project is a $24M redevelopment of a former pre-integration school for the Black community to transform into a 66,000 sq ft multi-racial community facility. When complete, the space will house a health clinic, a technology center, local nonprofits and businesses, and a community kitchen. The minority-owned and led project sponsor anticipates approximately 48 permanent and 186 construction jobs - and has recently secured $700K for additional pre-development and working capital, plus pro bono New Market Tax Credit consulting to push the project forward.
The significance of this project is in more than just the numbers, though. Why do 48 permanent jobs matter? Why does the community need the facility? Why now?
Because West Marion is a microcosm of Appalachia. The community has endured repeated natural disasters that underscore, in no uncertain terms, the need for a facility that meets everyday needs and serves as a lifeline in crisis. Throughout the year, the West Marion community needs accessible healthcare, economic opportunity, and places to gather. Resilience happens during those times, before weathering storms, when communities can access the services they need to thrive year-round. This project formalizes, expands, and honors the work the community has been doing to meet those needs.
The planned West Marion Resilience Hub will close a critical regional gap with:
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- Backup power generation,
- a commercial kitchen capable of mass meal preparation,
- an event space and gymnasium convertible to emergency sheltering, and
- infrastructure designed to stay operational when utilities or transportation fail.
Demand for these services will be high. Recent disasters throughout the region have made it clear that relying on single-purpose facilities leaves households, nonprofits, and local governments dangerously vulnerable.
But what will matter even more is how the hub grows economic opportunity and enhances quality of life with better healthcare access, new opportunities for entrepreneurs and a place for community organizations to collaborate. Our communities deserve more than survival and preparing for survival. Appalachian communities are not simply resilient - they are civically engaged, culturally diverse, creative, intelligent, and booming with potential. West Marion Inc. is building what, in other places, might just be another community center. In this community, though, it’s a long-held dream finally taking shape. A place positioned to “be a durable engine for local wealth-building, cultural vitality, and long-term resilience in West Marion" (Opportunity Appalachia).
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Other News That Caught Our Eye
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