Dan Linehan

MANKATO — Residents in the small Martin County town of Sherburn wanted to give back to their community but didn’t want to deal with the paperwork and hassle of starting their own nonprofit.

Giving to the city was an imperfect solution. The City Council isn’t allowed to solicit funding, and donations to it aren’t tax-deductible.

Community foundations are typically equipped to help donors spend money locally, but only a half-dozen or so of the 72 cities in the nine-county region have foundations. Sherburn, population 1,082, isn’t one of them.

The community raised $30,000 last year to re-open a shuttered theater, but didn’t have nonprofit status, said Steve Wilson, pastor at St. John’s Lutheran.

So they turned to Region Nine Area Inc., a nonprofit that can serve as the conduit for money and helps keep local donations local.

The theater re-opened in December and sells $3 tickets on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Volunteers painted and cleaned the theater, and a local chiropractor operates it with his family, Wilson said.

Region Nine Area Inc. is holding a forum Tuesday that aims to grow rural philanthropy.

And philanthropy is not the sole domain of the urban wealthy, even if rural areas sometimes lack the organizations that can collect and spend donations.

A North Carolina-based nonprofit, Southern Rural Development Innovation, has created what it calls a philanthropy index to help rural communities tap charitable giving locally.

Jason Gray, a research and policy director for Southern Rural Development Innovation, said rural areas have a “terrific philanthropic spirit” that’s not captured by existing institutions.

Community foundations, such as the Mankato Area Foundation, have seen the fastest growth in philanthropy. Groups like these can help donors through the legal work so that their money benefits causes they care about.

But requirements to establish funds can be high, which can shut out smaller, rural donors, Gray said.

Mississippi, for example, is one of the poorest states but with one of the highest rates of philanthropic giving, especially to churches, he said.

The philanthropy index aims to get “a diverse range of rural leaders to start talking about the potential for growing community-based philanthropy.”

It can often be better, Gray says, for charity to come from within a community, instead of being “parachuted” in from cities.

First, locals tend to know their own needs better than anyone else.

Second, residents are more likely to work to make a project succeed if they invested their own money in it.

Finally, local giving can help forge the community’s identity and build confidence in itself.

The 177-page index includes a wealth of data about charitable giving, levels of wealth — the potential to give — as well as the strength of local nonprofits.

Region Nine Area Inc. shares the goal of growing philanthropy in the region, said Sarah Reichwald Beiswanger, resource development coordinator, and has planned for Gray to speak at the conference.

It’s aimed at local leaders who could head up charity projects, not potential donors.