Rural communities are often overlooked when it comes to investment by major funders, according to a recent federal report. Mary Hunt, Program Director at the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and Lora Smith, Co-Founder of the Appalachian Impact fund contributed this article to The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Rural areas, like Central Appalachia have worked for years to help a generation of workers adjust to the global economy, building community in an era of social isolation, mapping a just transition to a clean-energy economy, and finding solutions to the opioid crisis and ways out of multigenerational poverty. This is all being done with little money from many national foundations. Mary and Lora are Co-Chairs of the Appalachia Funders Network, a nonprofit group founded in 2010, which has been working with national foundations to better understand how philanthropy can work together to make a difference in rural parts of America.