The Center for Rural Affairs worked with diligence and fought with integrity in 2008 to create genuine opportunity for rural people and a better future for our communities, while protecting the land and environment for our children and grandchildren.

We did not overcome every challenge. But we achieved a lot, as you’ll learn from reading this newsletter. We stood strong for the values and principles that define the best in rural America and that the Center represents – fairness, citizen responsibility, and a commitment to progress that serves the common good.

And we worked to extend the proven tradition that has strengthened our rural communities and nation – ownership of businesses, farms and ranches by those who work them.

Every year the Center strives to get better; to become the leader in creating a better future for rural people and communities. That drives us forward. In the past year we produced positive results while strengthening our capacity to work with rural Americans to together take control of our destiny.

The Center has become the leading voice for rural America in the regional and national news media. From the Scottsbluff Star Herald and the Des Moines Register to The Washington Post and Clear Channel Radio, we’ve brought the voice and concerns of rural America to the nation. This newsletter remains a leading source of news and perspective for those who care about rural America.

Working with many grassroots supporters and organizational allies, we won the only new funded rural development program in the farm bill, in addition to critical new support for beginning farmers and conservation. We lost our bid to win meaningful limits on payments to mega farms. But we spoke forcefully from the District of Columbia to the Dakotas on the moral bankruptcy of agricultural politics that favor subsidizing mega farms to drive smaller operations out of business instead of investing in the future of rural America.

We’re educating policymakers with our analysis of the unique rural challenges for health care finance reform in rural America, where coverage and income are lower and self employment and small business employment are higher. Equally important, we’re helping rural Americans understand the choices and engage in the debate.

Our REAP program reached new milestones as rural America’s leading program providing loans, training and assistance to microenterprise – owner-operated businesses with up to five employees. Last year REAP trained and counseled over 2,000 entrepreneurs and placed or leveraged over $1 M in loans to microenterprises. REAP also surpassed $4 M in loans directly placed with rural entrepreneurs and 10,000 businesses served since its inception.

The Center’s work with rural communities is testing cutting-edge approaches to development – including ecotourism, renewable energy, and drawing professionals back to their hometowns to launch Internet-based microbusinesses providing services to distant businesses. Our annual Marketplace event drew 600 people to explore entrepreneurial opportunities in rural America.

We also conduct our internal affairs with integrity. Our fiscal management is sound and conservative. Reserves deliberately built over two decades are in place to help carry us through the current fiscal downturn.

We’ve created a culture within the Center that reflects our values and offers staff the opportunity to work for shared convictions with supportive coworkers. We hold ourselves accountable to high standards in our work and to interact with coworkers in a way that recognizes their value and elevates overall morale.

A talented and dedicated board of directors guides the Center’s work, establishes its general plan and evaluates success in achieving the intended results. We’re making additions to ensure our board reflects the rural people we serve, including women and Latinos, while strengthening critical expertise in organizational leadership, grassroots engagement, and legal and financial management.

The Center for Rural Affairs is not just the staff and board. It’s also each of you working in your community, contacting policymakers, engaging your neighbors and donating. Without you, we can accomplish little.

This special annual report newsletter issue is our report to you. We hope it demonstrates the value of your investment of time and money in us. And we hope it inspires you to keep up the fight to build a better future in rural America.

 – Chuck Hassebrook, Executive Director