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Supporting Rural Communities

The Royal Countryside Fund remains one of very few funders focused on rural communities across the UK.

Our mission is to empower rural communities to develop community-led solutions that increase their resilience and sustainability. We want to see thriving rural communities that contribute to a sustainable future for the countryside.

£ 0 M

Invested in rural communities

0

Community-led projects supported

Supporting community-led solutions

Our grants help bring community ideas to fruition. Our aim is to power up, not prop up those who live and work in the countryside. Creating a more resilient countryside for all. 

Bringing people together

We’re here to build connections; creating spaces for people to learn from each other, and gain confidence to lead their own projects in a way that works for their community.

Creating change that lasts

We want every project we fund to take on a life of its own and generate new opportunities for the community, long into the future.

Use the map to see the projects we’re currently funding

Click on the map points to find out more about each project.

Case Study

Countryside Learning Scotland

£12,500

Based in Perthshire, Countryside Learning Scotland is an education charity formed in 2003 to meet the need for outdoor learning in secondary schools. In 2023 The RCF awarded the charity £12,500 in funding to support rural career pathways for young people.

Project themes: 

  • Powering up rural communities
  • Creating opportunities for young people in the countryside
  • Contributing to environmental sustainability

Read more about other projects we’ve supported:

Grow the Glens CIC, County Antrim

Torridon District Community Association, North West Highlands

LandLinked CIC, Denbighshire

The River Waveney Trust, Suffolk

Place-based funding

In 2025 we launched our first county-based programme, targeting rural organisations in Cumbria and Northumberland.

We are currently supporting 16 projects with over £387,00 in funding, in partnership with The National Lottery Community Fund.

Find out more here

Latest rural community news

See all News

We’ve awarded £194,538 to power up rural communities across the UK

We’ve awarded £194,538 to power up rural communities across the UK The Royal Countryside Fund (RCF), the UK-wide charity working alongside farming families and rural

We’ve awarded £20,000 to provide pressure checks for farming families

New support for rural communities in Northumberland
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360Giving

The Royal Countryside Fund is committed to transparency and we work with 360Giving to publish information about our grants. 360Giving is an initiative that aims to help UK funders publish their data in an open and standard format online. You can explore our grant-making, and that of over one hundred other funders, using 360Giving’s GrantNav and Insights tools.

Using the 360Giving Data Standard, our awarded grants since 2022 are available to download as an excel file here.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This means the data is freely accessible to anyone to be used and shared as they wish. The data must be attributed to The Royal Countryside Fund.

We believe that with better information, funders can be more effective and strategic decision makers. 360Giving supports funders to publish open data about their grants and empowers people to use this data to improve charitable giving through a range of free online tools. For more information, visit the 360Giving website.