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.
Invested in rural communities
Community-led projects supported
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:
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.
Latest rural community news
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.