2026 Civic Hubs: Highlights from our grantmaking cycle
With the announcement of our 2026 Civic Hub grants this July, the Trust has now invested nearly $27M in rural communities to date across our priority regions: the Black Belt, Central Appalachia, Southwest Border, Tribal Communities, and rural communities in transition.
Read on for highlights from this year’s grantmaking cycle and the 20 organizations who have joined our network of Civic Hubs.
2026 Civic Hub grant cycle facts
Civic Hubs are at the center of the Trust’s grantmaking. These grants provide flexible funding for local groups that bring people together across their communities by creating a shared vision, solving problems, and distributing resources.
- Our 2026 Civic Hubs grants awarded $7.6M in new grants to 20 new groups. The unrestricted grants range from $300K–$425K over a three-year period.
- Over half the grantees are working in four priority regions: the Black Belt (3), Central Appalachia (4), Southwest Border (2), and Tribal Communities (2). The remainder are from other rural communities undergoing major demographic or economic transition (9).
- This latest grantmaking cycle expands our total number of Civic Hubs to 66 and extends our reach into 35 states and one U.S. territory.
- The Trust will partner with its network of Civic Hub grantees to distribute an additional $2M in small grants funding to support civic experiments in Hub communities by the end of 2026.
2026 grantee highlights
According to Trust grantees, decreasing trust and division in a community is often rooted in a persistent belief that community priorities donʼt matter and individual efforts are not effective. Civic Hub grants support local groups creating the culture, capacity, and opportunities that enable community cohesion and problem solving.
- The 2026 Civic Hub grantees are located in 16 states, including five states that are new to our portfolio.
- Half of Trust grantees serve a multi-county region, 35% focus on serving one town or county, and 15% do work across an entire state.
- Trust grantees are focused across civic entry points, including disaster relief, cultural celebration, physical spaces, entrepreneurship, cooperative ownership, and youth engagement.
- All the grantees report experiencing some form of community division or polarization, with 30% saying they experience heightened moments of division that impact community life.
- 85% of the new grantees plan to use their flexible funding to directly support civic opportunities that help people connect, collaborate and build relationships; about 20% plan to use it for third spaces; 65% for operations; and 20% for community lending. Most plan to use their funding across more than one of these categories.
- Of 2026 grantees, 70% operate in red states, and 30% operate in blue states (based on 2024 presidential election results).