A thank-you note to the Roundhouse Foundation raised an interesting picture: a rural community of about 500 households facing the enormous funding systems required to build something as basic as a fire station.

The difference in scale is hard to miss.

That difference brought to mind David and Goliath — and the practiced skill behind a well-aimed slingshot.

Rural Oregon Knows a Few Giants

For those who don’t know us, we are a small organization in a small rural valley, and like many rural communities, we have some very big issues to tackle.

One of our first was establishing the Row River Rural Fire Protection District from scratch. Neighbors worked for years to make that happen, and in 2024, residents voted to create their own rural fire district.

Today, that young volunteer fire district needs permanent stations from which to serve the people who created it.

Building those stations is our Goliath today.

Land. Engineering. Permits. Construction costs. State funding. Federal appropriations. Match requirements. Applications, deadlines and months of waiting. A community of roughly 500 households can find itself navigating the same complicated systems as communities many times its size.

Small communities all across Rural Oregon are facing aging water systems, roads that need repair, emergency services that need homes, housing shortages, wildfire risk and basic infrastructure that communities depend upon every day.

The need doesn’t shrink because fewer people live there. Neither does the cost of a fire engine, a well, a bridge or a mile of road. In Rural Oregon, there are simply fewer shoulders to carry the load.

That has been one of RRVCP’s own growing pains. We have become pretty good at responding when something needs to be done. The next step is becoming equally good at looking several years ahead — building stable fundraising, planning for what is coming, and having the capacity to pursue opportunities before they become emergencies.

And that brings us back to the slingshot.

Learning to Take Better Aim

The Row River Valley has a slingshot.

It was made by the determination of neighbors who spent years building a fire district. It has been honed by volunteers who keep showing up, and refined through donated land, local partnerships, countless hours of work, and a community willing to take responsibility for its own future.

What we need now is greater skill in wielding it — a sharp eye, a steady hand, and practical experience behind the aim.

The Roundhouse Foundation has joined the Ford Family Foundation and the Autzen Foundation in helping RRVCP develop that skill and strengthen our fundraising capacity. Their support brings Kelley Nonprofit Consulting alongside us, adding practical experience to help us strengthen our fundraising and take better aim at some very large targets.

Their investment gives us access to experience we have not had before: strengthening how we tell our story, building lasting relationships with funders, planning farther ahead, and putting strong rural projects in front of the people who can help make them possible.

Strengthening the Hands Doing the Work

These skills will make us stronger for the two fire stations in front of us today and better prepared for whatever giant comes around the corner tomorrow.

The Row River Valley is one small place in a much larger Rural Oregon story. Across our state, small communities are doing difficult work with fewer people and fewer resources, while facing many of the same costs and complicated systems as communities many times their size. What these communities have in abundance is determination, local knowledge, and people willing to show up.

When partners invest in the capacity of rural communities, they give that determination a better chance to succeed. They help local people build the skills, relationships, and stability to meet today’s needs while preparing for tomorrow’s.

For the Row River Valley, that means we can lift our eyes beyond the next deadline and take better aim at the future we have been working toward.

We are deeply grateful to have good people standing beside us.

Thank you to the Roundhouse Foundation, the Ford Family Foundation and the Autzen Foundation for believing in our work and helping us care for the valley we love.