The local advantage: What rural communities reveal about building trust and agency
A survey of rural community members finds trust in local libraries, nonprofits, and community foundations remained high and working with others toward shared outcomes strengthens a sense of belonging and agency.
An abandoned strip mine in southern West Virginia is now a working farm, with a solar array and cabins for rent. The crew that rebuilt it were local residents, more than a third of them fresh out of addiction recovery, who have become central to remaking their community.
This is the workforce training program run by Coalfield Development in a region gutted by the collapse of the coal industry. Trainees earn credentials in trades while rehabilitating old schools, train stations, and factories. Beyond a paycheck and diploma, they gain a new sense of agency as active contributors to the local economy. People can’t control when an employer leaves or when the opioid crisis hits, CEO Jacob Hannah explains, but they can shape how a run-down building gets a second life. “This is the most potent agency we can provide.”
Coalfield’s story brings to life a pattern from the Trust for Civic Life’s latest community survey, The Local Advantage: How community-based efforts build the trust and agency America needs, conducted with researchers at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. The survey of more than 1,000 residents across 24 rural communities found trust, agency, and belonging are being built locally even as they erode nationally. Their answers point to clear opportunities for the local nonprofits working within them.
In rural communities, trust remains strong locally
The report compared data from two surveys—the first conducted in September and October 2024, the second in October 2025—of community members linked to eight Trust for Civic Life grantees that participated in both surveys. Between the two surveys, rural Americans’ trust in national political institutions dropped 46%, while trust in local institutions held steady. This year’s survey asked specific questions about local institutions and found libraries, nonprofits, and community foundations were trusted almost everywhere, each earning the trust of at least 80% of respondents.
For local nonprofits, this is an opening to amplify that trust by partnering with other local institutions people already rely on. The Nebraska Community Foundation, for example, does this by supporting local affiliate funds, where residents decide where the money goes, extending the trust that’s already rooted in each town.
Trust and agency are tied to solving problems together
According to the survey, taking action with others to achieve a shared outcome, in both formal and informal settings, was strongly linked to feelings of trust, agency, and belonging. The more people acted together, the stronger those feelings were. By contrast, simply talking about issues, even across racial or cultural lines, showed no such link. Separately, respondents reported higher levels of agency when they worked with a local group they believed was improving their community’s quality of life.
These findings suggest nonprofits can catalyze local action by rallying people around a shared goal and offering ways to contribute, starting with something concrete and achievable. Communities Unlimited works this way in Arkansas, bringing neighbors together to solve smaller problems first, like a community-led backpack program that addresses student hunger, and then moving on to larger efforts from there.
Building agency is about depth of contribution, not hours
The survey found that logging more volunteer hours was not connected to a greater sense of agency, but getting closer to the decision-making process—by taking on leadership roles and responsibility—was.
Nonprofits can create pathways for people to participate in decision making, whether it’s project ownership or opening committee roles to a wider group. The Industrial Commons in western North Carolina does this by helping employee owners of its workplace cooperative to secure seats on local boards.
Rural community members are reaching across differences
An encouraging finding is that respondents are already connecting across differences, outside formal programs or organizations. Nearly half said they’re trying to build common ground with people from different political backgrounds or life experiences. Almost a third are doing so through efforts to improve their communities.
These acts of connection are tied to higher levels of trust and help people build relationships beyond their immediate social circles. Nonprofits can facilitate this with projects that welcome the whole community and provide opportunities to collaborate with people they typically do not interact with. The 1912 Center in Moscow, Idaho, does this by connecting volunteers from all backgrounds to work together to put on monthly community dinners for the town.
The opportunity ahead
The findings match what we’ve seen from our grantees since 2024, and that consistency is meaningful. The conditions that build trust, agency, and belonging are not mysterious or out of reach. They’re cultivated every day by local organizations that know their communities, bring people together across differences, and give them a role in improving their communities. For nonprofit leaders, that is both a validation and an invitation to keep building where they’ve already earned the community’s trust.
Photo courtesy of Coalfield Development
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