Sharen Butrum

Early in my time with RCAC [Rural Community Assistance Corporation], I did a lot of work on the Agua4All program because it had just started. We were looking to inform funders about it and to get it up and running and well funded. The Agua4All program aims to increase access to – and consumption of – safe, clean drinking water in so many rural communities. We started the program with a pilot in California, where more than half a million people really do not have access to clean, safe water. In the last four to five years, we have covered the state. Thousands of schoolchildren now have safe, clean drinking water in the schools where they didn’t have it before. We’ve distributed reusable water bottles to them, which has helped the environment, so they’re not throwing away plastic bottles. So, I’m particularly proud of that one. It’s very gratifying to see how that program has really had a dramatic effect. Building Rural Economies is another fabulous program that we have. It’s an economic development program that trains and supports rural entrepreneurs who historically have not had access to capital to start up a business, or a lot of training. So, our Building Rural Economies team goes into a community that has requested this help with economic development. We work with local organizations, we train them to deliver the program once we leave the community, and we nurture and create new small businesses that have a ripple effect in that not only does the entrepreneur create something successful but, of course, they start to hire their local people and that creates jobs as well. So, that’s been another one that I’ve worked a lot with and raised a lot of money for and [has been] very gratifying.