Amy Wyss

Rural areas are home to 20% of Americans, but research indicates as little as 3% of philanthropic spending reaches these communities. That didn’t sit right with Amy Wyss, who lives in Wyoming. Wyss wanted to invest in the region she calls home by providing small grants that make a big difference in rural Americans’ quality of life. So in 2007 she launched the LOR Foundation, focused on supporting seven towns in five states: Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Wyss says her team backs small-town solutions conceived by local residents. LOR does not employ a formal grant application. Instead, a local “community officer” chats with a potential grantee about what’s needed, the foundation makes a decision, and the representative swings by later to see how the project went. 

What LOR might lack in scale—the average grant in 2025 was just $8,755—it makes up for in speed. Half of funding requests for around $5,000 or less are met within two weeks; 75% go out within a month. In 2025, the foundation’s focus included mental health support for first responders, food and beverage workers, unhoused veterans, Spanish speakers, and young people. To date, LOR has moved more than $90 million for everything from arts programs to disaster readiness.

“A lot of these communities have never had anybody say, ‘How can we help?’,” Wyss says. “People are told how they’re going to get help. There’s a fundamental difference.”