The Royal Countryside Fund is seeking to raise £15 million to fund a new ambitious strategy to better support farming and rural communities.
The RCF's strategy aims to support a further 2,000 farms and invest £3m in rural community projects through a new grants programme.
It said that across the UK, rural communities and farming families "are living with immense uncertainty and complexity in their lives".
This included the 'relentless' pace and scale of economic, climate and societal change.
The rural and farming-based charity was founded by King Charles in 2010 when he was the Prince of Wales.
The £15m funding will accelerate its scale and reach by increasing and diversifying its programmes of support.
Through these, its aim is to “power-up, not prop up”, enabling family farms and rural communities to contribute to a diverse rural sector, delivering productive agriculture and a rural society underpinned by a strong local economy.
The strategy describes an ambitious growth plan, expanding and replicating its model for supporting farms and communities county by county, while tailoring advice to local circumstances.
In tandem, the RCF said it would develop its rural community programmes on that same convening model, aiming to help "build confident self-help networks which will survive and thrive beyond our specific intervention".
Keith Halstead, executive director of the RCF, said: "Our strategic ambition for 2024 to 2028 is to become the countryside charity of choice for people living and working in rural communities.
"Our vision is of a thriving countryside – a living landscape of working family farms and prosperous rural life, built on connections and relationships – which in turn shapes rural places, creating vibrant, secure and sustainable communities.
"Over the next four years we want to accelerate our scale and reach as an operational, delivery-focused charity to help ever more family farms and rural communities to secure their futures.”
What's in the new strategy?
Highlights of the Royal Countryside Fund's strategy include:
• Supporting a further 2,000 family farms, of which 85% will feel confident, connected and sustainable because of their engagement with the RCF.
• Developed and be working with a total network of more than 6,000 farm businesses.
• Consolidated its relationship with farm support groups through a new model of support.
• Invested a further £3m in rural community projects across the UK through a new grants programme.
• Developed and be working with a network of over 500 rural, locally-led community organisations across the UK.
