O’Neill, Nebraska is like a lot of small towns. Its population has shrunk, the farm economy is down and it’s lost political clout. State and federal government agencies are pulling back grants for parks, children’s programs and other things that lend themselves to a higher quality of life.

Jan Krotter Chvala is a lawyer and estate planner there, and says that when the last member of a local family dies, a familiar sequence ensues.

"Most of the people come back for the funeral," she says. "They live somewhere else, and we basically stop at the bank on the way out of town, and send the money away from here, never to be seen again."

Once the money is transferred, Krotter Chvala says, "All you’re going to have is empty buildings on your Main Street. All you’re going to have is nobody in your churches, in your schools.  It’s too late."

So, she has a pressing question for people planning their estates: “What about making the community one of your heirs, along with your children?”

The Nebraska Community Foundation has asked this question for years, and encouraged other nonprofits to do the same. President Jeff Yost says there’s a lot of money that’ll change hands when Baby Boomers die.

"In Nebraska, we estimate the transfer of wealth to be some 600 billion dollars over the next 50 years," he says.

And that’s just in Nebraska. Other states, Iowa in particular, are coming to grips with this opportunity, too, and has a foundation in every county, according to Chris Merritt with the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs.

Read the full article about rural foundations trying to stem the wealth drain by Frank Morris at Harvest Public Media.