In the realm of philanthropy, as in so many other realms, it takes money to get money. And right now, when it comes to giving to local nonprofits, Montana is losing out big time.

That was the message brought to the IR Editorial Board his week by Mike Schechtman, executive director of the Big Sky Institute for the Advancement of Nonprofits, and Janine Lee, a veteran philanthropy strategist who currently is the executive director of the Southern Partnership Fund. They dropped by the IR to talk about the rural philanthropy gap.

This gap may not be as scary as that bogus "missile gap" of the late 1950s, nor as divisive as the "generation gap" of the later 1960s and early 1970s, but it is all too easy to quantify. It turns out that the gap between the growth of nonprofit foundation assets between highly populated states and the most rural states (the top and bottom 10 states, respectively) has quadrupled between 1988 and 2005, the last year for which figures are available.

What this means is that while giving to nonprofits amounted to $171 per capita in the 10 largest states in 2005, it was only $34 per capita in Montana and other mostly rural states. That translates directly into less - far less - that rural nonprofits can do for citizens in need.

Strategies Schechtman and Lee are working on to close this unfair gap include efforts to strengthen local nonprofit foundations. For instance, this week they unveiled a guide designed to help bankers, attorneys and accountants help the growing ranks of the elderly include nonprofits in their legacies. A goal is to help local foundations reach a critical mass enabling the hiring of staff necessary to pursue further legacy gifts.

They also are working with legislators to create a Montana trust fund seeded with a one-time state appropriation of $20 million. Interest from that endowment would be used to bolster local community foundations that in turn help local nonprofits.

A main aim of all this is to augment Sen. Max Baucus' recent efforts to interest the big, national nonprofit foundations - from Bill Gate's foundation on down - to increase their giving to rural parts of the country. Strengthening community nonprofits from the bottom up will attract attention from the top.

It is an important effort. Montanans and people other rural areas shouldn't be penalized simply because of where they live.