Dear Friends, We ended our 39th year with much to celebrate and a strong sense of resolve. As always, there is still considerable work to be done, and our board and staff are fiercely determined to ensure that the rural communities we serve are vibrant, healthy and enduring. Rural families have access to safe and decent affordable housing through our housing programs; safe drinking water for all through our environmental programs; financial resources through our Loan Fund; and rural economic development support through our Building Rural Economies program. Read on for milestones from 2017 and enjoy the stories in this re- port that highlight: • Alaska Community Development Corporation, which helped par- ticipantsbuildenergyefficient,affordablehomesinWasilla,Alaska • Yurok Tribe who now provides safe water to elementary school students at a small school in northern California • Fallon Food Hub, a small business that expanded to support downtown businesses and local agriculture • Enterprise, Oregon that was able to build on existing assets to bolster downtown economic development activities Housing We work with organizations that operate under the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture Mutual Self-Help Housing Program to help families achieve homeownership. Thirty-seven self-help housing organizations accessed $105 mil- lion in financing to construct 572 single-family homes. RCAC staff worked with 17 agencies to renew their 523 self-help grants, which totaled more than $13 million. RCAC staff also reviewed 71 U.S. De- partment of Agriculture Rural Development 502 Direct Single Fam- ily Home Loan applications, which represented $7.9 million; and 27 organizations are now qualified to process 502 loan applications. Fifty-one of our housing partners accessed more than $5 million to increase organizational capacity. We provided 12,293 hours of housing training to 2,137 participants. THE Academy launched its second cohort, which brings Native organizations together to learn and apply best practices for developing housing on Tribal land. Environmental While many take safe drinking water for granted, our work shows us that too many communities still struggle to provide it. RCAC staff worked with water and wastewater systems to serve 8,574 households that secured more than $21 million for new, re- habilitated or expanded water or wastewater projects. Ninety-four percent of the systems that received RCAC assistance maintained compliance with public health and environmental regulations. We provided 22,079 hours of environmental training to 5,237 partic- ipants. RCAC staff completed 18 rate studies that resulted in $1.1 million in new revenue generation. The Agua4All program in- stalled 88 new water bottle filling stations throughout California during 2017, which brings the total to 362. Loan Fund RCAC’s Loan Fund is a resource for rural communities and pro- vides financing where traditional lenders often won’t. The Loan Fund made 68 loans totaling more than $4.5 million and serving 7,435 households, 54 private well owners and 14 water and wastewater systems. Twelve housing organizations secured $10.5 million from the Loan Fund to develop 587 housing units. The Loan Fund also provided seven business loans totaling more than $1.7 million, and three community facilities loans for $9.3 million. Community and Economic Development Our Building Rural Economies (BRE) program trains and builds community support for local entrepreneurial development based on local resources and supply chains. The BRE program expanded to serve 17 communities in eight states and has supported 38 new or expanding businesses and 27 new jobs. As we look ahead to our 40th year, we remain committed to our work with rural communities and grateful for our funders’ contin- ued and generous support. Sincerely, Stanley Keasling, CEO A letter from our CEO 1