We are not here to be inspiring.
We are here to be effective.
Our Mission
Investing in brave and strong rural women through small business grants, love bombs, and scholarships.
The Rural Gone Urban Foundation was founded in 2022 by Brooke Clay Taylor after her upgrade to stage 4 triple-negative breast cancer.
At the time, she was a business owner, a new wife, a mother to a young daughter, and a woman staring down a second act of a disease she thought she had already outrun.
The foundation did not begin as a branding exercise or a charitable hobby. It began as conviction.
If her daughter up in the wake of a mother who graduated to heaven too early, she would also grow up surrounded by capable, disciplined, ambitious rural women. Women who build. Women who endure. Women who expect more from themselves and from the world around them.
What started as a protective instinct became an institution.
The Founder
A toddler mom and ranch girl at heart, Brooke Clay Taylor has lived a life punctuated by hard things.
At 6 years old, she lost her dad to colon cancer.
Before starting junior high, she traded her close-knit Indiana farming community for an Oklahoma cattle ranch.
As a senior in high school, her guidance counselor assessed her as “not college material,” recommending she was better suited for job training than degree-seeking.
She bet the house on love — and lost.
After a decade of building a career working for internationally recognized agriculture brands, she moved into her family’s horse barn to start over, launching a business with a single client and a prayer.
And in 2019, on the same day she gave birth to her daughter, she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, the worst, most aggressive form of the disease. Despite a complete pathological response to chemo and being declared cancer-free, in 2022, it returned for an act two.
But Brooke has faced exactly none of these roadblocks alone. Since she was small, her family, friends, and community have given Brooke the boosts she needed to rise to every challenge.
“Maybe the bravest thing,” Brooke says, “is admitting that while you could do it all by yourself, it’s okay to call on the people in your corner.”
In the wake of her second cancer diagnosis, Brooke launched The Rural Gone Urban Foundation to support brave, strong women who need people in their corner. The B and C students seeking scholarships. The small-town moms whose businesses only exist as ideas. And especially the women in the ring with cancer.
Our Belief
Supporting women in meaningful, practical ways should not be rare.
It should be standard.
We invest in rural women who are already doing the work. The B and C students with discipline and drive. The small-town mothers building businesses on narrow margins. The women navigating cancer while still managing households, careers, and children.
We do not deal in platitudes. We fund action.
What We Fund
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No GPA-Required Scholarships
As a high school senior, Brooke was told she was not college material. Scholarships and community support helped prove otherwise.
Today, the Rural Gone Urban Foundation awards scholarships to rural young women pursuing college, trade school, or technical education.
GPA is not considered.
Selection is based on documented work ethic, leadership, responsibility, initiative, and financial need. We look for students who show up, follow through, and carry weight in their families, schools, and communities.
We fund trajectory. We fund discipline. We fund drive.
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Small Business Grants
Brooke launched her business from a horse barn apartment after leaving a corporate advertising career. The financial margins were thin. The risk was real.
The Rural Gone Urban Foundation awards small business grants to rural women navigating similar conditions. These grants fund essential marketing assets, including professional websites, brand identity systems, social media strategy, and advertising plans.
We do not fund overhead. We fund visibility and infrastructure that generate revenue.
The goal is not survival. The goal is scale.
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The Love Bomb Initiative
Cancer treatment is destabilizing. Physically. Emotionally. Financially.
The Love Bomb Initiative provides judgment-free, unrestricted financial grants to rural women in active cancer treatment or recovery.
Funds may be used for travel to treatment, child care, mortgage payments, utilities, medical expenses, or meaningful family experiences.
The purpose is simple: relieve pressure so recipients can focus on health and family.
Sometimes the most practical form of courage is asking for help.
The Bison
When storms approach, most animals run with the wind.
Bison turn into it.
By moving toward the storm, they shorten the time spent inside it.
The Rural Gone Urban Foundation supports women who choose that posture. Women who turn toward difficulty. Women who refuse to retreat from responsibility.
We do not romanticize hardship.
We stand beside women moving through it.
