Small and midsized nonprofits in Kentucky know their communities' stories by heart. Funders and outside partners do not.
To help address that, Blueprint Kentucky at the University of Kentucky has created a set of county-level profiles that can help grant writers and organization leaders quickly pull credible data into grant proposals, case statements, and conversations with local leaders. With these tools, you can bolster your local story with clear numbers, charts, and maps.
To make it easy to find the specific information you are looking for, the tool includes eight broad categories (workforce, healthcare, housing, economic, county budgets, small business, retail sector, and agriculture). To access the information, just select your topic of interest (or “profile,” as the tool describes it), pick your county, and download the profile for that topic. You can save the files, print them, or attach them to grant applications.
For each topic, Blueprint Kentucky provides a short county profile with:
- Key indicators in simple tables
- Charts that show trends over time
- Maps that let you compare your county with others in Kentucky
No matter which topic you select, these profiles help you:
- Describe local need with specific numbers instead of general statements
- Compare your county to the rest of Kentucky so you can show gaps and strengths
- Bring a shared set of facts into meetings with partners, local government, and funders
- Reuse the same language and data across many proposals and presentations
The sections below walk through each profile, with ideas for how small and midsized nonprofits might use the data from that sector to strengthen their grant applications and conversations with local leaders.
County Economic Profile
The County Economic Profile gives a big picture view of the local economy. You will typically see:
- Population and population change
- Labor force size and unemployment
- Median household income and poverty rate
- Typical commute time and where people work
- Top industries
- Charts that show changes in employment and income over time
How nonprofits can use the Economic Profile
- Use the income, poverty, and unemployment numbers in your needs statement to show why residents struggle with basic costs like housing, utilities, or child care (if applicable)
- If your nonprofit works in workforce development, show how your training paths line up with the top industries in your county
- When you talk with local officials or chambers, use the charts on economic growth to support joint strategies for job creation and talent retention
County Workforce Data Profile
The Workforce Data Profile digs deeper into who works in your county and what they earn. It usually includes:
- Education levels for adults, broken out by category
- Typical earnings for each education level
- Employment by major occupation groups
- Commuting patterns that show how many people live and work in the same county, commute in, or commute out
How nonprofits can use the Workforce Profile
- For job training and adult education programs, connect the education data to your course offerings. For example, if many adults have a high school diploma but no college degree, that finding supports the need for programs that provide short-term certificates
- Use the earnings by education level to show funders how your training can increase wages for local residents
- Commuting data can support proposals for transportation assistance, ride share programs, or child care near job centers
County Housing Profile
The Housing Profile gives a clear snapshot of where and how people live in your county. You will often see:
- Number of housing units and the share that are owner-occupied or renter-occupied
- Vacancy rates for owners and renters
- When homes were built, grouped by time period
- Home value distribution compared to household income distribution
- Typical homeowner costs such as mortgage, taxes, and insurance
- Typical rent levels and rent burden for renters
- How many workers commute into the county and their income levels
How nonprofits can use the Housing Profile
- Housing and homelessness providers can use vacancy, cost burden, and rent data to document local housing instability and the shortage of affordable units
- Community development groups can connect housing data to workforce needs. For example, if many workers commute in from neighboring counties, you can argue that better workforce housing would help both employers and residents
- When forming or joining a housing coalition, counties, cities, nonprofits, and developers can use this profile’s neutral base of facts to plan together
For more in depth, Kentucky specific data on housing supply gaps by county, including detailed estimates of housing need and affordability conditions, see the Kentucky Housing Corporation’s Housing Gap Analysis dashboard.
County Healthcare Profile
The Healthcare Profile covers both the health care industry and basic health indicators. Typical elements include:
- Health care employment and share of total county jobs
- Average and median wages in health care
- Share of county gross domestic product that comes from health care
- Top health subsectors, such as hospitals, nursing facilities, outpatient care, and social assistance
- Number of health care establishments by type
- County health indicators such as obesity, smoking, uninsured rate, food access, and physical activity compared to state averages
How nonprofits can use the Healthcare Profile
- Health and mental health providers can pull county rates for obesity, smoking, uninsured residents, and limited food access to strengthen needs statements
- In rural areas, health care is frequently not just a service but also a major employer. Local nonprofits focused on health can use this data to position their work as affecting both public health and economic development.
- Use the health indicator comparisons to identify priority areas for new programs, such as diabetes prevention, tobacco cessation, or food access
County Agriculture Profile
The Agriculture Profile focuses on the farm and farm-related economy in your county. It commonly includes:
- Agricultural employment and its share of county jobs
- Major commodities, such as crops and livestock, that are produced in the county
- The number and type of farms, including family farms and larger operations
- Trends in farm employment and farm output over time
- Contextual information on how agriculture connects to processing, distribution, and tourism
Even where agriculture is a smaller slice of the overall economy, the profile highlights the ways it supports rural culture, landscape, and local identity.
How nonprofits can use the Agriculture Profile
- Food access and nutrition
- Food pantries, community kitchens, and nutrition programs can link local farm production to food insecurity
- Use the list of key commodities to design farm-to-pantry, farm-to-school, or local purchasing programs that are realistic for your area
- Agritourism and rural tourism
- Main street groups, tourism agencies, and arts organizations can use agriculture data to justify events that highlight farms, such as harvest festivals, farm tours, or farmers markets
- This data supports grant requests for signage, visitor amenities, and marketing that connect downtown districts with surrounding farms
- Youth and workforce pathways
- If farm employment is declining, youth programs can use this information to argue for training that blends agriculture with business, technology, or tourism
- Conservation and land trust organizations can show how maintaining working lands supports both the economy and environmental goals
County Retail Profile
The Retail Profile shines a light on how people spend money locally and how many jobs depend on that spending. It usually shows:
- Total retail employment and wages
- Share of county jobs in retail
- Top retail subsectors such as restaurants, general merchandise, motor vehicle sales, gas stations, groceries, and other food outlets
- Trends in retail jobs and retail share of the local economy over time
- Estimated household retail spending and spending by category
- Wages by age group for retail workers
How nonprofits can use the Retail Profile
- Downtown and corridor revitalization
- Organizations that focus on main street or neighborhood corridors can use retail employment and spending to show the impact of existing businesses
- Location and subsector information helps identify which types of stores are strengths and which are missing, which is helpful for business recruitment and technical assistance
- Food access and health
- Retail data on grocery stores and food outlets can support grants that address food deserts, healthy corner stores, or mobile markets
- Pairing this data with health indicators from the Healthcare Profile can draw a clear line between retail food access and chronic disease
- Youth employment and job quality
- Wage data by age group helps make the case for youth employment programs, soft skills training, and financial literacy for workers in entry-level retail jobs
- You can also use it to discuss job quality improvements, such as scheduling stability or pathways to management
County Small Business Profile
The Small Business County Profile focuses on firms with fewer than 500 employees, which are the backbone of many rural economies. It typically includes:
- Total number of small business establishments in the county
- Jobs created by small businesses
- Establishments and jobs gained and lost in the most recent year
- Trends in the number of establishments across several years
- Jobs and establishments by firm size group, from sole proprietors to firms with 100 to 499 employees
- An innovation score or index that compares your county to state averages
How nonprofits can use the Small Business Profile
- Business coaching and technical assistance
- Use the number of small firms and their job counts to demonstrate how dependent your local economy is on small employers
- If establishment losses are high or growth is flat, this may justify coaching, peer networks, and technical assistance to improve survival and growth
- Capital and lending programs
- Community development financial institutions, loan funds, and nonprofits that provide microloans could use firm size data to show that the majority of businesses in their county are small and underserved by traditional lenders
- The innovation index can support requests for flexible capital that allow entrepreneurs to test new ideas and adopt technology
- Inclusive entrepreneurship
- Combine the small business profile with demographic data to argue for targeted support to women-owned, minority-owned, or rural entrepreneurs. This is especially persuasive when the data shows strong entrepreneurial activity but relatively low incomes
County Budget and Weather Disaster Profile
The County Budget and Weather Disaster Profile links local public finance with disaster risk. It normally includes:
- County population and recent changes
- Total county budget revenue and expenditures
- Main county tax revenue sources such as real estate, motor vehicle, business, and other taxes
- Major state revenue streams connected to the county
- A breakdown of revenue types, including taxes, surplus or borrowing, and licenses or permits
- A record of major weather events and federally declared disasters over the past decade
- Per capita damage estimates and maps that compare disaster frequency across counties
How nonprofits can use the Budget and Disaster Profile
- Disaster response and resilience projects can use the disaster history and damage data to prove that events are recurring and costly, not one-time flukes
- The revenue information helps national funders understand that rural counties often have limited tax bases and cannot fully fund major infrastructure or resilience projects on their own
- During local planning meetings, this profile can help align county government, emergency management, and nonprofits around shared priorities
Statewide Report on Kentucky’s Rural Economy
Alongside the county dashboards, Blueprint Kentucky produced a statewide report on Kentucky’s rural economy. This report is a more in-depth narrative that explains why the county-level numbers look the way they do.
The report covers:
- Population change, migration, and immigration
- Gross domestic product (GDP) growth for rural and urban counties
- Per capita income and the link between education and earnings
- Employment structure and the mix of industries in rural and urban regions
- Key sectors such as manufacturing, services, agriculture, transportation, and logistics
- Business dynamics, entrepreneurship, and capital investment
- Commuting patterns, broadband access, and housing supply and vacancy
- Government structure, tax capacity, and the challenge of minimal tax bases in rural areas
Big picture findings
Key takeaways from the statewide report include:
- Rural Kentucky still contributes close to one-third of the state’s gross domestic product, but rural GDP growth has been slower than growth in urban counties
- On average, rural residents earn less than urban residents, even with the same level of education. Counties with more college-educated residents tend to have higher incomes
- Manufacturing remains a major contributor to GDP, especially in rural areas, but manufacturing jobs have not kept pace with productivity, which leaves communities exposed when plants close
- Health care and logistics have become major growth engines for the state, but those jobs are concentrated in urban corridors
- Broadband access and housing conditions strongly influence where people can live and work. Rural counties have higher vacancy rates and slower broadband adoption
- Rural counties often have more local government units and school districts per person and rely more heavily on property taxes. This spreads fixed costs across fewer taxpayers and makes it harder to fund services
How nonprofits can use the statewide report
- Context in large proposals
When you apply to regional or national funders, pair one or two county-level statistics with a statewide finding. For example, you might show that your county has high housing vacancy and low broadband adoption, and connect that to the broader pattern of rural underinvestment in infrastructure - Policy and advocacy
Use the report when you speak with legislators, state agencies, and business leaders. This report demonstrates that rural Kentucky is not a side issue. It is central to the state’s economy but faces structural barriers that need policy innovation and targeted investment - Strategic planning and board education
Share key charts and quotes from the report with your board and staff. This helps everyone see how your local work fits into a larger statewide picture
Putting it all together
Here is a simple workflow you can follow each time you start a new grant or advocacy effort.
- Gather your county profiles
Choose the profiles that match your work, such as Economic, Workforce, Housing, Healthcare, Agriculture, Retail, Small Business, or Budget and Disaster - Scan for three to five key data points
Look for numbers that clearly describe your challenge and your opportunity. For example, a high rent burden, a low level of broadband access, or a large share of jobs in one sector - Translate the numbers into plain language
Turn each data point into a one sentence takeaway. For instance, “In our county, nearly one in three renters spends more than 30% of their income on housing” - Connect local data to statewide trends
Use the statewide rural economy report to show that your county’s situation is part of a larger pattern that funders should care about - Save and reuse your favorite facts
Create a short community fact sheet for your organization. Keep it updated as new profiles are released. This will enable staff and board members to tell the same data-informed story in every conversation
Grant Ready Kentucky exists to help small and midsized nonprofits speak with confidence about their communities' opportunities and challenges. Blueprint Kentucky’s county profiles and statewide rural economy report provide a trusted, Kentucky-specific foundation of data. Paired with lived experience and relationships, these tools help make a powerful case for investment in Kentucky.