Who We Are

A select group of businessmen and women designated to wisely invest and protect the funds of the corporation.  This diversified group come from all areas of the state and bring with them the knowledge from various backgrounds in banking, farming, and Farmers Home Administration Agencies.

About Us
Developed in 1934 as a non-profit entity for the purpose of lending aid to rural Oklahomans.  The Corporation, governed by a Board of Directors has grown and expanded programs for the betterment of rural Oklahoma.  Our Mortgage Loan program loans funds to help many seasoned and/or aspiring Oklahoma farmers in attaining the dream of owning and improving a piece of Oklahoma.  Interest income provides grant funds and scholarships.  Our grant funds provided to FFA, 4-H and other groups for rural civic improvement projects have helped many community schools and organizations with projects for greater education and beautification of their communities, we call this our Rural Community Development Program.  A large portion of funds available are budgeted for scholarships to rural youths to attend an institution of higher education in Oklahoma.  For over 55 years we have given freshman scholarships directly to students amounting to over 4 million dollars invested in our Oklahoma youth.

Our History

The initial endowment, provided by Congress through the Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933 was to be used to make grants to the states to aid in meeting the costs of furnishing relief and relieving the hardship and suffering caused by unemployment.  State agencies were formed to carry on the relief assistance.  However, the needs of rural areas were obviously different from their urban counterparts.  The rural areas wanted a rehabilitation program rather than a relief program.  Accordingly, in April 1934 the U.S. Congress created rural rehabilitation corporations to aid the millions of Americans displaced by the "Great Depression".  For a time, the states and federal government worked together on these programs, rural relief camps were established across the nation, and were immortalized in the photographs of Walker Evans and John Steinbeck’s novel, Grapes of Wrath.  Still more modification was needed.  The rural rehabilitation corporations began to buy huge tracts of farmland which they subdivided into 40 and 60 acre plots, then mortgaged those plots to displaced farm families.  In 1950, Congress determined the assets could be released and owned by the individual state corporations.  It was an innovative approach to aid rural people during this time without creating large federal bureaucracies.  The initial endowment to Oklahoma has remained intact and is still growing today.