For Mike Foote, the co-founder and race director of The Rut Mountain Runs, there’s more to trail running than competition. For him, culture and community, as well as land and stewardship, rank incredibly highly in importance, which is why The Rut Mountains Runs is launching Rut Grants. The new initiative has $16,000 in grants available — thanks to The North Face offering matching funds — for projects designed to “strengthen trail running culture, protect or steward the landscapes, and expand access to the sport.”
The Rut Grants are a great opportunity for community-building and landscape-protecting projects. All photos: Steven Gnam
Many trail runners will know The Rut Mountain Runs as a three-day mountain running celebration held each September in Big Sky, Montana. With five different event distances, the event is one of the largest mountain running events in North America, and hosts 4,600 runners on its trails.
Foote, who has a long history of conservation and climate advocacy work — including eight years with the Protect Our Winters Athlete Alliance — wanted to build on that personal experience with the Rut Grants. He says the grants are “a fun way to open the conversation beyond the competitive arena.” Indeed, the grants, which range from $500 to $3,500, aren’t open to projects that involve competition or any type of performance-oriented themes. Instead, the grants aim to fund projects including “trail stewardship initiatives, community-led trail running programs, trailhead transportation solutions, and creative storytelling that highlights the people and landscapes behind the sport.”
The Rut Mountain Runs take pride in their community and grassroots feel.
With a firm understanding of the importance of protecting and understanding the landscapes that runners recreate on, Foote realized that The Rut Mountain Runs could do more than just offer a platform for competition. According to Foote, “As The Rut has grown along with the entire sport of trail running, we feel a duty to invest in and give back to the people and places that make the sport so incredible. While we love competition and have invested in it with prize purses, etc., we also feel the need to open the aperture on the narrative of the sport and community right now and celebrate the foundational culture and landscapes that give this sport so much.”
To prevent a complex application process from deterring potential ideas, Foote has made the entire process as simple as possible and emphasizes that they’re not necessarily looking for highly polished pitches, saying, “We want good ideas, not perfect applications. Our vision is for this to be a low-lift, high-impact program.” A brief written proposal or short video explaining an idea is all that is needed.
Applications open April 27 and close May 20, 2026. Grants will be awarded in early June for projects throughout the summer and fall.
Learn more at the Rut Grants webpage and submit your application soon.
The Rut Mountain Runs traverse rugged landscapes in Montana.
