The central theme of this paper is the challenge leaders face in creating the conditions for learning in small school-community contexts. Increasingly, the nature of social challenges demands leaders adopt creative ways to work against the trends of social disadvantage. Such leaders need to reconceptualise existing resources and harness new opportunities for themselves and their school communities. To explore this possibility, the authors draw from an international literature review, a national research and development service (the Tender Bridge) and a small school case study. Bourdieu’s concepts of capital are used to identify tensions and possibilities for school leaders as they seek to resource school-community change. The proposition is made that school leaders require access to on-going professional learning in their knowledge of and access to resources, such as grants. An argument is made also for alternative ways of thinking about resourcing to better equip current and prospective small school leaders.