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  • Winter view of afarm in the foggy mist of morning, wooden fence and farmer leading horse as sun rises behind
  • Vegetables
  • An older farmer and his young apprentice stand talking in a barn. He ponders her words as she expresses a thought to him.

How to Support SFC

nordel-garden3The Small Farms Conservancy depends on an ever growing family of supporters as well as a volunteer force to guide conservation, legal, financial, educational, insurance, granting and media efforts.

Individual supporters are asked for an annual donation which goes to provide a subscription to the Conservancy’s partner publication, Small Farmer’s Journal, AND towards the wide array of projects and programs the Conservancy has targeted.

Supporting Donor is based on annual donations which may be made for a one, two, three, or five year duration coinciding with the length of the SFJ subscription. This level of support also gives the donor access to all of the Conservancy’s educational materials and programs, as well as eventual insurance coverages, retirement programs, apprenticeship and caretaking services, and much more.

Other levels of support and involvement include:

Associate Donor (with a lifetime SFJ subscription and all other services and rights)

Charter Donor (with lifetime SFJ subscription, all other services and rights plus repeated formal aknowledgement of the importance of the donor’s efforts on behalf of Conservancy causes.)

Founding Donor is entitled to a seat on the Founder’s Advisory Board (with lifetime SFJ subscription, all other services and rights plus repeated formal aknowledgement of the importance of the donor’s efforts on behalf of Conservancy causes.)

 

The Alliance Program at Small Farms Conservancy

In an effort to strengthen it’s educational and advocacy work, the Small Farms Conservancy is actively seeking to build formal alliances with other non-profits and nongovernmental organizations. The SFC understands the value of intelligent collaboration in the world of small farming. We’ve got a lot of friends out there and we got them by treating them right. So we are determined to avoid unnecessary duplication and competition for public attention and resources. Through education and connectivity, Small Farms Conservancy is all about getting genuine help directly to small farmers.

As exciting as our vision and mission statement might be, we recognize that potential allies of the SFC may reasonably ask what we might bring to a partnership.

Benefits of membership and an alliance with Small Farms Conservancy include access to:

1. SFC’s grassroots membership is top heavy with real farmers and sincere folks who wish to be farming. And its office is peopled with engaging well-informed folks that know what they’re talking about and eagerly connect questions with answers.
2. SFC’s information and education outreach, fueled by one of the most extensive farming archives to be found anywhere.
3. Assistance and collaboration in many key areas of concern, including but not limited to:
  • education on behalf of small scale farming
  • pooled insurance offerings for farmers
  • retirement programs for farmers
  • apprenticeship clearinghouse
  • farm caretaking services
  • more farmers on more farms
  • legal assistance
  • estate planning for farmers
  • expanding local markets and marketing
  • advancing appropriate technology
  • micro lending for small farms
 
4. Networking. We will put you in contact with other allies we think might assist and/or compliment your efforts.
5. Annual conferencing.
6. A subscription to SFC’s partner publication Small Farmer’s Journal.
 
Here’s how your organization can form a working alliance with the Small Farms Conservancy.
We ask that potential organizational allies:
  • have a strong and demonstrated commitment to small farms
  • work in ways that directly benefit small farmers
  • are willing to distribute to their own constituency Small Farms Conservancy literature, notices, and bulletins.
  • be a non-governmental organization with a non-profit structure.
  • provide reciprocal website linkage
  • maintain an annual institutional membership with SFC ($75 per year)
  • consider direct participation on SFC subcommittees
  • consider being a signatory to SFC white papers.
  • be willing to consider collaboration on specific projects
If you wish to form an alliance with the Small Farms Conservancy please call our office (800-876-2893) or email us at agrarian@smallfarmersjournal.com.
 
If you sense an overlap with SFC in what you do, please get in touch with us.

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The Small Farms Conservancy Volunteer Force is organized into an overlay of groups:

  • administration (including accounting),
  • education (including farm science, media and publishing),
  • fund raising (including grantwriting),
  • conservation (overlaps with education)
  • livelihood enhancement (includes marketing, insurance, retirement, farm caretaking)
  • apprenticeship services (overlaps with education, caretaking, and legal)
  • legal services (includes labor, land use, and legacy issues)
  • micro loan pilot project

Small Farms Conservancy has an ambitious education and conservation agenda because these times require an ambitious effort.  This is one of the reasons that SFC’s Volunteer Force is critically important to success. It will take a lot of people and a lot of money to make all of this happen. Small farms have always been the most efficient sector of agriculture and today they constitute the system best prepared to answer the pressing need to expand the world’s food supply in sustainable, safe, healthy and flavorful ways. Yet small farmers often work in isolation and neglect, while their needs for information, support, and community exchange go unmet. The Small Farms Conservancy is dedicated to addressing those needs and more.