Overview

Why are you interested in becoming a Trustee?

We provide educational resources, event announcements, and online trainings for small farms, and have particularly developed resources to help beginning farmers. Access to credit is a major barrier for these new farmers, and we would like to be able to support them in overcoming it.

What is the mission of your organization?

We work to foster the sustainability of diverse, thriving small farms that contribute to food security, healthy rural communities, and the environment. We do this by encouraging small farms-focused research and extension programs and fostering collaboration in support of small farms.

Borrower Due Diligence

How will you decide who to endorse as a borrower? What due diligence will you conduct?

We will only endorse borrowers who take one of our 6-week online courses, or are referred to us by a Cooperative Extension educator or other partner organization who feels this borrower will be a worthy candidate for a loan. We are particularly interested to offer endorsement to graduates of our online business planning course. We will have a long conversation with all potential borrowers to discuss their business plan and how they intend to use the loan. We are working hard to expand and diversify the audience we serve to ensure that military veterans who want to start farms receive sufficient support. So we are building new collaborations with the Farmer Veteran Coalition and will work with them to identify and endorse solid candidates.