Cultivating New Projects Through the RSF Seed Fund
April 27, 2009
By Kelley Buhles
Each spring RSF staff members come together to participate in a small grant making program that seeds new initiatives falling within RSF’s mission and focus areas. Although the grants made from this Seed Fund are very small ($1,000-$5,000), for many of these projects a small grant of this size can help them gain momentum to embark on groundbreaking work. The grantees also receive the benefit of being highlighted on our website and in our newsletters.
This year we received 57 proposals – nearly double the amount we have ever received for this grant making program. We believe this is due to the current economic climate that is leaving many nonprofits short of funding, and while we would love to support all of these initiatives, our money is very limited. In fact, this program is almost entirely funded by individual donors excited about the opportunity the RSF Seed Fund provides to our grantees.
After review by our staff advisors we would like to recognize the following grantees who will be receiving a grant from the RSF Seed Fund.
Globalhood: 55Hive -Beekeepers Alliance of Sierra Leone
The 55Hive project aims to enhance living conditions and strengthen rural livelihoods in northern Sierra Leone through sustainable apiculture and improved agriculture workshops, equipment, monitoring and assessment. This grant will provide funding for the materials necessary for the apiculture workshops which will benefit 80 households and provide these families with a micro-farming enterprise that will allow them to access a sustainable livelihood and income for decades to come.
People’s Grocery: Growing Justice Training Institute
People’s Grocery is beginning a 3-year strategic shift towards adult workforce development to provide economic opportunities for unskilled, entry-level residents with job training and placement in businesses within the local food systems. Some of the job placements will be in the People’s Grocery worker owned grocery store, as well as in other partner organizations working to combat food insecurity and poor health in the West Oakland community. This grant will go towards planning for the first phase of the Growing Justice Training Institute, set to launch in early 2010.
Mercy Corps Northwest: Organic Farmer Training Site
The Refugee Agriculture Project at Mercy Corps Northwest helps refugees and immigrants start market gardens and small farming enterprises. The goal is to increase economic self-sufficiency while providing the community with nutritious food. This grant will help them build a new training site to provide the mentorship and experience that new farmers need. Participants will work individual plots with support of the project staff and they will market organic produce through local outlets including a farm stand next to the training site.
Friends of Ecuador: Amazon Partnerships Foundation
Over recent years, the Napo River basin of the Ecuadorian Amazon has suffered from severe environmental damage and disempowerment of the indigenous people whose traditional practices of maintaining balance between human activity and nature play a critical role in conserving the rainforest. The mission of the Amazon Partnerships Foundation is to empower indigenous Kichwa communities by providing small grants and project management support for projects designed and implemented by the communities themselves. The Foundation will support projects that protect the environment and promote conservation values inherent in the culture. Many projects such as sustainable forestry, organic agriculture, and traditional handicrafts will likely generate income, thereby improving the economic condition of families while conserving natural resources.
Intercambio de Comunidades Denver: Financial Skills Development
Intercambio de Comunidades Denver’s mission is to build respectful communities and broaden opportunities for immigrants through language education, cultural exchange, and friendship. This grant will be used to promote and implement a new curriculum around Financial Skills Development. The program is designed to empower clients, who are primarily Latino adult immigrants, to gain insight into their own feelings, fears and beliefs about money and allow them to explore ways in which they can utilize resources, create financial goals for themselves and their families, and take the appropriate steps to achieve them.
National Radio Project: Environmental Desk
During this time of great turmoil and opportunity in our world, the National Radio Project is revitalizing their Environmental Desk as a key strategy to create a platform for the voices of environmental justice. Their stories will give people a deeper understanding of how critical environmental issues affect our daily lives, and how broad structural changes in our approach to food security and environmental sustainability can enrich our communities economically and spiritually.
The Carrot Project: Strolling of the Heifers Microloan Fund for New England Farmers
The Strolling of the Heifers Microloan Fund is a project to help rebuild agriculture through innovative farmer-financing programs. Research shows that 25% of small and mid-sized farmers applying for operating or capital loans are unsuccessful. The Microloan Fund will begin to remedy these conditions by providing financing and increasing both the capital available to smaller farms as well as the number of lenders working with them. It will also promote the social, environmental, and cultural sustainability inherent in successfully functioning small and mid-sized family farms.
Collective Eye: Queen of the Sun
From the Director of the Real Dirt on Farmer John comes a new feature-length documentary called Queen of the Sun. This film celebrates bees from a perspective of reverence and renewal. A central presence in this film is Rudolf Steiner, who laid the groundwork for many beekeepers and farmers whose goals are to ensure the production of healthy and sustainable food. This grant will support continued research for the film into Steiner’s work with bees and to promote a grassroots education campaign that will teach audiences about healthy biodynamic beekeeping practices as well as biodynamic farming.
To find out more about the RSF Seed Fund and to read about past grantees, please click here. If you would like to donate to the Seed Fund (formerly the Social Innovation Fund), click here.
Kelley Buhles is the Program Manager of Philanthropic Services at RSF Social Finance.
- Published by Jillian McCoy
- Categories: Ecological Stewardship, Education & Arts, Food & Agriculture, Giving, Local economies, Steiner
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