Our Grantmaking Process

RAF provides grants to organizations whose work promotes our vision of a world where
the inherent value of people, plants, animals and the planet
are honored and stewarded in a way that regenerates both human and natural communities.


Rapid Response Grant Process

In 2023 the Regenerative Agriculture Foundation launched a peer-led rapid response fund focused on supporting timely grassroots farm bill advocacy efforts. RAF continues to develop this type of rapid response grantmaking.

In keeping with RAF’s strong commitment to advancing racial equity and justice as essential components in a regenerative agricultural system, all funding decisions were made by a peer-led advisory team with representation from partner coalitions.

Funding Example: Farm Bill Advocacy

Grant proposals were by invitation only, and grantee organizations needed to be a members of one of several sustainable agriculture policy coalitions, including:

  • NSAC
  • HEAL Food Alliance
  • National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC)
  • Rural Coalition
  • Native Farm Bill Coalition
  • Intertribal Agriculture Council
  • Good Food for All

All funding decisions were made by a peer-led advisory team with representation from NSAC, HEAL, NFFC, and Rural Coalition.

Sample projects funded on this first round of rapid-response grantmaking focused on the farm bill included:

  • grassroots base building initiatives
  • farmer fly-ins to Washington D.C.
  • informational material translation
  • narrative development

More Information

To learn more about the 2023 Farm Bill Advocacy grants, read our news post.

Our Grantmaking Process

RAF conducts grantmaking twice a year by invitation only, roughly once in the summer and once in the winter. RAF is currently focused on US-based activities.

RAF’s grantmaking approach is reflected well in the document “Healthy Soils to Cool the Planet: A Philanthropic Action Guide”, written by RAF board member Betsy Taylor. The guide emphasizes the need for rapid action, for more philanthropic risk-taking, for demonstrating and communicating successes, and for taking a whole systems perspective. The guide outlines multiple change levers for advancing regenerative agriculture.

To date RAF’s grantmaking has focused on farmer to farmer programs, supply chains, communications, and networks. In addition, RAF has a strong commitment to advancing racial equity and justice as essential components of a regenerative agricultural system.

RAF was created as an intermediary funder for multiple reasons:

  1. To provide pooled funds and other tools to support collaborative funding into regenerative agriculture from across multiple sectors. Regenerative agriculture may not be the central focus of foundations that prioritize grantmaking in climate, public health, racial equity, and rural economic development, but regenerative agriculture is an important vehicle for advancing all of the goals.
  2. To encourage funders to see their work as part of an ambitious, transformational vision for agricultural systems. Agriculture is inherently a risk-averse sector dependent on annual cycles, and consequently change tends to be slow and incremental. Yet for many reasons, our ecosystems and our communities need systemic solutions, and fast. RAF seeks to create connections and partnerships between these short-term and long-term efforts, assuring that we collectively learn from the project work and celebrate each small step while continuing to envision long-term transformation.
  3. To serve funders as a repository of information and guidance about opportunities to advance regenerative agriculture. RAF staff, board, and partners maintain relationships with nonprofit organizations and networks across the country and are happy to talk with funders about grantmaking.

Get In Touch

The Regenerative Agriculture Foundation has an invitation-only process for grantmaking. If you have an idea that you would like to have considered, we welcome you to send a brief paragraph about your vision through the form on this page. A staff member will get back to you and help determine whether it is a good fit.

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© Copyright - Regenerative Agriculture Foundation - Images courtesy of our grantees, many images by Alicia Arcidiacono.