Organic Farming and Agriculture Grants

Our Story

The 1treellion movement mobilize people to cool the Earth. We are building a community for our planet. A community around trees.

We aim to plant trees…trillions of them... to cool the planet.

​We have waited long enough for someone else to repair the damage done to our planet. It is up to us to be the change.

It is not enough to “just” plant a tree. We have to collectively change course, and to do this we need to come together to raise both funds and awareness. There is magic in music, togetherness, and trees (trillions of them). When we intertwine our branches we grow in unimaginable ways.

You don’t have to feel alone in your desire for change, you’ve come to the right place.

Our Mission

Trees are the natural climate solution. It is our conviction that this can be done BUT we need to act with determination NOW.

It is our mission to collectively raise enough funds to make a meaningful global impact by bringing communities together to plant 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) trees and cool the Earth.

There are many initiatives and organizations that aims to plant trees. Our lives literally depend on that and only a few of them have succeeded. We plan on doing what we do best - generate a movement and raise a 1treellion.org Global Fund to support those organizations.

1treellion Grant

There are many stories about tree, from the children’s book The Giving Tree written in 1964 by Shel Silverstein, to The Overstory by Richard Powers. They all showcase our relationship we have with trees.

They are an integral part of our planet. In fact, they are the 2nd largest nation on it (counting the ocean as the first). 

Air - trees filtering the air we breathe, by absorbing harmful carbon and releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere.

Water - Trees filter the water we drink. According to the Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations, a mature evergreen tree can intercept more than 15,000 liters of water every year. Their intricate root systems act like filters; removing pollutants and slowing down the water’s absorption into the ground. This process prevents harmful waterside erosion and reduces the risk of over-saturation and flooding.

Shelter - Trees provide animals shelter from the weather and from enemies. It provides us human shelter from the sun on a sunny day. Even dead trees provide shelter and food for many insects. Sustainable tree farming provides timber to build homes and shelter, and wood to burn for cooking and heating.

​Food - Trees provide food in the form of fruits, nuts, leaves, bark, and roots.

Health - Trees are key ingredients in 25% of all medicines. In addition adults with 30% or more of their neighborhood covered in some form of tree canopy had 31% lower odds of developing psychological distress. The same amount of tree cover was linked to 33% lower odds of developing fair to poor general health. Not to mention that the shade provided by tree coverage helps protect our skin from the ever-increasing harshness of the sun.

Climate - Trees help cool the planet by sucking in and storing harmful greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, into their trunks, branches, and leaves, and releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere. In cities, trees can reduce overall temperature by up to eight degrees Celsius. With more than 50% of the world’s population living in cities—a number expected to increase to 66% by the year 2050—pollution and overheating are becoming a real threat. Fortunately, a mature tree can absorb an average of 48 lbs of carbon dioxide per year, making cities a healthier, safer place to live. Don’t just take our world for it, scientists have proven it time after time.

Biodiversity - trees provide habitat to over 80% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity. A single tree can be home to hundreds of species of plants, mammals, birds, insects, and fungi. Depending on the kind of food and shelter they need, different forest animals require different types of habitat. Without trees, forest creatures would have nowhere to call home.

Jobs - Trees provide jobs to over 1.6 billion people. From arborists, to loggers, researchers, the job opportunities provided by the forestry industry are endless.

Where We Plant

There is a need for 3.4 trillions of trees to be planted all over the world. From Brazil to America, Canada, Europe… trees are needed everywhere.

Different location has it’s own types of trees.

About

Welcome to the Clif Family Foundation, an organization we started in 2006 to support small-to-midsize grassroots groups led by people whose vision and commitment we deeply admire. We have been proud to support hundreds of organizations that are working tirelessly to strengthen our food system, advance equitable community health outcomes, and protect the places we play by being stewards of our environment and natural resources. Our desire has been to leave the world a better place for our children. Now that we’re grandparents, the urgency to build a healthier, just, and sustainable world is even more personal. We look forward to expanding the reach and impact of the foundation in the years to come. This includes working with more organizations to make their innovative ideas a reality and supporting a new generation of leaders. We believe we can all do more good in the world. Together. Our grants are awarded annually for general operational support as well as for specific projects.

Foundation Priorities

• Strengthen Our Food System
• Grow organic farming and other climate-friendly agriculture
• Safeguard agricultural seeds and biodiversity 
• Democratize access to fresh and nutrient-dense foods
• Connect families with local food outlets and farmers
• Create viable opportunities for the next generation of farmers
• Enhance Equitable Community Health Outcomes
• Promote clean water access
• Curtail exposure to toxic materials
• Increase access to nature and outdoor activities
• Expand pedestrian and bicycling opportunities
• Improve farmworkers’ standard of living, wages, and working conditions
• Safeguard Our Environment and Natural Resources
• Accelerate action on climate change
• Advance renewable energy and support green jobs
• Break the resource waste cycle
• Preserve watersheds, open spaces, and wild places
• Conserve water supplies for fair, long-term access

Priority is given to applicants that:

• Address two or more of our funding priorities at the same time:
• Strengthen our food system
• Enhance equitable community health outcomes
• Safeguard our environment and natural resources
• Demonstrate strong community ties.
• Operate within viable and clearly defined plans for positive change.

Got Organic?

Farmers Advocating for Organic (FAFO) began with the 2002 Farm Bill, which included an exemption for organic farmers from contributing to national promotion programs like “Got Milk?” In response, Organic Valley devised a way for farmers to pool their exemptions into an organic-focused granting fund as a way to promote and advance organic farming.

Our name says it all: Farmers Advocating for Organic. FAFO is a grant program funded entirely by annual, voluntary contributions from Organic Valley farmers. It's the largest farmer-funded grant program in the U.S. and one of the few focused solely on organic. 

The fund provides a way for Organic Valley farmers to address the long-term needs of the organic marketplace and the future of organic agriculture by supporting the development of long-term solutions. Through combining resources, Organic Valley farmers are able to invest in projects that affect the livelihoods of organic farmers across the country. 

Simply said, FAFO is organic farmers helping organic farmers.

FAFO funds projects that make a difference

Grants are awarded to research, education and advocacy projects that advance FAFO’s mission: to protect and promote the organic industry and the livelihood of organic farmers.

Within this context, FAFO is currently prioritizing projects that focus on:

• Projects that benefit family farmers who produce organic dairy, eggs, meat, produce, and grain/forage 
• Projects that focus on organic soil health and biology
• Projects that strengthen CROPP Cooperative (internal)

Thornton ("Tawny") S. Glide, Jr. and his wife, Katrina ("Scatter") Dangberg Glide, were long-time residents of the T.S. Glide Ranch in Yolo County, California. They owned and operated farms and ranches in and about Northern California. Their interests were horses and other animals, farming, preserving open spaces, and civic endeavors. 

Upon their respective deaths in July 1995, they established the Thornton S. Glide, Jr. and Katrina D. Glide Foundation, a perpetual California charitable trust. Its purpose is to provide benefits for qualified organizations committed to animal protection organizations, other land and wildlife conservancy groups, agricultural purposes, preservation of land in its natural state, and opera, symphony, and other similar civic organizations.

NOTE: We encourage applicants to contact us to discuss their potential proposal and its fit with our guidelines.

Nature-Based Climate Action Program

A program to demonstrate and promote tree planting, prairie restoration, and other nature-based solutions to climate mitigation in rural areas.

The Nature-Based Climate Action Program supports projects that use natural systems to address climate change, the threats of extreme weather and habitat loss that contributes to the extinction of vital species. Natural systems solutions – which include the preservation or restoration of critical eco-systems such as forests, prairies and wetlands – have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration by as much as 20 percent of US greenhouse gases.

The Nature-Based Climate Action Program is intended to support such direct action. If your organization is ready to take bold steps to address the climate crisis, we would like to hear from you.

Focus of Support

We seek measurable environmental impact in the form of carbon drawdown and habitat restoration. Because the science supporting carbon sequestration and storage is nascent, and because we see opportunity to enhance public understanding of the challenges, we are interested in projects that can:

• Increase community engagement and support for action to combat climate change;
• Promote broad community understanding and policy change with respect to climate change and habitat loss;
• Contribute to climate science in ways that increases the effectiveness of future land uses or action; and,
• Model action for other organizations and communities.

Examples of projects we would welcome from nonprofit organizations include (but are in no way limited to):

• Purchases of targeted land tracts for restoration or preservation of high plant diversity that may greatly increase carbon capture;
• Large scale carbon farming demonstrations using trees, prairie or wetlands that monitor drawdown and contribute to climate science;
• Projects that activate communities, stimulate media coverage, and encourage greater understanding of climate change by the public;
• Tree planting projects in small cities and towns;
• Large scale demonstrations of regenerative agriculture directed at advancing policy or supporting market-based change like the creation of a viable carbon market.

The foundation seeks to foster environmental restoration, preservation and education with emphasis on seed moneys that lead to establishing demonstration projects that link rural and urban settings.

Projects could orient toward use of resources in sustainable ways, integration of food production, technology, economics, and community development in harmonious ways with the natural world, preservation of wildlife habitat as well as the diversity of wild and domestic plants and animals, and conservation of wilderness and open space.

Of interest might be projects designed to restore and maintain biological diversity of flora and fauna or establishment of seed banks, sustainable land use, or appropriate technology for alternative energy resources.

Efforts to find space in tight urban areas, bring the countryside to the city in the form of gardens, landscaping, and space are encouraged. Likewise, efforts to provide space and alternative living to urban people in a rural area are welcome.

Funding Priorities

A particular concern is with sustaining agriculture through organic, biodynamic, permacultural and other processes, training young people to be farmers, and linking farms to communities through community supported agriculture.

Another area of need would be support for small alternative presses and periodicals that focus on issues and problems and their resolution and desire to impact broadly on society with their creativity and new ideas.

With its interest in Laguna Wilderness Press and its home base in southern California, the foundation desires to direct attention to environmental groups and concerns in Laguna Beach, especially preservation and restoration of areas under conservation in the open space known as the Laguna Greenbelt or Wilderness and including the Laguna Bluebelt; projects that expand open space in the inner greenbelt, promote community gardening, including in its schools, restore wherever possible the canyon creeks to their natural setting, and help to establish the legacy of a unique place and its traditions of village diverse planning and vision, plein air painting, and historic homes and sites. 

NOTE: Nonprofit organizations based in the USA are eligible to submit one online Letter of Intent (LOI) between December 1 and the deadline above. The Foundation reviews LOIs on a rolling basis. 

Conagra Brands Foundation

We believe everyone has a right to healthy and nutritious food. However, this is not the reality for many, as food insecurity exists in every county of the United States.

To make an impact and raise awareness of food insecurity, the Conagra Brands Foundation engages our employees, partners with leading local and national nonprofits, and inspires others to create a world where people have access to the food they need to reach their full potential.

Community Grants

Through our community impact grant program, the Conagra Brands Foundation continues to build upon our rich heritage of investing in the communities where Conagra Brands operates. We partner with respected community-based nonprofits that provide highly effective programs to transform people’s lives.

Focus Areas

The LOI must strategically align with our core areas of focus which include: 

• food access
• nutrition education
• cooking skills
• healthy and active lifestyles 
• select urban agricultural programs that have a clear community focus and provide entrepreneurial skills to help individuals participate in the farm to fork economy

Partnership and collaboration is essential, especially when working to impact large social issues. Therefore, we seek partnerships with highly respected nonprofit organizations with leadership teams that challenge the current status quo with innovative approaches that result in viable solutions. 

NOTE: Growing Justice encourages grantseekers to take the Eligibility Quiz by March 1 (pre-proposal date) to ensure ample time to be invited to apply and to complete the application.

About

Growing Justice is a pooled fund co-designed by funders, farmers, advocates, food suppliers, purchasers and community partners from Native and non-Native communities across the country to transform food systems through equitable good food procurement.

Fund Values

• Health and Equity & Racial Justice will be achieved when all people can participate and prosper in a just, fair and inclusive society and race is no longer a factor that determines who has the opportunity to reach their full potential for mental, physical and social wellbeing
• Economic Equity & Worker Justice will be achieved when all people and communities can access opportunities for safe, dignified work; participate in business ownership; and build the economic stability necessary to achieve and sustain wealth and prosperity
• Environmental & Food Justice will be achieved when all people and communities can access, shape and benefit from good food and food systems that address environmental racism, promote food worker rights, utilize regenerative agriculture practices and advance food sovereignty
• Collective Action & Partnership are the building blocks essential for transformation, since we go farther together than alone, and make better and more equitable changes when we listen to and leverage the wisdom of the collective

Fund Vision

Growing Justice envisions a future in which Tribal, Indigenous, Black, Latinx, Asian and immigrant people engaged in food markets as suppliers, producers, distributors, workers, & eaters at community-serving institutions are economically and physically thriving thanks in part to efforts by large community institutions to prioritize equitable good food procurement.

Call for Applications

Awards of $50,000 to $250,000 are available to support community-led efforts to advance the vision and values of Growing Justice.

Growing Justice aims to invest in efforts to solidify the leadership, dignity and power of Tribal, Indigenous, Black, Latinx, Asian and immigrant people to identify and drive solutions that expand the market for good food from locally or regionally owned, and environmentally and economically sustainable farms, ranches, fisheries and food businesses.

Supported Activities

Growing Justice aims to support a wide range of activities to address community-defined priorities. This may include efforts that:

• Strengthen the effectiveness of racially diverse food suppliers, food producers, food distributors, and food hubs in local, regional or Tribal food value chains
  • For example, efforts that provide technical support to emerging farmers of color to adopt more eco-friendly or regenerative practices, or efforts to provide fiscal sponsorship to social enterprises that aim to expand operations to obtain institutional contracts
• Forge partnerships within regions and/or Tribal Nations to help small suppliers and distributors of color win contracts from large institutions
  • For example: alliances that increase access to processing facilities or equipment to aggregate foods for sale to institutions
• Incentivize large institutions to expand markets or break down barriers for local suppliers or producers of color
  • For example: efforts to shift institutional insurance requirements that can prevent small businesses from qualifying for institutional contracts
• Develop, implement and share effective policies, practices and partnerships across regions
  • For example: models of partnerships that help to shift costs or create greater transparency in data along the food value chain
• Build agendas to advance worker dignity and rights
  • For example: worker coalition organizing across jurisdiction

ASPCA Fund to End Factory Farming

This year’s eligible projects will provide new evidence or illustration of the impacts of industrial (i.e. intensive) and less-industrial (i.e. extensive)- animal-farming systems on human well-being in the U.S.

More than 9.5 billion chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows are slaughtered every year for food in the United States. The vast majority of these animals are raised on “factory farms,” where they are confined in huge numbers in barren, industrial settings. These facilities are not just inhumane, they are also environmentally unsound and dangerous for public health. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The ASPCA is calling for increased transparency in animal agriculture, an end to the cruelest factory farming practices, and adequate funding for a more humane food system. 

Projects will be considered that help to publicly establish, document, or illustrate the negative intersections between factory farming practices and human welfare in the United States, or in the reverse, correlate improved human outcomes, to less intensive farming practices. The resulting materials must be made public and should present new evidence, narratives, ideas, solutions, or approaches to researching this topic. Final materials may be written (such as reports or articles) or audio/visual (such as videos, photos, webinars, podcasts, or infographics). Any research conducted need not be formal or academic; both field research and desk research are eligible.

We are particularly interested in funding projects related to:

• Worker Impact: The ways in which labor practices correlate to differing types of animal housing and management systems being used. For example, contract terms or working conditions.
• Local Community Impact: The impact of these differing types of animal agriculture on individuals or communities located near farms.
• Consumer Impact: The impact on the general public’s access to or consumption of these differing types of animal products.
• Economic Impact: The economic outcomes of raising animals in these differing systems for producers and brands. For example, return on investment, level of financial risk, and market access.

Projects need not focus on animal welfare as long as they contribute to the effort to transition away from factory farming toward less-intensive methods.