Announcing our 2025 Fund-a-Farmer Grant Awardees
By Samantha Gasson, FACT’s Humane Farming Program Director
After months of reviewing, and collecting agreements we are absolutely delighted to announce our 2025 Fund-a-Farmer grant recipients!
A big congratulations to the 72 farms and ranches located across 27 different states and Puerto Rico who received a Fund-a-Farmer grant.
Our 2025 grants to farmers seeking or holding animal welfare certification were generously underwritten by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Grants to farmers within a 200-mile radius of Chicago were graciously funded by the amazing folks at Food:Land:Opportunity. Animal Welfare Improvement grants were made possible by generous donations from our fantastic FACT community.
This year we were happy to provide two, new, larger grant opportunity funded by the ASPCA to aid farms interested in making a big Systems or Innovation Change. These grants went to two fabulous proposals, one aims to move the majority of their finisher hogs raised in confinement out onto pasture to further enhance the farm’s commitment to ethical practices and environmental stewardship.
The second awardee is making the switch from the fast growing Cornish cross broiler chicken (this breed has many health problems) to a slower growing breed of chicken better suited to life out on pasture . This switch will increase the overall welfare of the ~4,000 birds being raised for their customers.
It was so much fun to read this year’s creative proposals, to be honest, I felt more than a little sorry for our review team. I cannot wait to hear how their funded projects benefit their animals, ecosystems, and communities.
2025’s Fund-a-Farmer cohort received around $220,000 and are located from Arkansas to Maine plus many places in between. Of this cohort:
78% are beginning farmers or ranchers
74% are first-generation farmers or ranchers
76% identify as women-owned operations
30% identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC)
8% are identified as military veterans
The projects funded are diverse in nature, ranging from mobile housing for chickens, and portable housing for sheep to a squeeze chute catch pen for working cattle. Here are a few examples:
Bread & Butter Farm in Shelbrun, Vermont was awarded a Fund-a-Farmer Animal Welfare grant to install 2000 feet of water pipe from their nearest water source to serve their cattle herd on 50 acres of pasture. This pasture lost water access when the property that supplied their herd’s water changed hands.
Caer Luna Farm in Cambridge, New York was awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to purchase additional electric fencing and a charger to expand pasture access and become certified AWA (Animal Welfare Certified) by a Greener World.
Willowbrook Farms in Cassopol, Michigan was awarded a Systems Change and Innovation Grant to transition their farm’s broiler operation to a higher-welfare, slower-growing, or heritage breed thereby improving animal welfare for their ~4,000 birds raised annually.
Altogether, since we started our grants program back in 2012, FACT has cumulatively awarded 764 grants totaling over $1,580,000 to farmers across all but one state (Alaska) and two territories, directly benefiting an estimated 1,077,000 animals. The impacts these grants have made on individual operations and surrounding communities are astounding.
A small amount of money certainly goes a long way with frugal, innovative farmers. For over a decade, our grants have provided a needed financial boost for these farmers so that they may continue to do what they do best – care for their animals and provide nourishing, more humanely-raised food for people in their communities.
Thank you to our funders and supporters! We are in this for the long haul, and we could not do it without them. Our leading funders include:
The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) is generously underwriting 20 grants to farmers pursuing or holding one of the following animal welfare certifications: Certified Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) by A Greener World, Certified Humane, or Global Animal Partnership (GAP) Animal Welfare Certified. The ASPCA® has supported FACT’s grants since 2017 to help increase opportunities for farmers to transition to higher-welfare systems and improve the lives of their animals.
The ASPCA is also funding two Systems and Innovation Grants meant to help a farm transition from an enclosed farming system to pasture or switch to a slower-growing breed.
Food:Land:Opportunity (FLO) is underwriting 24 Animal Welfare Improvement Grants to farms located within 200 miles of Chicago, Illinois. FLO is a collaboration between Kinship Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust, funded through the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust.
Numerous family foundations and hundreds of individual donors who provide financial support for our grants and program services. It takes a village, and we are so thankful for their generosity.
And a sincere Thank You to all who applied.
We would like to thank and acknowledge the close to 400 farmers who applied for a grant this year, you made the review committee’s job a challenge! We applaud all that you are doing to care for your animals and communities. The next round of funding is slated to open in autumn 2025.
To learn more about all of our 2025-funded farms and projects, please visit our website.