Philanthropists take on Big Ag by financing small farmers and sustainable practices - Entrepreneur Generations

A network of philanthropic organizations is working together to invest in efforts that benefit small farmers, social justice, and sustainability.

It started with Jennifer Astone, the executive director for the Swift Foundation, which supports biocultural diversity and community resilience efforts. She became frustrated when she learned that similar foundations were often investing in companies that damaged the environment and exploited communities. "All this led Astone to look more closely at where foundations were investing their endowments—and how they could better use them to support small farmers and sustainability," Diana Hembree reports for Inside Philanthropy. "What she learned was disheartening: that when it comes to sustainable agriculture and human rights, foundations were often investing their endowment funds at cross purposes from where they were directing their program funds."

Astone wondered how foundations could better invest their endowments in a way that would support their missions, and how they could better support small farmers and other groups committed to greener agricultural practices. "With Tim Crosby of the Thread Fund, which taps multiple forms of capital to generate social and environmental returns, Astone convened a meeting in Minneapolis of 20 like-minded foundations," Hembree reports. "This eventually became the Transformational Investing in Food Systems Initiative, a network of funders committed to creating a community of practice where they could share investment opportunities, learning and insights into investing in small farmers, social justice and sustainability. Astone also led the Swift Foundation’s work with the AgroEcology Fund and the Global Alliance for the Future of Food."

Read more here.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2CJYDPQ Philanthropists take on Big Ag by financing small farmers and sustainable practices - Entrepreneur Generations

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

Tweet