Annual Report
Farm Aid's role always has been to serve as the public defender of America's family farms. Willie Nelson, with colleagues Neil Young and John Mellencamp, founded Farm Aid to use their voices and the support of the American people to raise awareness and funds to strengthen family farm agriculture.
- Read the American Insititute of Philanthropy's rating of Farm Aid and other charities.
- View Farm Aid's 2010 IRS form 990, including the Attachment to 990 and Schedule A by clicking here.
- View Farm Aid's independent audited financial report for 2009 and 2010 by clicking here.
- Farm Aid is 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization as defined by the IRS.
- The IRS requires that the organization benefit the general public for the purpose for which it was established. Charity watchdogs have established standards to measure the efficiency of how non-profits perform.
- Overall Farm Aid performance 1985 to 2010
Total expenditures $38,118,984
Program expenditures $30,013,372 — or 79% of total expenditures - Farm Aid performance for 2010
Total expenditures $1,716,135
Program expenditures $1,295,378 — or 75% of total expenditures - Net assets:
Farm Aid maintains a surplus of both restricted and unrestricted assets. In 2010, temporarily restricted net assets consisted of $460,990, which represents a fund for agriculture scholarships established by the Younkers Department store in 1985. - Farm Aid's 2010 unrestricted assets were $654,979.
The following Farm Aid programs accomplished our mission in 2010:
PROMOTING FOOD FROM FAMILY FARMS
The concert event Farm Aid 25: Growing Hope for America promoted family farmers as our best resources for good food with a variety of activities. The concert was held at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 2. A crowd of 35,000 enjoyed performances by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds. Additional artists included Jason Mraz, Jamey Johnson, Norah Jones, Jeff Tweedy, Kenny Chesney, Band of Horses, Robert Francis, Amos Lee, Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real, Randy Rogers Band, The Blackwood Quartet and BoDeans. All of the artists donated their time and travel expenses. The concert was hosted by renowned PBS broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Food Network Iron Chef Michael Symon.
On October 2 at Miller Park:
- Farm Aid served local, organic and family-farm foods at our HOMEGROWN concessions and backstage. The offerings included fresh fruit from local Wisconsin farms, all-natural ham steaks from a Missouri family farm co-op, family farm sausages and brats, organic pizzas and other delicious items.
- We built Farm Aid’s largest HOMEGROWN Village, which offered concert-goers hands-on interactive experiences with soil, water, food, renewable energy and family farmers.
- Our annual food drive held at the concert with Milwaukee’s Hunger Task Force collected 23,000 pounds of food from concertgoers and from the backstage caterers.
- We implemented our fourth consecutive recycling and composting program at the concert. The compostable waste will be turned into compost to sustain future crops.
- The concert generated several major donations, as well as individual gifts. Corporate sponsors included Horizon Organic, DIRECTV, Organic Valley, Anvil Knitwear, Dodge Ram, Whole Foods Market, Silk Soymilk, UNFI and Purple Cow Organics.
Farm Aid created a number of pre-concert events and activities in Wisconsin to engage the public and entice the media to tell the Good Food story and promote the annual concert and the work of Farm Aid. These events included a press event to announce the show, which included farmers and Milwaukee Mayor Barrett, and artists joining in live on the web; a Milwaukee restaurant campaign called Fresh from the Family Farm, which enabled chefs to showcase local, family farm food with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the mission of Farm Aid; farm tours of a Wisconsin pasture-based dairy operation and urban agriculture projects in Milwaukee; a farmer strategy meeting and a dinner and concert on the night before the concert. Farm Aid hosted a press event of artists, farmers, and Senator Feingold on the morning of the concert with nearly 200 members of the media in attendance. Each of these events contributed to increasing public awareness of the importance of family farm agriculture in creating a food system that is environmentally sound, economically strong and healthful for everyone. Farm Aid created strong new connections with farm and food activists throughout the Upper Midwest.
HOMEGROWN.org, Farm Aid’s online community that enhances the relationship between family farmers and eaters through the shared experiences of growing food and participating in an agrarian life, continues to grow. The HOMEGROWN Village of interactive, hands-on food and farm exhibits was installed at Farm Aid’s 25th anniversary concert, as well as, for the 2nd year, at Maker Faire Bay Area – a gathering of more than 80,000 DIY enthusiasts.
A lively, open sharing of skills and information continues on the HOMEGROWN.org website, as well as in a series of downloadable “HOMEGROWN How-to Cards” that were distributed at events throughout the year. The Living HOMEGROWN column, written weekly by contributing urban farmers, homesteaders and a CSA farmer, has been a popular venue for readers to connect to the sources of their food. Groundwork has been laid for an aggressive expansion and increased outreach of HOMEGROWN through broader editorial content, new partnerships, and the expected roll-out of a HOMEGROWN.org mobile App.
Media Impact
Farm Aid’s 25th anniversary generated wide media coverage regionally, in Milwaukee and Chicago and across the country, with national articles in USA Today, Rolling Stone and TIME Magazine and national television and radio coverage on the CBS Early Show, PBS and NPR. The coverage not only promoted the entertainment value of the concert, but also Farm Aid’s message about connecting people everywhere with fresh, healthful food from family farms. In fact, nearly every review of the concert included coverage of HOMEGROWN concessions, the HOMEGROWN Village and the family farmers in attendance.
The concert was broadcast live on DIRECTV’s The 101 Network, with repeats during the following week. The concert was also streamed live on YouTube, with a record number of viewers. Additionally, the concert was broadcast live on Willie’s Place on Sirius XM satellite radio across the country. DIRECTV will also run four one-hour specials featuring the music and the message of Farm Aid in 2011.
HOMEGROWN.org garnered noteworthy press on Epicurious.com, Treehugger.com and ReadyMade.com.
Online
Farm Aid's website continued to inform, engage and mobilize visitors online in 2010. The website was a primary tool for communicating with our audience, collecting donations, selling concert tickets and merchandise, allowing users to engage in online advocacy with petitions and letter-writing campaigns, and organizing events. Farm Aid 25: Growing Hope for America accomplished the following on www.farmaid.org:
- 46,526 unique visitors on concert-day (23% higher than last year’s concert-day traffic)
- 255,488 views of the webcast shown live on YouTube on concert-day and in the following 24 hours. Compared to last year’s 26,066 webcast views on www.farmaid.org, this represents 980% more views.
- Between 10/02 and 10/09, when the concert aired on DIRECTV, the website brought in more than $56,244 in donations and merchandise sales.
Farm Aid’s E-Newsletter kept the Farm Aid community informed and inspired with monthly columns that profile America’s family farmers and address questions about food and farming. Farm Aid grew its e-mail list by 23,120 new contacts by focusing on timely, relevant topics and offering people online tools to take action. Throughout the year, we offered users the ability to submit comments to the US Departments of Justice and Agriculture as part of the joint workshops on competition in agriculture and take action on other issues affecting family farmers.
Farm Aid also continued its social media endeavors on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We grew the number of fans and connections on these networks by thousands of users while educating and engaging people with updates from www.farmaid.org, links to relevant news articles and concert updates.
A promotion and fundraising campaign by Silk Soymilk raised $70,000 and directed customers to www.farmaid.org.
GROWING THE GOOD FOOD MOVEMENT
During 2010, Farm Aid and its partners continued to implement innovative strategies that bolster what Farm Aid calls the Good Food Movement—the growing number of Americans reaching for and demanding family farm identified, local, organic or humanely raised food. Farm Aid made grants in the amount of $71,500 to organizations across the country that are building connections between farmers and consumers, creating new markets for family farmed food.
In early June 2010, Farm Aid published Rebuilding America’s Economy with Family Farm-Centered Food Systems, a report inspired by Willie Nelson who has long believed that family farmers are the backbone of the country, the bottom rung on the economic ladder on which all else depends. The report presents substantive evidence of the positive economic impact of family farm food systems, and serves as a guide for farmers, activists, economists, policy makers, planners and others for building and expanding thriving local and regional economies based on family farmers.
HELPING FARMERS THRIVE
Through 1-800-FARM-AID and Farmhelp@farmaid.org, Farm Aid’s in-house Farmer Advocate refers farmers to an extensive network of family farm and rural support organizations across the country. The referrals support farmers seeking to make transitions to more sustainable and profitable farming practices, and also provide immediate and effective support services to farm families in crisis. At this point, in mid-December, there have been close to 1,000 calls and emails to the Farm Aid hotline in 2010, rivaling the record high volume the hotline saw in 2009.
In 2010, Farm Aid continued to grow the Farmer Resource Network (FRN), an interactive database of more than 500 organizations Farm Aid works with to provide guidance for new farmers looking to get on the land, direct assistance to farmers in crisis, and direction for farmers looking to transition to more sustainable production methods and markets. In addition, the FRN seeks to increase the capacity of American farmers to meet consumer demand for family farm produced food. In a one year period between Dec 2009 and Nov 2010, nearly 3,000 farmers utilized the FRN. In October 2010, Farm Aid hired a new staff member to head up the FRN efforts and expand the tool’s offerings.
Farm Aid issued grants to Help Farmers Thrive in the amount of $162,800, to provide farmers with the tools and resources they need to access new markets, grow sustainably, produce renewable fuels and survive natural disasters.
TAKING ACTION TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM
Farm Aid works with local, regional and national organizations to promote fair farm policies and grassroots organizing campaigns. Farm Aid partners with family farm organizations fighting factory farming and industrial agriculture, while building opportunity for family farmers who produce our food, fiber and energy. By strengthening the voices of family farmers, Farm Aid stands up for the most resourceful, heroic Americans—the family farmers who work the land.
A main focus of Farm Aid’s work in 2010 was on the unprecedented workshops held by the Department of Justice and the US Department of Agriculture examining antitrust and competition in agriculture. Farm Aid was present and active in each of the five workshops held throughout the year, focusing on corporate control in the seed, poultry, dairy and livestock industries and also on the difference between what consumers pay and what price farmers receive.
Farm Aid spent considerable time and effort in 2010 working on specific issues affecting family farmers in the continuing economic downturn, specifically availability and accessibility of credit, farm foreclosure protection and the dairy crisis. Farm Aid staff met with USDA officials, members of Congress and the Obama Administration to call attention to these issues and advocate for solutions.
Farm Aid granted $173,000 to family farm groups working to keep family farmers on their land and strengthening local and sustainable agriculture. An additional $22,000 supported agriculture scholarships for college students.