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 Institute 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.
Farm Aid Activities for 2011
Farm Aid’s mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews host an annual concert to raise funds to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose food from family farms. Since 1985, Farm Aid has raised more than $39 million to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms. The following Farm Aid programs accomplished our mission in 2011:
Promoting Food From Family Farms
Farm Aid 2011 was held at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas, on August 13.A crowd of more than 15,000 enjoyed performances by Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds. Additional artists included Jason Mraz, Jamey Johnson, Jakob Dylan, Robert Francis, Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real, Will Dailey and the Rivals, Rebecca Pidgeon, John Trudell, Billy Joe Shaver, The Blackwood Quartet and Ray Price. All of the artists donated their performances and travel expenses.
On August 13 at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park:
- Farm Aid served local, organic and family-farm foods at our HOMEGROWN concessions and backstage. The offerings included local, grass-fed beef on buns made from organic Kansas wheat, all-natural ham steaks from a Missouri family farm co-op, organic corndogs and other delicious items.
- A farmers market was coordinated by Grow NYC Youth Market, involving local Kansas City youth and farmers.
- We built our largest HOMEGROWN Village, where over 30 food and farm groups offered concert-goers hands-on interactive experiences with soil, water, food, renewable energy and family farmers.
- Together with Kansas City’s Harvester’s Community Food Network we collected nearly 7,000 pounds of food from concertgoers and from the backstage caterers as part of our annual food drive.
- We implemented our fifth consecutive recycling and composting program at the concert. The waste is in the process of being turned into compost to sustain future crops.
- The concert generated several major donations as well as individual gifts. Corporate sponsors included Horizon Organic, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Anvil Knitwear, Organic Valley, United Natural Foods (UNFI), Silk Soymilk, Applegate Farms, Whole Foods Market and Brightcove.
Farm Aid coordinated a number of pre-concert events and activities in Kansas City to both engage the public and invite the media to tell the Good Food story and promote the annual concert and the day-to-day work of Farm Aid. These events included a press event to announce the concert date and location; a kick-off festival featuring local music, food and farm organizations; a National Farm Advocates Meeting; and a farmer strategy meeting.
On the morning of the concert, Farm Aid held a press event attended by hundreds of credentialed media and featuring Farm Aid board artists, Jim Hightower, and Kansas farmers and food entrepreneurs. As part of the press event, Willie Nelson was inducted into the National Agricultural Hall of Fame for his work for 26 years on behalf of the American family farmer.
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 2011 enabled Farm Aid to create strong connections with farm and food activists throughout the Heartland.
Media Impact
Farm Aid 2011 generated wide media coverage regionally and nationally. Farm Aid received national television coverage on the CBS Early Show, featuring John Mellencamp and an Alabama farm family who received assistance from Farm Aid. The media coverage promoted the entertainment value of the concert, as well as 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 and the work of Farm Aid was promoted nationally on The Cool TV. The concert event was streamed live on farmaid.org Additionally, the concert was broadcast live on the Willie’s Place channel on Sirius XM satellite radio across the country.
Online
Farm Aid’s website continued to inform, engage and mobilize visitors in 2011. The website was a primary tool for promoting food from family farms, collecting donations, selling concert tickets and merchandise, engaging users in online advocacy with petitions and letter-writing campaigns, and organizing events. Farm Aid 2011 accomplished the following on www.farmaid.org:
- 29,913 unique visitors on concert-day.
- 31,232 views of the webcast shown live on www.farmaid.org on concert-day and in the following 24 hours.
- $22,893 in concert-related 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 13,826 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 U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Justice (DOJ), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and their U.S. Senators on issues affecting family farmers like corporate concentration and labeling genetically-engineered foods.
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 (reaching over 36,000 fans on Facebook) while educating and engaging people with updates from www.farmaid.org, links to relevant news articles and concert updates. Farm Aid videos on YouTube have been viewed over 7 million times. Farm Aid also created an Occupy the Food System page on Facebook to bring attention to the corporate power in our agriculture and food system.
Promotion and fundraising campaigns by Chipotle Mexican Grill and Horizon Organic raised $250,000 and $10,000 respectively and directed customers to www.farmaid.org.
HOMEGROWN.org
HOMEGROWN.org is 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. In 2011, the social networking site experienced 60% growth in visitor traffic, for a total of 212,890 visits and 863,000 page views. On the HOMEGROWN.org blog, we saw a 58% increase in readership for a total of 132,990 visitors.
The HOMEGROWN Village of interactive, hands-on food and farm exhibits was installed at Farm Aid’s 2011 concert in an expanded capacity: The HOMEGROWN Skills Tent served as a day-long classroom with Mother Earth News Magazine (a new strategic partner in 2011) editors teaching agrarian skills such as butter-making and backyard livestock-keeping. In the afternoon, we were thrilled to provide a tour of the Village to Neil Young! The HOMEGROWN Village also returned, for the third year, to Maker Faire Bay Area — a gathering of more than 80,000 do-it-yourself enthusiasts.
Growing the Good Food Movement
During 2011, 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 $17,500to organizations that are building connections between farmers and consumers, and creating new markets for family farmed food.
Farm Aid continued to promote Rebuilding America’s Economy with Family Farm-Centered Food Systems, our 2010 report that 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
In the two days preceding the Farm Aid concert, Farm Aid partnered with RAFI-USA to gather Farm Advocates from around the country at the National Agricultural Hall of Fame in Bonner Springs, Kansas. This unprecedented meeting allowed Farm Advocates to learn from each other and to hear from experts about new developments in agricultural credit and finance. The goal of the Farm Advocates work is to build a strong, sustainable network of trained farm service providers.
In 2011, Farm Aid continued to grow the Farmer Resource Network (FRN), an interactive database of nearly 550 organizations that 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 2011, more than 3,000 established or aspiring farmers utilized the FRN, with more than 11,000 unique page views. The most common searches were for beginning farmer resources, farm credit and transitioning to sustainable agriculture.
Through 1-800-FARM-AID and farmhelp@farmaid.org, Farm Aid’s in-house Farm Advocate refers farmers to an extensive network of family farm and rural support organizations across the country. The referrals provide immediate and effective support services to farm families in crisis while supporting farmers seeking to make transitions to more sustainable and profitable farming practices. There were nearly700 calls and emails to the Farm Aid hotline in 2011.
Farm Aid responded to farmers affected by tornadoes and historic drought conditions in the South and Southeast with emergency funding. At the National Farm Advocates Meeting in Kansas City, Wisconsin farmers offered to donate hay to Oklahoma farmers unable to feed their livestock due to drought. Farm Aid coordinated transportation of the hay to farmers in need. The haylift expanded to assist Texas farmers and ranchers, with Farm Aid coordinating transportation and receipt of hay donated by farmers in the Midwest.
Farm Aid issued grants to Help Farmers Thrive in the amount of $149,710, 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 working against factory farming and industrial agriculture while building opportunities for family farmers who produce our food, fiber and energy.
In March, Farm Aid released Don’t Bank on It, in partnership with Food and Water Watch, the National Family Farm Coalition and the RAFI-USA. The report is based on a survey of farm advocates and farm credit counselors around the country and reveals tightening credit conditions and unmet demand for farm financing since the global economic downturn. Farm Aid met with White House representatives to present the findings of the report and offer solutions. The findings, and the potential for family farmers to rebuild our economy given available credit, were shared throughout the year at various meetings and conferences. Farm Aid attended additional meetings at the White House to inform officials of pressing credit conditions in the farm sector and the great potential of family farm agriculture to stimulate rural economic development, and to push for a strong GIPSA rule from the Administration to protect family farmers and ranchers against abuses by corporate meatpackers. Farm Aid also attended the White House Rural Economic Forum in Peosta, IA, hosted by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and attended by President Obama.
Throughout 2011, Farm Aid continued to call for action from the USDA and DOJ following their 2010 joint workshops examining antitrust and competition in agriculture. In May, Farm Aid helped coordinate and was one of 160 organizations sending a letter to the USDA and DOJ demanding a plan for action to address issues raised at these workshops. In September, Farm Aid launched a public action to urge the USDA and DOJ to ensure competitive agriculture markets.
In October, Farm Aid joined the national Just Label It! Campaign and launched an online action to enable citizens to contact the FDA Commissioner to demand mandatory labels for genetically engineered (GE) foods.
Farm Aid granted $140,500 to family farm groups working to keep family farmers on their land and strengthen local and sustainable agriculture through policy and grassroots efforts. An additional $22,714 supported agriculture scholarships for college students.
Audited Expenditures 1985 through 2010
Program Services: $30,013,372 79%
Fundraising & Management: $8,105,612 21%
Total Expenditures: $38,118,984
Farm Aid Board of Directors
Willie Nelson, President
Paul English, Treasurer
Lana Nelson, Secretary
John Mellencamp
Neil Young
Dave Matthews
Mark Rothbaum
Joel Katz
Evelyn Shriver
David Anderson
Richard Fields
Counsel
Jess Rosen, Greenberg Traurig, Atlanta, GA
Principal Bankers
Cambridge Trust Company, Cambridge, MA
Bankers Trust, Des Moines, IA
2011 Farm Aid Staff
Carolyn Mugar, Executive Director
Glenda Yoder, Associate Director
Hilde Steffey, Program Director
Jennifer Fahy, Communications Director
Jen James, Operations Director
Cornelia Hoskin, HOMEGROWN Shepherdess
Matt Glidden, Web Marketing Manager
Kari Williams, Director of Development
Alicia Harvie, Program Manager
Joel Morton, Farm Advocate
Matthew Kochka, Farmer Resource Network Manager
Caroline Malcolm, Member Services and HOMEGROWN Flock Tender
Auditor
Debra Dobbins, CPA, PC