The American Farmland Trust (AFT) Brighter Future Fund’s Emergency Resilience Grant is designed to support farmers and ranchers experiencing natural disasters (such as flooding, wildfires, or avian flu), the loss or delay of funding due to the government funding freeze, or a loss of markets.
Donor Name: American Farmland Trust
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/26/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
Funding will be prioritized for small to mid-size farms that have previously faced challenges accessing traditional funding opportunities, enhancing financial resilience, supporting business technical assistance, investing in business building, and/or fostering soil health and environmentally beneficial agricultural practices.
Funding Information
2025 Emergency Resilience Grants will be awarded in amounts up to $10,000 per project (or up to $10,250 if also awarded a Real Farmer Care grant.)
Eligible Projects and Expenses
Funds must be used to enhance financial resilience, support business technical assistance, invest in business building, and/or foster soil health and environmentally beneficial agricultural practices for farm or ranch operations that have been directly impacted by recent events. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Professional Services
- Hiring a service provider to assist with the following:
- Business, financial or estate planning consultant to assist with business plan, tax plan, or finance/loan p
- Support business planning and other services necessary for farm or ranch land access or expansion, such as land search planning, property assessment, facilitation, succession planning, or crafting agreements.
- Market planning and access to strategize improvement to market access and enhance profitability.
- Implement effective financial record-keeping systems.
- Support guidance for accessing USDA Financial programs.
- Accessing agricultural credit via assistance in securing loans.
- Impact mitigation as response to specific external impact to the operation from natural disasters.
- Infrastructure and Equipment
- Purchasing farming/ranching equipment or implements essential to transitioning a business.
- Improving infrastructure or equipment necessary to diversify income streams.
- Smart solar planning assessments that support and equip producers to benefit from solar energy production on their operations.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must be based in the US (any of the 50 states or 5 territories).
- Grants will only be awarded to applicants who have been caused financial hardship as a direct result of disruptive events in recent months, including but not limited to natural disasters (flooding, wildfires, or avian flu), the loss or delay in funding due to the government funding freeze, or a loss of markets.
- Applicants will be required to provide proof of such financial distress or loss due to a disruptive event listed above.
- Applicants must also include documentation of cost estimates, as well as a proposed budget and timeline.
- A project may involve one or more individual farmers/ranchers or farm/ranch families but only one grant can be awarded per farm/farm family or group.
- Those who were awarded a grant from AFT’s Brighter Future Fund in 2025 (including Regenerate VA Healthy Soils, Farm Vitality, or New England Regenerative Livestock Farming grants) are not eligible to apply to this additional funding opportunity.
- Applicants who applied but were not selected for funding during previous AFT grant cycles are encouraged to apply. Previous recipients of other AFT grants received in 2024 or earlier may apply; however, since funding is limited, AFT may prioritize those who have not received prior awards.
- Eligible farms or ranches must be for-profit and be able to provide proof of income (or similar, if the operation engages in barter, exchange, or community supply). Operations must be producing food or agricultural products for their community for sale, or barter or exchange. This grant does not intend to support operations that produce agricultural products mainly for personal, household, or family use.
- Nonprofit organizations are encouraged to take advantage of alternate resources designed specifically for nonprofits.
For more information, visit AFT.
