The Pine Cone Foundation (PCF) micro-grant is open to established small California-based farms, ranches, fishing, and aquaculture operations that are looking to accomplish a specific project within one year.
Donor Name: Pine Cone Foundation (PCF)
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/08/2023
Size of the Grant: $1,000 to $3,500
Grant Duration: 1 year
Details:
The Pine Cone Foundation micro-grant program seeks to support those pursuing long-term careers in agriculture, ranching, fishing, and aquaculture. To ensure that the grants are contributing to ending systemic inequity in access to foodways careers, they commit to providing a minimum of 50% of the grants to Black, Asian, Hispanic, Indigenous, and other people of color, as well as to female-identifying, non-binary, and trans purveyors.
Funding Information
Three to four grants from $1,000 to $3,500 will be distributed this year.
Eligible Projects
Paying capital costs associated with improving operations and ramping up production. Examples include: irrigation, fencing, refrigeration systems, stainless steel waterers, fishing equipment such as hook and line upgrades, processing tools or machinery needed to bring products to market, water tanks, tumbler/sorter, hoop house, net bags, floating cages, and greens dryer.
Replacing infrastructure or equipment that was lost or compromised from natural disasters.
Launching value-added products or starting new sales channels. Examples include: wholesale, CSA, delivery or subscription offerings.
Acquiring new equipment or making improvements to enhance sustainable practices or launching food access programs. Examples include: soil improvements, beekeeping equipment, creating habitats that sequester carbon or are beneficial to pollinators, and starting a community composting program or increasing food access for low-income and food desert communities.
The Foundation will not fund land purchases, new wells, consultants, administrative overhead, or marketing costs.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicant must be 18+ years of age.
Applicant and the operation must be based in California.
Applicant must be the owner of the operation; if there are multiple owners, choose just one owner to represent the operation.
Applicant’s operation must be an established business for 2+ years and have at least 1 year of sales.
Non-profit organizations are not eligible at this time.
Farms and ranches – no more than 100 acres in agricultural and grazing production.
Farms and ranches – land tenure (ownership, a lease, license, or other written agreement) for a reasonable time period will be required for projects that involve on-the-ground, permanent improvements. If tenure is less than 3 years, please be prepared to demonstrate in the application that the tenure is sufficient in relationship to the improvements being made or services being provided.
Fisheries and aquaculture – applicant’s operations should be small-scale or considered artisanal.
Fisheries and aquaculture – land tenure (ownership, a lease, license, or other written agreement) for a reasonable time period will be required for projects that involve on-the-ground, permanent improvements. If tenure is less than 3 years, please be prepared to demonstrate in the application that the tenure is sufficient in relationship to the improvements being made or services being provided.
Applicant is currently making a portion of their income from their farming, ranching, fishing, and aquaculture operations.
Applicant must have a specific project in mind with costs and labor calculated; project proposals should be geared toward a one-year completion period.
Applicant must plan to continue business in 2024.
Applicants must submit a headshot and operation photo with their application. They love to see the people and places for each application. This does not affect your eligibility or probability of receiving a grant.
Incomplete applications, or those not meeting the requirements stated above, will not be reviewed.
Applications requesting funds to hire a consultant (i.e. web developer, marketing firm, financial advising or otherwise) are not eligible.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
