Fund-a-Farmer Grants Program in the US

Types of Projects

• Grants for farmers to improve or expand pasture for their animals: FACT will fund projects that would help farms transition to pasture-based systems, expand animals’ access to well-managed pasture, and improve the quality of pasture for animals.
• Grants for farmers who are pursuing animal welfare certification: These grants support farms that are pursuing one of three animal welfare certifications: Certified Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) and affiliated certifications by A Greener World (AGW), Certified Humane Raised and Handled (HFAC), or Global Animal Partnership (GAP) Animal Welfare Certified (steps 4 to 5+).
• Grants for welfare-certified farmers: These grants are for projects that would help farms that already hold one of the certifications above to build capacity or maintain certification. These grants can be for on-farm production-related projects, or for other projects related to the marketing, sales, and distribution of welfare-certified products.

Funding Information

• Maximum award: The maximum award per farm is $3,000.
• Time frame: All proposed projects must begin and be completed within the time frame of March 2024 through June 2025. Projects that are completed before March 2024 are not eligible for funding.

Eligible Projects

Examples of eligible projects include but are not limited to:

• On-farm infrastructure or investments (e.g. on-farm improvements to maintain certification and/or increase the scale and efficiency of the operation, purchase of capital investments such as certified breeding stock and refrigeration units, value added product development);
• Supply chain infrastructure or investments (e.g. transporting products to market, coordinating pick-up, aggregation and distribution of food items from multiple sources);
• Institutional or wholesale investments (e.g. investments to meet institutional/wholesale parameters or sourcing needs, such as increased production, product packaging, value added processing or administrative prerequisites);
• Education or marketing efforts (e.g. educating local distributors to value welfare certifications, creating a cooperative, developing educational materials);
• Joint sales efforts to buyers (e.g. outreach on behalf of multiple farms to local institutions, restaurants or markets to secure contracts that pull from multiple farms).

Eligibility Requirements

• Location: Farms must be located in the 50 United States or five major U.S. territories and be working, independent farms, or operated by a federally-recognized tribal entity. These are farms on which a family, individual or tribe owns the animals, is engaged in the day-to-day management of the farm and its animals, derives a share of livelihood from the farm, and produces a livestock product for sale.
• Tax documentation: If you are selected to receive a grant you will be required to furnish a valid Schedule F or Schedule C form or comparable form from a recent tax return; this document is not required at time of application. If you file a different form to report income/loss from your farm business, or are not required to file taxes for your farm business because you farm in a U.S. territory or on tribal land, please note this in your application.
• Eligible animals: Proposed on-farm projects must impact at least one of these species: beef cattle, bison, broiler chickens, dairy cows, ducks, geese, goats, laying hens, pigs, sheep and/or turkeys. Farms must already raise animals (i.e. produce-only farms are not eligible). Projects involving a new species of animal on an existing livestock/poultry operation will be considered.
• Only one application per farm per year will be accepted.
• Farms that do not hold one of the three specified certifications may apply for an on-farm, production-related project that would improve animal welfare and expand pasture-based systems. Examples include but are not limited to the purchase and installation of fencing, mobile housing, or water systems for animals on pasture.

For more information, visit Food Animal Concerns Trust.