How do you get grants for a small community garden?

Question

How do you get grants for a small community garden?

Answer 1

Project Orange Thumb http://www.smartgrowth.org/library/artic...  

Do a search at www.altavista.com/web/adv for Community Garden grants and your state name   For ex here is a list for GA http://eeingeorgia.org/net/content/go.as...

General Mills is another good source for more major grants.  

For simpler local funding ask at a seed and feed store or garden supply place.  Another easier answer is talk with your local WallMart and see if they are still matching funds raised by any nonprofit holding a bake or yard sale in their parking lot.   Your local schools FFA may have equipment to plow, till and work the garden.  

Talk with your county agent.   Also ask the agent about the Master Gardeners Program to get some free expert help.

If you want actual grants you need a school,church or other nonprofit organization as the fiscal agent.  If you just want donations ask.

Answer 2

If you are in the states, try United Way, they do help fund these gardens and you can speak with them

Answer 3

Try your local extension center for ways to get funding, sometimes the extension center itself will provide some funding(if there is not already a community garden they are funding nearby), try the school system, community center, and town hall for money and clearance for donated land you may need.  You need to have an organized plan for most businesses or organizations to take you seriously. Some will be more apt to fund your project if you are planning to help out another with your garden-like donating fresh produce to a soup kitchen or shelter-if so look to church groups like Catholic Charities, etc. You don't need to show that individuals will be funding your project, just that you have people dedicated to working in and on the garden from start of season to end. You'll need to have a sight plan and someone in your startup group that knows how to start a garden and keep it going-again, your local extension center has Master Gardeners willing and able to help you(for free).

Answer 4

Start with the people participating in the community garden -- show that the people participating are willing to contribute cash, however small those donations are. You can't ask for grants unless the participants are willing to do the same, however small those donations might be.

I assume this garden is organized under a nonprofit organization registered with the government, and all financial activity will be properly recorded for review (what the expenses of the endeavor are and how donations are being used and tracked). If so, you are in a position to go to local businesses in the immediate area of the community garden and ask for cash donations. You will need to provide them with written details about the endeavor, contact information for the organizers, letters of endorsement, etc. If you can have all of this on the web, all the better.

Keep requests for funding local -- and talk about how the community garden benefits everyone. Emphasize its impact, NOT the desperation for donations.

Answer 5

Look up your local council people. The city gives them money, i'm not sure if its every month or year. They have meetings in which people from your community come and decide how to spend the money in the community. We got turf on our parks, its awesome. Also, you could go to a school and try to form a garden with them. My old school had a big patch of land that we made into a garden. Now we grow flowers, to watermelon and other fruits and veggies.