By Trudi Jenny
Food, Faith and Farming Network Board
Our virtual Seeds of Hope Celebration last Tuesday, December 6, was a great success. It was exciting to hear our 2022 recipients talk about their projects. As we listened momentum grew and it was a joy to see so much energy around nurturing vibrant rural communities. If you missed the event, check out the YouTube recording.
At the event we announced that we are inviting applications for our 2023 Seed Money grants. We are offering funds for initiatives that extend our mission in both Southwestern and Southeastern Wisconsin and address Priority Issues raised in our SW WI Rural Listening/Networking Sessions and our SE WI Rural/Urban Listening/Networking Sessions. We are accepting applications for projects in the following counties of Southwestern Wisconsin: Green, Iowa, Lafayette, Grant, Sauk, Crawford, Vernon, and Richland. In Southeastern Wisconsin we are accepting applications from these counties: Milwaukee, Kenosha, Racine, Walworth, Waukesha, Jefferson, Dodge, Washington, and Ozaukee.
Short descriptions of the projects we have funded in the past can be found at https://foodfaithandfarmingnetwork.org/seed-money-projects.
The maximum amount of funding per project is $1,500; the deadline for applications is Monday, January 30, 2022; and awardees will be notified by February 27, 2022.
Our application requests that those who apply state their project goals, expected results, project timeline and budget as well as other details. The PDFs can also be found on our website on the Home page. Please note that there are two different applications — one for Southwestern WI and one for Southeastern WI. The difference between the two is in the Priority Issues section.
While we highly recommend applying for projects that are stated as priorities on our application, other worthy initiatives will be considered. In addition to evaluating whether a project meets our mission and our priority issues, the following criteria will be considered: Does the project 1) address a significant community issue; 2) outline a thoughtful, innovative plan to confront the issue; 3) build a network of individuals/groups to collaborate on the issue and 4) demonstrate energy and commitment to achieve stated goals?
We are grateful to the Sinsinawa Dominicans, Compeer Financial, Wisconsin Farmers Union and individual contributors for making this initiative possible in Southwestern WI in 2023. In Southeastern WI we thank Bader Philanthropies, Inc for their support of both our Listening Sessions and our Seed Money grants.
Please pass our applications along to anyone you know would benefit from these funds.
If you would like to support our work, see the Support/Join tab on our website. We are a nonprofit 501c3 organization.
We pray that you are able to once again be with family over the upcoming holidays. We wish you a new year blessed with hope for the future.
