HSF is actively raising philanthropic capital to support soil restoration initiatives primarily implemented by farmers. Most of these farmers are rooted in a particular county and are growing their farmland operations. By focusing support on these small and midsize farmers, HSF intends to create generational impacts on soil health.

Where feasible, the company will support agricultural and conservation easements for the soils being restored. The founding Board has a long history of utilizing easements to permanently secure and protect farmland.

Read more about our SOIL CAPITAL RESERVE.

Since 2007, Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT has supported organic farmers with secure land access through leases and mortgages. More recently, we began offering operating lines of credit. We have successfully funded over 12,000 acres of land through partnerships with more than 60 farmers and have received numerous awards as a B Corp and a Public Benefit Company. We have a strong history of innovation and we want to do more.

The Soil Capital Reserve (The Reserve) is an impact investment fund with the mission to heal the soil by supporting organic farming; and generating environmental and social impacts alongside financial returns. It will fund soil-building conservation practices through subsidized and forgivable loans, grants, and guarantees, providing farm operations in transition with much needed financial support.

The Reserve encourages the flow of capital into organic farming by improving their risk-return profiles and thus, attracting new investors. The goal is to catalyze much greater impact investment and, in doing so, creating tangible benefits for the Donors. In particular, Donor’s mission can benefit from:

(A) leveraging far greater volumes of capital towards addressing soil health practices than they could mobilize on their own in the absence of the Reserve,
(B) laying the groundwork for sustainable investment flows into soil conservation practices and environmental sustainability which are currently untouched or underserved by formal capital markets, and
(C) helping improve the terms at which organic farmers can access capital.

The Soil Capital Reserve was developed as a partnership between the USDA NRCS and Iroquois Valley Farmland through the 2019 NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant, with an initial contribution of $100,000 matched 50/50 by both organizations. It is deployed through Healing Soils Foundation, a mission aligned non-profit organization serving as tax sponsor. All contributions are tax deductible.

We believe that it is socially just to enable the public to invest in their public health and the healing of the soil and waters. Our model consists in connecting the public to fund our innovations in finance; this is what we call “public capital”. We invite you to innovate with us as we shape new capital for our next generation of living soil oriented farmers. Let’s work together.

Examples on the use of the Reserve include:

• Cash flow gaps and/or revenue losses due to Covid19,
• Organic transition,
• Planting of trees: agroforestry and silvopasture,
• Growth of organic production,
• Cleaning of water,
• Certifications: organic, non-GMO, animal welfare, among others,
• Wetlands restoration,
• Other conservation practices.