Growing Together: Open Forum

Hi! Huge thanks to everyone on last week's Community Chat! We had such a great discussion about funding youth gardens and I'm so impressed with the ideas, support, and positivity that was shared. 

Many of the resources/ideas from the Chat are included below but there was so much shared so please check out the recording (attached to this thread). 

If you have more questions and ideas about funding youth gardens, drop them in this thread! 

Resources

• Financing Your School Garden – excellent resource page from Maine School Garden Network (lots of guidance and a list of grants at the bottom)

• Tips for putting together a garden wish list of supplies

• Tips for planning a fundraiser

• Fundraising resources and tips

• Kids Garden Community Funding Opportunities library – updated weekly with open grants and we send out a mid-month email to Kids Garden Community members with open and upcoming opportunities

• Grant Application Support – resource page from KidsGardening with tips for crafting your narrative, webinar recordings, and more

• National data on youth garden grantmaking in 2024

• Past relevant Community Chats – recordings and list of resources:

• Participatory Evaluation and Storytelling

• Fundraising for Youth Gardening (2021)

• Fundraising for Youth Gardens (2023)

• Funding School Garden Work – resource page from School Garden Support Organization Network with tons of examples and guidance for school-based programs

• Walmart Spark Good – opportunities for local grants, Round Up, product registries, and more

• Out-of-the-box ideas for funding and support (County/University Extension and state Farm to School networks are the best resources for information about local funding opportunities, volunteers, etc.):

• Create a LinkedIn page for your garden (one member got grants from companies looking to fund gardens that found them on LinkedIn!)

• Neighborhood developers/home builders

• City forestry and parks and rec departments

• Local grocery stores (e.g. Kroger, Sprouts)

• Church endowment funds, library foundations

• Eagle Scouts (donate finished build projects)

• Community tool banks for loaned supplies

• Local coffee shops for grounds

• ChipDrop – source for free mulch

Recording Time Stamps

5:45 - Examples of successful and not successful funding strategies

25:10 - Grant funding/writing tips

49:25 - Ideas for individual fundraisers and community support

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Amelia Dupuis
Kids Garden Community Manager
KidsGardening
she/her
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