2025-10-08T09:45:13-07:00 2024-12-31 990 2024-01-01 455445890 FARM COMMONS FARM 2183024030 302 W Austin St Duluth MN 55803 Rachel Armstrong Executive Director 2183024030 2025-09-30 1 2024 2025-03-06 01:10:19Z Rachel Armstrong 302 W Austin St Duluth MN 55803 614371 0 X www.farmcommons.org X 2012 WI Farm Commons empowers agricultural communities to resolve their own legal vulnerabilities, within an ecosystem of support. We achieve our mission through development of high-quality, accessible legal education resources that help producers identify issues, make crucial decisions, and take action to achieve legal resilience. We also know that farmers themselves are the best source for creative solutions to their own challenges. We develop community leaders who guide peers and foster conversations about legal resilience. In-depth research into nuanced legal issues and delivering legal services also play a role in creating accurate, plain language resources that empower small business owners to develop their resilience. Our work reaches audiences that have historically lacked access to business legal services whether by gender, race, geography and/or ability to pay. 5 5 5 13 0 0 441723 482096 130861 130786 0 1489 1154 0 573738 614371 0 0 0 0 394219 342023 0 0 9588 183161 197882 577380 539905 -3642 74466 283461 377094 2472 21638 280989 355456 Farm Commons' mission is to provide the legal resources that sustainable farmers need to become the stable, resilient foundation of a community-based food system. Farm Commons empowers agricultural communities (including farmers, ranchers, and agriculture support persons) to identify and resolve legal vulnerabilities within an ecosystem of support. An ecosystem of support includes accountants, attorneys, and insurance agents who assist agricultural business owners in resolving risk. To carry out our mission, we create educational resources including online workshops. We also develop the leadership of agricultural community members (farmers and their supporters) to support legal resiliency in their region. 0 0 353571 0 438318 Farmer Education: In 2024 we hosted 77 farmers through our Discovering Resilience workshops, which saw 90% of attendees adopt at least one of the 10 best practices of legal resilience within 3 months of the workshop. In addition, 80% of attendees are still working towards implementing 4 or more best practices 3 months after the workshop. We wrote and distributed 2 additional guides on farmland succession legal issues and on cooperative purchasing and financing of farmland. We developed and released 6 new podcast episodes and hosted 24 webinars for partner organizations. We brought 12 Fellows through our advanced training and communications programs. In addition, we addressed dozens of individual questions via email on farm business law issues. 88591 159780 Non-Farmer Education: In 2024, Farm Commons enhanced its service to Extension Educators, nonprofit employees, and farm support persons nationwide to help farmers recognize and address legal vulnerabilities before a problem occurs. We supported 176 organizations nationwide with customized access to our resources and individualized webinars to their agricultural communities. We delivered our comprehensive online workshop, Guiding Resilience, to 32 professionals nationwide. This 5-week comprehensive workshop prepares professionals to guide farmers in their own communities. Our data show that for every one non-farming agriculture professional we reach, that person provides our information to 22 more farmers in their local community, significantly magnifying our ability to achieve our mission. We hosted another session of our Legal Ecosystem Fellowship program that trains partners to be able to lead farm law workshops in their own communities. 8 professionals went through the LEF program and successfully delivered farm law presentations in their communities. We also developed custom resources for 5 other organizations. 4654 0 2700 Research: Farm Commons provides essential services in doing complex legal research and in studying the impact and ramifications of legal realities on diverse farm communities. As part of our effort to learn about how farm communities understand and react to legal realities, we occasionally providing legal services to community members, where this service will help inform our educational resource development and other research efforts. 0 0 0 446816 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 X Rachel Armstrong 2183024030 302 W Austin St Duluth MN 55803 Rachel Armstrong Ex officio and Non-Voting Director 40 0 X X 70625 0 0 Aaron Sandvig Treasurer 1 0 X X 0 0 0 Andrew Larson President 1 0 X X 0 0 0 Tom Buller Secretary 1 0 X X 0 0 0 Joy Kirkpatrick Director 1 0 X 0 0 0 Kate Graham Director 1 0 X 0 0 0 70625 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 474512 7584 0 482096 Paywalled resource access 611430 64725 64725 0 0 Contracts for resource and curriculum development 611430 63361 63361 0 0 Legal Services 541199 2700 2700 0 0 0 0 0 0 130786 1489 1489 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 614371 132275 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 295985 269485 22851 3649 6326 5732 499 95 16111 13992 2115 4 23601 21504 1813 284 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 24794 0 24794 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 841 750 35 56 1078 321 757 0 17348 8582 7182 1584 0 0 0 0 4080 0 4080 0 10639 6005 718 3916 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 17267 0 17267 0 571 0 571 0 Direct Program Expenses: Farmer and Prof Honorariums 33327 33327 0 0 Staff training, development, bad debt 10619 10181 438 0 Direct Program Expenses: Other 74821 74821 0 0 Bank, Card Processing, and Business Fees 2497 2116 381 0 0 0 0 0 539905 446816 83501 9588 159288 42916 0 101489 0 190554 83595 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 461 9285 32850 0 -42883 32850 0 0 0 0 83000 283461 377094 0 8154 0 0 0 11775 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2472 1709 2472 21638 X 284631 280990 0 0 -3642 74466 280989 355456 283461 377094 X 74466 0 0 0 0 1 X 1 X 0 0 0 X 382812 409165 406773 441723 474512 2114985 382812 409165 406773 441723 474512 2114985 2114985 666 54 0 0 0 720 0 0 2115705 0 0.99966 0.99915 X RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 32850 0 32850 32850 SIMPLE IRA 1709 1709 Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 11b Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 11b All board members/directors receive a final draft copy of the Form 990 tax return. Members have two weeks to consider the material, ask questions, or recommend edits to the return. Any received questions or suggested edits are reviewed and resolved accordingly. The tax return is submitted when all issues are resolved. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 12c Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 12c - At each new director orientation and annually at the December meeting, the conflicts of interest policy is distributed and directors have the opportunity to submit documentation of any potential or actual conflicts of interest, as necessary. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 15 Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 15 - Compensation for every non-Executive Director position is determined according to the Compensation and Benefits policy, which is prepared and maintained by the Executive Director, and which requires an analysis of comparable positions in the organization's home state within a similar profession and at a similar scale. Compensation for the ExecutiveDirector position is determined according to the Compensation policy prepared and maintained by the Board of Directors, and which requires the organization strive to provide compensation at the level of comparable positions in the organization's home state within a similar profession and at a similar scale. A market comparison is preformed not more than every 2 years. Form 990, Part VI, Section C, Line 19 Form 990, Part VI, Section C, Line 19 - Yes, these documents were available to the public. Documents required to be available for public inspection (governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements) are available by calling the organization at the number listed at our website or emailing our central email address info at farmcommons dot org. Form 990, Part XI, Line 9 Rounding to whole dollar adjustment