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← FARM COMMONS

Form 990 for tax year 2022

Filed by FARM COMMONS.

Totals

Total revenue
$504,775
Total expenses
$470,979
Contributions and grants received
$406,772
Grants paid
$0
Program service revenue
$98,003
Investment income
$0
Other revenue
$0
Total assets, end of year
$287,917
Total liabilities, end of year
$3,285
Net assets or fund balances, end of year
$284,632
Program services expenses (Part IX)
$268,053
Management and general expenses
$149,290
Fundraising expenses
$53,636
Program service expenses (Part III)
$268,053

Program services were 56.9% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Revenue

Part VIII, the statement of revenue.

  • 1a · Federated campaigns

    $0

  • 1b · Membership dues

    $48,482

  • 1c · Fundraising events

    $0

  • 1d · Related organizations

    $0

  • 1e · Government grants (contributions)

    $335,020

  • 1f · All other contributions, gifts and grants

    $23,270

  • 1g · Noncash contributions included above

    $396

  • 2a · Program service revenue: Curriculum and Resource Development Contracts

    total $98,003 · related or exempt $98,003 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 2f · All other program service revenue

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 3 · Investment income

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 4 · Income from investment of tax-exempt bond proceeds

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 5 · Royalties

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 6a · Gross rents

    real property $0 · personal property $0

  • 6b · Less rental expenses

    real property $0 · personal property $0

  • 6c · Rental income or loss

    real property $0 · personal property $0

  • 6d · Net rental income or loss

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 7a · Gross sales of assets other than inventory

    securities $0 · other assets $0

  • 7b · Less cost or other basis and sales expenses

    securities $0 · other assets $0

  • 7c · Gain or loss

    securities $0 · other assets $0

  • 7d · Net gain or loss

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 8a · Fundraising events: gross income

    $0

  • 8a · Fundraising events: contributions included on line 1c

    $0

  • 8b · Fundraising events: direct expenses

    $0

  • 8c · Net income from fundraising events

    total $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 9a · Gaming: gross income

    $0

  • 9b · Gaming: direct expenses

    $0

  • 9c · Net income from gaming

    total $0 · related or exempt $0 · unrelated business $0 · excluded $0

  • 11e · Other revenue, total

    $0

Functional expenses

Part IX, the statement of functional expenses.

  • 1 · Grants to domestic organizations and governments

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 2 · Grants to domestic individuals

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 3 · Grants to foreign organizations and individuals

    total $0 · program services $0

  • 5 · Compensation of officers, directors and key employees

    total $61,990 · program services $24,796 · management and general $24,796 · fundraising $12,398

  • 6 · Compensation of disqualified persons

    total $0

  • 7 · Other salaries and wages

    total $247,963 · program services $161,176 · management and general $61,991 · fundraising $24,796

  • 8 · Pension plan contributions

    total $5,826 · program services $3,496 · management and general $1,631 · fundraising $699

  • 9 · Other employee benefits

    total $11,400 · program services $6,840 · management and general $3,192 · fundraising $1,368

  • 10 · Payroll taxes

    total $25,472 · program services $15,283 · management and general $7,132 · fundraising $3,057

  • 11a · Fees: management

    total $0 · program services $0 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 11b · Fees: legal

    total $0 · program services $0 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 11c · Fees: accounting

    total $19,361 · program services $516 · management and general $18,742 · fundraising $103

  • 11d · Fees: lobbying

    total $0 · program services $0 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 11e · Fees: professional fundraising services

    total $0 · fundraising $0

  • 11f · Fees: investment management

    total $0 · program services $0 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 11g · Fees: other

    total $1,641 · program services $75 · management and general $674 · fundraising $892

  • 12 · Advertising and promotion

    total $751 · program services $687 · fundraising $64

  • 13 · Office expenses

    total $4,174 · program services $1,084 · management and general $2,586 · fundraising $504

  • 14 · Information technology

    total $25,933 · program services $12,942 · management and general $6,443 · fundraising $6,548

  • 15 · Royalties

    total $0 · program services $0 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 16 · Occupancy

    total $0 · program services $0 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 17 · Travel

    total $873 · program services $312 · management and general $11 · fundraising $550

  • 18 · Travel or entertainment for public officials

    total $0 · program services $0 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 19 · Conferences, conventions and meetings

    total $0 · program services $0 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 20 · Interest

    total $0 · program services $0 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 21 · Payments to affiliates

    total $0 · program services $0 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 22 · Depreciation, depletion and amortization

    total $16,600 · program services $0 · management and general $16,600 · fundraising $0

  • 23 · Insurance

    total $0 · program services $0 · management and general $0 · fundraising $0

  • 24a · Other expenses: Direct Program Expenses

    total $39,015 · program services $35,441 · management and general $1,762 · fundraising $1,812

  • 24b · Other expenses: Bank and Business Fees

    total $1,404 · program services $1,279 · management and general $90 · fundraising $35

  • 24c · Other expenses: Other Business Expenses and bad debt

    total $3,734 · program services $926 · management and general $2,808 · fundraising $0

  • 24d · Other expenses: Staff Training and Development

    total $4,842 · program services $3,200 · management and general $832 · fundraising $810

Balance sheet

Part X, book values.

  • 1 · Cash, non-interest-bearing

    beginning of year $61,973 · end of year $63,642

  • 2 · Savings and temporary cash investments

    beginning of year $2,288 · end of year $0

  • 3 · Pledges and grants receivable

    beginning of year $0 · end of year $0

  • 4 · Accounts receivable

    beginning of year $126,765 · end of year $164,422

  • 5 · Loans and receivables from officers and key people

    beginning of year $0 · end of year $0

  • 6 · Loans and receivables from disqualified persons

    beginning of year $0 · end of year $0

  • 7 · Other notes and loans receivable

    beginning of year $0 · end of year $0

  • 8 · Inventories for sale or use

    beginning of year $0 · end of year $0

  • 9 · Prepaid expenses and deferred charges

    beginning of year $0 · end of year $0

  • 10a · Land, buildings and equipment: cost or other basis

    $0

  • 10b · Land, buildings and equipment: accumulated depreciation

    $26,283

  • 10c · Land, buildings and equipment, net

    beginning of year -$9,683 · end of year -$26,283

  • 11 · Investments: publicly traded securities

    beginning of year $0 · end of year $0

  • 12 · Investments: other securities

    beginning of year $0 · end of year $0

  • 13 · Investments: program-related

    beginning of year $0 · end of year $0

  • 14 · Intangible assets

    beginning of year $0 · end of year $0

  • 15 · Other assets

    beginning of year $82,999 · end of year $86,136

  • 17 · Accounts payable and accrued expenses

    beginning of year $11,827 · end of year $1,423

  • 18 · Grants payable

    end of year $0

  • 19 · Deferred revenue

    end of year $0

  • 20 · Tax-exempt bond liabilities

    end of year $0

  • 21 · Escrow or custodial account liability

    end of year $0

  • 22 · Loans and payables to officers and key people

    end of year $0

  • 23 · Secured mortgages and notes payable

    end of year $0

  • 24 · Unsecured notes and loans payable

    end of year $0

  • 25 · Other liabilities

    beginning of year $1,680 · end of year $1,862

  • 29 · Capital stock, trust principal or current funds

    beginning of year $249,941 · end of year $250,835

  • 30 · Paid-in or capital surplus, or land, building or equipment fund

    beginning of year $0 · end of year $0

  • 31 · Retained earnings, endowment or other funds

    beginning of year $894 · end of year $33,797

Mission and programs · 2022

Mission

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, locally.

Activities or mission (Part I)

Farm Commons' mission is to provide the legal resources sustainable farmers need to be the stable, resilient foundation of a community-based food system. Farm Commons empowers agricultural communities to resolve their own legal vulnerabilities, within an ecosystem of support.

  • Farmer Education: In 2022 we hosted about 130 farmers through our Discovering Resilience workshop, 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 launched a new Advanced Farm Employment Law workshop. We wrote and distributed 7 additional guides including in-depth material on auto insurance and property insurance for farm businesses. We delivered 22 webinars to farmers nationwide on essential farm law subjects. We launched a very succesful first year of our Farmer Fellowship (now called the Collaborative Learning Fellowship) where we support farmers in developing their stories of success in managing business law issues on their farm. We developed a framework to scale the Fellowship nationwide, empowering our Alumni to lead farm law circles of support in their own community. In addition, we addressed 60 individual questions and issues over our online Q&A platform, creating a community-wide discussion on farm law issues that affect farmers the most including forming LLCs, writing leases, and managing employment law obligations.

    Expenses $232,863 · Revenue $446,514

  • Non-Farmer Education: In 2022, Farm Commons developed 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 delivered our comprehensive online workshop, Guiding Resilience, to 50 professionals nationwide. We supported 128 non-farming professionals with customized access to our resources and individualized webinars to their agricultural 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. Considering the incredible impact and further potential of these partners to help us reach each farmer in America, we designed a new Legal Ecosystem Fellowship program that trains these partners to be able to lead farm law workshops in their own communities- a program that will launch in 2023.

    Expenses $35,190 · Revenue $40,107

  • 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. In 2022, this program was stepped back to allow staff to focus on our new Fellowship programs in the Farmer and NonFarmer Education programs, which are key to efficient scalability nationwide. We secured revenue late in the fiscal year for this program and did not yet incur the expenses to develop proposals and identify research needs for future support.

    Revenue $2,679

As filed on the 2022 return.

Listed in Part VII

  • Rachel Armstrong

    Ex officio and Non-Voting Director

    Total calculated
    $70,501
    From this org
    $70,501
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $0
    Hours/week
    40
  • Aaron Sandvig

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1
  • Andrew Larson

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1
  • Tom Buller

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1
  • Joy Kirkpatrick

    Treasurer

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1
  • Kate Graham

    President

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1
  • Beth Dooley

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1 + 1 related

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those.

Grants on this return

No itemized grants to organizations on this return.

Provenance

Return type
form_990
Tax year
2022
Filed
30 June 2023
IRS schema version
2022v5.0
Source object
202311819349300106

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