← THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE

Form 990 for tax year 2023

Filed by THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE.

Totals

Total revenue: $375,054
Total expenses: $267,625
Contributions and grants received: $135,632
Grants paid: $0
Program service revenue: $0
Investment income: $0
Other revenue: $239,422
Total assets, end of year: $353,953
Total liabilities, end of year: $0
Net assets or fund balances, end of year: $353,953
Program services expenses (Part IX): $266,125
Management and general expenses: $1,500
Fundraising expenses: $0
Program service expenses (Part III): $266,125

Program services were 99.4% 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

$0
1c · Fundraising events

$0
1d · Related organizations

$0
1e · Government grants (contributions)

$0
1f · All other contributions, gifts and grants

$135,632
1g · Noncash contributions included above

$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
10a · Gross sales of inventory

$309,203
10b · Cost of goods sold

$69,781
10c · Net income from sales of inventory

total $239,422 · related or exempt $239,422 · 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
4 · Benefits paid to or for members

total $0 · program services $0
5 · Compensation of officers, directors and key employees

total $48,160 · program services $48,160
11g · Fees: other

total $79,141 · program services $79,141
12 · Advertising and promotion

total $14,617 · program services $14,617
13 · Office expenses

total $38,333 · program services $38,333
14 · Information technology

total $6,019 · program services $6,019
16 · Occupancy

total $32,740 · program services $32,740
17 · Travel

total $23,390 · program services $23,390
18 · Travel or entertainment for public officials

total $0 · program services $0
19 · Conferences, conventions and meetings

total $10,550 · program services $10,550
20 · Interest

total $0 · program services $0
21 · Payments to affiliates

total $0 · program services $0
22 · Depreciation, depletion and amortization

total $0 · program services $0
23 · Insurance

total $110 · program services $110
24a · Other expenses: Miscellaneous expenses

total $5,380 · program services $5,380 · management and general $0
24b · Other expenses: Free food for new parents ("Giftbaby" program)

total $5,042 · program services $5,042 · management and general $0
24c · Other expenses: Farming equipment, supplies, and soil amendments

total $2,643 · program services $2,643 · management and general $0
24d · Other expenses: Seed vendor permit from State of Minnesota

total $1,500 · program services $0 · management and general $1,500

Balance sheet

Part X, book values.

1 · Cash, non-interest-bearing

beginning of year $80,437 · end of year $99,760
5 · Loans and receivables from officers and key people

beginning of year -$305 · end of year -$305
6 · Loans and receivables from disqualified persons

beginning of year $0
8 · Inventories for sale or use

beginning of year $141,884 · end of year $230,295
9 · Prepaid expenses and deferred charges

beginning of year $0
10a · Land, buildings and equipment: cost or other basis

$24,203
10b · Land, buildings and equipment: accumulated depreciation

$0
10c · Land, buildings and equipment, net

beginning of year $24,203 · end of year $24,203
11 · Investments: publicly traded securities

beginning of year $0
12 · Investments: other securities

beginning of year $0
13 · Investments: program-related

beginning of year $0
14 · Intangible assets

beginning of year $0
15 · Other assets

beginning of year $0
22 · Loans and payables to officers and key people

beginning of year -$305
23 · Secured mortgages and notes payable

beginning of year $0
24 · Unsecured notes and loans payable

beginning of year $0
27 · Net assets without donor restrictions

beginning of year $223,160 · end of year $284,684
28 · Net assets with donor restrictions

beginning of year $23,364 · end of year $69,269

Mission and programs · 2023

Mission

From our Articles of Incorporation: "To coordinate the efforts of its staff, members, and the general public to facilitate the creation of new crops and growing systems, and work toward a permaculture-based, environmentally sustainable, climate change-mitigating agricultural system. EFN's mission includes, but is not limited to, encouraging the adoption and wider use of the following: organic farming practices; soil conservation; composting; seed-saving; perennial crop plants; agroforestry; renewable energy sources; sustainable building practices; bicycle-powered human transportation, trade, and waste-disposal systems; recycling; open source technology and open network philosophy; cooperative organization of agricultural enterprises and societies; and land banks and other means of connecting would-be farmers with land."

Seed production, conservation, and distribution: The Experimental Farm Network Cooperative produced or collected over 500 varieties of heirloom and open-pollinated seeds, intended for sale or free distribution. We managed a collection of over 2,000 rare heirloom vegetable, grain, and herb varieties. We conducted variety trials and plant breeding research on over 100 different species. We performed research in agroecological farming methods and educated members of the public on our work. Over the past year, we continued making advancements on various in-house research projects, including perennial grain sorghum, perennial leaf beets, Chilean pine nuts, strawberries, chinquapin chestnuts, hazelnuts, mayapples, perennial wheat, perennial rye, and other perennial crops. Customers made 7,595 purchases, a 3% decrease from the previous year, through our online store (which has become our primary means of disseminating seeds for breeding projects, research, and to inspire growers to become breeders and researchers themselves), and we also shared free seeds with an estimated 10,000 people through more than 200 local and regional seed hubs through our Cooperative Gardens Commission project (which we started in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic).

Expenses $202,345 · Revenue $309,203
Public education, outreach, and travel: We attended various farming conferences and other public events, speaking to audiences about our work. We traveled extensively to build relationships with other farmers, plant breeders, and seed growers. For each of these activities, our overarching long-term goal is the development of new crops and growing methods for carbon-sequestration, improved soil health, and ecosystem services.

Expenses $27,253 · Revenue $15,000
In 2022, we continued and expanded our work of seed rematriation (defined similarly to "repatriation", but using a word that recognizes and honors the role of women as seed-keepers in most traditional societies), which involves identifying and growing seeds connected to a particular historical community, returning regenerated seeds to the communities from which they originally came (and/or individuals living in diaspora), and developing long-term mutually-beneficial relationships with members of those communities, including through offering programmatic support wherever possible. Our most important rematriation success-story involved a collaboration with Native Roots Farm Foundation, a Nanticoke-led organization aiming to revive the agricultural life of the Nanticoke people (indigenous to parts of modern-day Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey) through land conservation and education. In 2023, we expanded access to two types of Nanticoke squash, a winter squash simply known as "Nanticoke Squash" (Cucurbita maxima), and a summer squash known in English as "Maycock" (Cucurbita pepo), from the Nanticoke word for squash, "Macac", as well as a Lenape sweet corn variety. This work also has a major educational component, involving teaching others about seed rematriation in order to inspire and encourage them to undertake similar work (there's no shortage of need for such work).

Expenses $4,750
In 2023, we served as fiscal sponsor for five projects related to our core mission, including a lost apple identification project (which seeks to find and identify historically known apple varieties before they are lost) directed by Michael Clifford, Greenbridge CDC (a Lenape-led organization that works to restore degraded traditional lands of the Lenape people in Delaware), the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library (which preserves critical crop biodiversity from the Fertile Crescent), an urban farming focused design, installation, and community-process facilitation project (Root Catalyst), and a food-share program for new parents led by a community-based farm in Philadelphia (Dirtbaby Farm). We provide oversight of their projects, all of which conducted important charitable work in 2023.

Expenses $31,777 · Revenue $119,277

As filed on the 2023 return.

Listed in Part VII

Nathan Kleinman

Co-Director/Board Member

Total calculated

$72,000

From this org

$36,000

From related orgs

$0

Other

$36,000

Hours/week

60
Dustin Hinz

Co-Director/Board Member

Total calculated

$24,320

From this org

$12,160

From related orgs

$0

Other

$12,160

Hours/week

40
Jacques Sapriel

Board Member

Total calculated

$0

Hours/week

1
Brianna Barton

Board Member

Total calculated

$0

Hours/week

0.5
Owen Taylor

Board Member

Total calculated

$0

Hours/week

0.5
Sally McCabe

Board Member

Total calculated

$0

Hours/week

0.5
Vandana Shiva

Board Member

Total calculated

$0

Hours/week

0.5

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: 2023
Filed: 13 November 2024
IRS schema version: 2023v5.0
Source object: 202433199349301513

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