California FarmLink

California FarmLink’s mission is to invest in the prosperity of farmers and ranchers through lending, education, and access to land. Knowledge, capital and land are the foundations of resilient businesses. We believe that successful farm, ranch, and fishing businesses can support local food systems, living-wage jobs, and a healthy environment. We envision a healthy food system where farmers and ranchers have equitable opportunities to build wealth and conserve natural resources.

We deliberately direct resources and opportunities to farmers of color, women, and other members of groups that have historically been denied equal access to land, capital, and education.

California FarmLink is certified as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), one of the first in the nation focused on sustainable and organic agriculture as well as economic and environmental resilience. We partner with training programs, impact investors, public agencies and other nonprofits, weaving an ecosystem of support for farmers, ranchers, and fishers. Our strategic initiatives:

-Wealth Building aligns our lending and educational programs to focus on helping those who have historically been denied access to land, credit, and education and thus have had limited opportunities to build wealth and equity in their business and personal assets. Activities include cohort-based learning, one-on-one technical assistance, a peer-to-peer mentorship program, and access to credit. We evaluate success through quantitative analysis of capital deployed, and changes in net worth of borrowers, and qualitative assessment of changes in perceived competence in business management.

-Equity and Conservation on Working Lands aligns lending and educational program resources to provide limited-resource farmers with opportunities to access and operate on land improved with conservation practices or protected by conservation easements, and to ensure that all farmers are able to implement conservation and climate adaptation measures. Through this initiative we will provide credit and technical assistance to landowners, farmers, and ranchers to facilitate land access and more widespread adoption of conservation practices. We will measure progress by measuring acres affected through our efforts.

-Resilience and Succession aligns lending and educational activities to ensure: 1) farmers have knowledge and tools to create and preserve wealth while conserving and enhancing natural resources; 2) farmers and landowners have knowledge and tools to pass land and operations to future operators; and 3) rural communities have resilient food systems, living-wage jobs, and a healthy environment characterized by working lands providing both income and ecosystems services. Activities include cohort-based education; one-on-one technical assistance, and access to credit. We will measure progress by measuring changes in business profitability and family net worth, changes in perceived competence in business management including financial skills and regulatory compliance, and acres affected through our efforts.

From 2016-2022, California FarmLink doubled the size of its client-serving staff as a result of collaborative work plans, corresponding budgets, and deliberate fundraising plans that have generated the resources to sustain its programs. As a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), FarmLink has secured numerous sources of very-low-interest capital for its loan fund, and the number of social impact investors and grantors supporting the organization's work has grown more than twofold from 2017-2022. To deepen its commitment to understand and meet the needs of communities served, the organization created a Farmer Advisory Council in 2022. Its purpose is to advise the board and staff on matters related to programs and services impacting the Council members’ communities. In addition, the Council addresses program effectiveness, potential improvements to services, identifying areas of focus for our work, and understanding emerging demands of specific communities. The organization's leadership staff rely on the Council process to inform decisions about priority products and services integrated into its highly collaborative and deliberate work planning and budgeting processes. The Council’s goal is to inform the organization about the needs of its diverse client communities, and to provide its land access and business development services in a just and inclusive manner.

Between 2017-2021, FarmLink served a total of 288 agricultural business borrowers in 33 counties with 482 loans, including 212 Paycheck Protection Program pandemic relief loans – 93% of these farms had less than $1 million in annual sales and 82% were small farms with less than $350,000 in sales.
California FarmLink will address the economic impact of COVID-19 through a lending strategy that incorporates a new array of integrated capital – 0% operating loans, forgivable down payment assistance and business development services – to help clients be resilient to the economic impacts of the pandemic. FarmLink will provide small-scale farmers, ranchers and fishers with flexible and affordable loans, as well as risk-mitigating individual and group education for accounting, tax planning, insurance and asset management. Pre- and post loan technical assistance and wealth building education courses facilitate the growth of financial equity and increased business resilience.