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501(c)(3) · Tax-deductible

Your gift builds the farm.
The harvest sustains the farmer.

Cultivate Toledo farms earn revenue — that is the point. But a farm must be built before it can earn, and building one takes 150 days and real capital: land preparation, hoop houses, irrigation, growing beds. Philanthropy carries each farm from vacant lot to first harvest. From there, sales to restaurants, institutions, and families carry it forward. Your gift is not charity that must be renewed forever; it is the one-time push that sets a permanent engine running.

What gifts build...

A farm is not an abstraction — it is a list of real things with real prices: prepared soil, irrigation lines, growing beds, a hoop house. Your gift purchases one of those things, we put it in the ground, and a farmer builds a business on top of it. Choose what you want to build.

Gift

What it builds

$100/month

Ongoing coaching for one farmer through the season

$500

A season of seeds and soil amendments for one farm

$1,500

Irrigation for one growing site

$20,000

A hoop house — the heart of a four-season farm

$30,000

A complete farm build, vacant lot to first planting

Donations

Support Urban Agriculture in Northwest Ohio

Give once, or grow with us monthly. Every gift is tax-deductible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my donation tax-deductible?

Yes. Cultivate Toledo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, certified in July 2026, and gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. You receive a receipt automatically when you give.

If the farms earn revenue, why do you need donations?

Because a farm must be built before it can earn. Donations fund the one-time costs — land preparation, hoop houses, irrigation, growing beds — and the harvest's revenue sustains the farmer from there. Your gift is not charity renewed forever; it is the push that sets a permanent engine running.

Where exactly does my money go?

To physical farm infrastructure, farmer training, and the food hub that connects harvests to buyers. We keep overhead lean!

Who runs the farms?

Trained local farmers. Cultivate Toledo owns each farm site and its infrastructure — the land, the hoop houses, the irrigation, the beds — and trained farmers run them as their own micro-enterprises, keeping the income their harvests earn. That split is deliberate: the farmer carries the business without carrying the capital risk, and the infrastructure stays in the community, serving Toledo farmers for the long run.

Does my gift stay in Toledo?

Entirely. The land is in Toledo, the builders and farmers are in Toledo, and the produce is sold to Toledo restaurants, institutions, and families — so your dollars keep circulating in the same neighborhoods where the farms are built.

What is the difference between giving once and giving monthly?

A one-time gift builds a piece of a farm. Monthly donors give us the predictable support that lets us start the next farm before the last one is finished!

Can I help with something other than money?

Yes — materials and equipment, land, professional services, volunteer hands at builds and harvests, and introductions to buyers and funders are all valuable. Reach out through our Contact Us and tell us what you have.

How will I know what my gift accomplished?

Donors receive our monthly harvest report, and we update the Impact page quarterly with farms built, farmers trained, pounds sold, and dollars earned by farmers. When the farm your gift helped build starts producing, you will know.