The open fields above are full of possibilities & invitations. These particular fields are part of a specific story shared in this 2025 annual report, but they also reflect the many possibilities Equity Trust anticipates and holds as we advise and accompany groups making their visions for strong, sustainable farms and communities a reality. The projects we support require hard …
Equity Trust fulfills its mission in a variety of ways: our loan fund, our farms-for-farmers program, support for community land trusts, education around community ownership, and more. Some years, circumstances create situations where our work is siloed or is focused more in one area than another—loans made over here, farm land access over there. Other years it all comes together, with projects connecting across programs and drawing on multiple resources to deliver exciting outcomes. 2023 was that kind of year. 
For the third year in a row, we celebrate private gifts of value in property that have created permanently affordable housing, 
In Western Massachusetts, the Equity Trust has joined with Wellspring Cooperative and Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts in an effort to develop a community land trust covering the cities of Springfield and Holyoke. The Lower Valley CLT is actively recruiting community members for the board and to guide its development, and also drafting articles of incorporation and bylaws to submit to …
Providing financing not associated with property reform is not Equity Trust’s customary role. However, when we learned of an immigrant family in our Western Massachusetts community whose startup business had been upended by the pandemic, putting them on a credit card treadmill that looked endless even though they were making steady payments, we wanted to help. 
The theme for this year’s report is a simple one, but it has powerful implications: When we acknowledge the social contribution to property value and to wealth more generally, opportunities to begin to repay that “social mortgage” become apparent. 
Two decades after acquiring 150 acres for Roxbury Farm, we have completed a land swap which adds 43 acres of agricultural fields to the protected property. 
A highlight of our work is collaboration with people who acknowledge the social mortgage on wealth, and take personal action to create a more just economy. 
The Equity Pledge is an opportunity for property owners to support programs that promote affordable housing and equitable access to land, 
Read how the Equity Pledge, introduced more than thirty years ago, when Equity Trust was founded, has become an even more powerful tool for economic justice. 
Like the projects in its portfolio, the Equity Trust Fund demonstrated resilience in 2021 after difficult times in 2020. 
“Justice too long delayed is justice denied.” -Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
After decades of documented discrimination of BIPOC farmers by the USDA, recognizing the unequal impact of COVID, Congress included funding in the American Rescue Plan Act to assist BIPOC farmers in paying off Farm Service Agency loans.
On Thursday, June 10, a federal judge placed …
Over six years, Equity Trust’s Hudson Valley Farm Affordability Program had a significant impact on farm preservation in this region of New York State, with many strong partners. The program preserved working farms by ensuring that they:
Are permanently affordable for farmers; Grow food for the region on an ongoing basis; and Remain in the hands of farmers.It complemented …
Jim Oldham, Executive Director of Equity Trust, will be presenting at The Emerging Research on Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Conference, hosted by Farm Foundation and USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) online November 9-10, 2020.
Jim will present in Session Three: Land Access and Other Barriers to Entry on Monday, November 9, 3:00-5:00 Eastern Time.
Abstract:
Supporting land access and farm …
A new resource is available from the Center for Community Land Trust Innovation’s Terra Nostra Press: On Common Ground: International Perspectives on the Community Land Trust (2020) traces the growth and diversification of the international community land trust movement. Edited by John Emmeus Davis, Line Algoed, María E. Hernández-Torrales.
DESCRIPTIONFifty years ago, African-American activists in Albany, Georgia extended their …
Black Lives Matter. Equity Trust stands in solidarity with all those demanding justice and recognition of the sanctity of Black lives.
It is critical that we support those on the frontlines of this struggle, as we work to build a new system that affirms the sacredness of Black life and ensures community control of land and resources:
As we collectively struggle with the social, economic, and health impacts of COVID-19, many organizations in our networks are working to provide information and resources to address a wide range of needs. Equity Trust staff will be keeping the resource list below updated, and we encourage you to reach out if you need assistance.
Resources for FarmersThe Northeast BIPOC …
Fifty years ago, a group of civil rights leaders in rural Georgia created the first community land trust in the United States. On this anniversary, Equity Trust celebrates New Communities’ innovation in community-based land ownership, which laid the foundation for the Community Land Trust (CLT) movement that followed.
In the 1960s in Albany, Georgia, as throughout the south, African …
Equity Trust is proud to be co-sponsoring Leah Penniman’s talk and workshop on Land Reparations, part of the Karuna’s Center’s workshop series, Engaging Peace: Reparation and its Forms Fall 2019/Winter 2020
Many people are aware of the deep and pervasive impact that the legacy of racial oppression in the United States has on the present day. The horrors of …
We are saddened by the loss of our good friend and long-serving board member, Monica McGloin (January 4, 1941 – October 2, 2019). Monica served on the board of Equity Trust since 1994, including as Board President, and on several committees, including the Governance Committee most recently. Previously, she also served on the board of the Institute for Community Economics. …
Rebecca Fletcher has left our staff after many years, to take a position with the Cooperative Fund of New England, where she will be responsible for lending to co-ops and other democratically-owned enterprises in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York.
Rebecca joined the Equity Trust staff in 2005, and during her 14 years with Equity Trust she has served as Project Manager for our Farms …
On Halloween day, 2018, Annie and Jeff Main of Good Humus Produce sat down with Equity Trust Executive Director Jim Oldham to place a specialized easement on their farm that will ensure it always remains a place where farmers can build a life growing food for their community, as the Mains have done.
This culminates a two-decade effort, inspired in …
We are honored to have an article published in the Spring 2019 issue of Communities magazine on Community Land. In collaboration with Jack Hornickel, of project partner GrowNYC’s FARMroots program, we had the opportunity to tell the story of a collaborative project, still in progress as part of our Hudson Valley Farm Affordability Program: Windfall Farms in Orange County, …
In July 2018, the “Working Farm Protection Act” was signed into law by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after being passed unanimously by the State Assembly and Senate. This law makes farm affordability protections of the sort pioneered by Equity Trust eligible for funding under New York State’s agricultural easement program.
The legislation was the result of advocacy by many …
Despite increasing interest in urban agriculture, little exists to help farmers navigate access to land in urban settings. Jo Rosen of Equity Trust and Kathy Ruhf of Land for Good co-authored a guide that addresses urban land access for commercial farmers. The guide looks at the unique challenges in locating urban properties, and dealing with urban ordinances, soil issues, and …
Johanna Rosen, Program Associate at Equity Trust, will help lead a training for farmers near Pittsburgh with the National Young Farmers Coalition in March 2018.
In response to demand from farmers in the area, Equity Trust worked in collaboration with the National Young Farmers Coalition, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, and other local partners to plan this full-day training.…
Looking for ways to help Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the hurricanes? Consider this appeal from our friends in the CLT movement:
We are writing to call your attention to a GoFundMe campaign that has been launched to help the Caño Martín Peña Community Land Trust in San Juan, Puerto Rico in aiding people and repairing homes that were …
Affordable for Good: Building Inclusive Communities through Homes that Last
Habitat for Humanity International (2017)
Every other year, Habitat for Humanity International publishes a “shelter report” highlighting an innovation in policy or practice which Habitat’s 1500 affiliates in the USA are encouraged to consider for incorporation into their own programs. For its 2017 Shelter Report, Habitat enlisted the support of …
Jim Oldham, Executive Director of Equity Trust, and Program Associate Johanna Rosen will be attending and presenting at “Changing Lands, Changing Hands,” a national conference on farm and ranch access, tenure and transfer, hosted by Land For Good in cooperation with USDA, in Denver, Colorado, June 13-15, 2017.
Jim will participate in two sessions: the first, Shared Ownership, …
Jim Oldham, Executive Director of Equity Trust, will help lead a pair of training events in North Carolina with the National Young Farmers Coalition in March 2017.
FOR LAND TRUSTS
Mills River, North Carolina – March 8, 2017
This all-day training is intended for land trust staff and other regional conservation professionals who are involved in farmland …
In 2013, Equity Trust launched the Secure Land for Urban Agriculture initiative within our Farms for Farmers Program to explore and address the issue of land tenure for urban agriculture. In the first phase of work, we interviewed and hosted a gathering of representatives from urban agriculture organizations and their allies to more fully understand their land tenure needs and …
Three farms that are partnering with Equity Trust’s Hudson Valley Farm Affordability Program were among 28 farms awarded grants under New York State’s first-ever regionally targeted grant program for farmland protection. The $20 million in awards announced May 3, 2016 provides funding for preservation of agricultural lands, protecting more than 5,600 acres of active farmland in seven counties through permanent …
This fall, as part of Equity Trust’s Secure Land for Urban Agriculture initiative, we are partnering with foundations and funder groups to promote dialogue about land and urban agriculture. We aim to raise awareness of the critical issue of land tenure to the viability of a wide range of farm- and garden-based programs related to health and nutrition, youth …
Equity Trust is pleased to report that two Hudson Valley Farm Affordability Program projects recently closed, helping to protect the farmers’ continued access to their land as well as the affordability of the land through future transfers. Both projects involved partnership with Scenic Hudson and Columbia Land Conservancy (CLC).
In June 2015, we supported the acquisition of an …
This summer, Equity Trust presented a workshop on “Building Equity in Farm Leasing” as part of UConn Extension’s Scaling Up Program for Beginning Farmers, held at the Wethersfield Historical Society on July 23, 2015.
Rebecca Fletcher and Johanna Rosen led participants in an exploration of the benefits of Equity Trust’s ground lease model of land tenure, which provides lessee …
In What Would it Look Like to Win?, Rick Jacobus’ May 6, 2015 post on Rooflines, the Shelterforce Blog, he writes:
We should not have to pay for [affordable] access more than once. We should own the land... In every part of the country public and nonprofit agencies are investing in rental and ownership properties that will remain …
Jim Oldham, Executive Director of Equity Trust, will present at Community Food Funder’s Farmland Access & Preservation Working Group briefing in New York, Wednesday April 29, 2015.
This is a funder-only event with invited guests; however, the event will be livestreamed (contact adam@northstarfund.org for login info).
Jim will present along with Steve Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Scenic Hudson, and …
As part of our Farms for Farmers program, Equity Trust is partnering with the National Young Farmers Coalition to offer training for land trusts focused on preserving affordable farms.
Access to farmland remains one of the biggest barriers for beginning farmers. Strategies such as conservation easements with an option to purchase at agricultural value (OPAV) and long-term ground leases that …
Juanita Morrow Nelson (August 17, 1923 – March 9, 2015) was “an ardent pacifist, war tax resister, civil rights activist and supporter of local, organic agriculture.”[1] Juanita was a mentor to Equity Trust’s founder Chuck Matthei, and her deeply held values helped to shape Equity Trust as an organization. We wish to honor Juanita’s tremendous life.
May …
