Foundation For A Sustainable Future

Important context before any outreach: this is not a conventional grantmaking foundation. Foundation For A Sustainable Future (EIN 20-0028886) is a small, family-run private foundation established in 2005 in Huntington, Vermont, with uncompensated officers — Melissa Hoffman (President, Director, Treasurer and a former journalist/filmmaker) and her wife Shawn Smith (Vice President) — who together also run a private consulting venture, Earth Asset Partnership, focused on "no-kill permaculture systems and land-based businesses." The foundation's core activity is funding its own 1,296-acre former Teal Farm property, leased since 2003 to SHO Farm, Hoffman's permaculture and food-lab operation, plus a rescue duck sanctuary. IRS filings classify its purpose narrowly as "agriculture support — maintain sanctuary," and the internal Granted database shows only two recorded outside grants, totaling $1,000, to a single New York recipient — a sample too small to represent a functioning grants program. There is no published grants page, application form, LOI process, or funding portal; the "website" most often associated with this name (ffasf.org) actually belongs to an unrelated South African wildlife-conservation organization funding SANParks anti-poaching units and Table Mountain National Park — a namesake collision grant-seekers should not confuse with this Vermont entity. For organizations still interested in a connection, the realistic path is not a standard proposal cycle but a warm, direct introduction around shared interests in permaculture, no-kill animal sanctuary work, or land conservation — ideally through Earth Asset Partnership rather than the foundation's own administrative channel, since the foundation itself shows no infrastructure for receiving or reviewing unsolicited requests. First-time applicants should set expectations accordingly: there is no evidence of an LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline, no board review calendar, and no track record of funding organizations outside its own operating projects in recent years.

The foundation's own financial trajectory undercuts any expectation of active third-party grantmaking. Total assets have declined steadily for over a decade: $16.08M (FY2010) → $15.51M (FY2011) → $15.06M (FY2012) → $14.45M (FY2014) → $13.46M (FY2018) → $13.12M (FY2019) → $12.2M (FY2022) → $11.61M (most recent filing, FY2025 per ProPublica) — roughly 28% erosion since 2010, as annual spending consistently outpaces investment income. Annual revenue is thin and volatile: $110,255 (FY2022), $7,743 (FY2019), $5,002 (FY2018), and even a net loss of -$254,213 in FY2011. "Total giving" (IRS qualifying distributions, which include program operating costs) ranged $331K-$484K per year across FY2010-2022, but the "grants paid" line — actual disbursements to outside organizations — was $0 in most years and never exceeded $920 in the DB's financial history. That gap is the single most important fact for grant-seekers: well over 99% of this foundation's annual spending funds its own agriculture-sanctuary operations (SHO Farm, the duck sanctuary, land stewardship), not grants to third parties. The internal grantee database confirms this: only 2 grants on record, totaling $1,000 ($500 average), both general-support gifts to one New York-based recipient. There is no meaningful program-area or geographic breakdown to analyze beyond the single listed IRS program line, "agriculture support — maintain sanctuary," carrying $32,881 in reported expenses. In short: this foundation is best modeled as a private operating foundation funding its own conservation/agriculture mission, not a grants intermediary distributing funds across the nonprofit sector.

All five listed peers sit within a tight $10.6M-$12.5M asset band and share the same broad IRS Environment classification, but like this foundation, none show evidence of an open, competitive grants program in available data — they read as small, single-property or single-mission conservation entities (land trusts, preserves) rather than diversified grantmakers. Foundation For A Sustainable Future is distinguished mainly by its unusually public founder narrative (the Seven Days Vermont profile of Melissa Hoffman and SHO Farm) and its near-total lack of any recent outside disbursements, making it the least viable of this peer group for a cold grant application; Clean Water Here Foundation, which maintains an active public website, is worth checking directly as a comparatively more accessible peer.

No 2025-2026 news specific to Foundation For A Sustainable Future (Huntington, VT, EIN 20-0028886) surfaced in web search — this foundation does not appear to issue press releases or maintain active social channels. Search results instead surfaced two unrelated organizations that share similar names and caused confusion during research: (1) a South African wildlife-conservation nonprofit operating at the domain ffasf.org, which funds SANParks anti-poaching units, Table Mountain National Park protection, and K9 anti-poaching teams — entirely unrelated to the Vermont entity despite the matching domain name; and (2) "Sustain Our Future Foundation," which announced 2025 Sustainable Justice Scholarships ($10,000 each to 12 HBCU students) and a Maryland home-electrification project — also unrelated. Grant-seekers must not target either of these by mistake. The most concrete recent data point on the actual Vermont foundation is its FY2025 IRS filing (via ProPublica): $9,467 in revenue against $365,924 in expenses and $11.6M in total assets, continuing the multi-year pattern of the endowment funding internal operations rather than growing or distributing externally. The closest thing to a notable recent development is the Seven Days Vermont feature on Melissa Hoffman and SHO Farm, which reported the foundation was selling a portion of its Huntington farmland to help fund a rescue duck sanctuary and the "next wave" of land-based work — signaling continued internal reinvestment, not new external grantmaking capacity.

Given the absence of any public grants process, standard grant-writing advice does not apply here, and generic outreach is very unlikely to succeed. Practical guidance: (1) Do not submit a cold LOI or grant application through any online portal — none exists, and there is no evidence any staff role exists to process one. (2) Verify identity before any outreach: confirm you are contacting EIN 20-0028886 in Huntington, VT, not the similarly-named South African conservation nonprofit at ffasf.org or the unrelated "Sustain Our Future Foundation" — sending materials to the wrong organization wastes effort and looks careless if discovered. (3) If your mission genuinely overlaps with permaculture, no-kill animal sanctuary work, biodiversity conservation, or land-based enterprise (the language used across Earth Asset Partnership and SHO Farm materials), the more promising channel is a direct, personal introduction to Melissa Hoffman or Shawn Smith — ideally through a mutual connection in the Vermont conservation/permaculture community — framed as a potential partnership or collaboration rather than a formal "grant request." (4) Use their own vocabulary: references to "no-kill permaculture systems," "land-based businesses," "biodiversity conservation," and "ecological innovation" will land better than generic environmental-funding language, since these are the terms the founders themselves use to describe their work. (5) The foundation's declining asset base ($16M in 2010 to $11.6M today) and near-zero recent third-party grants paid ($0-$920/year) mean new discretionary capacity for outside organizations is likely minimal — treat any inquiry as a long-shot relationship-building move, not a standard funding cycle. (6) If uncertain whether unsolicited inquiries are even welcome, the most direct path is a brief, respectful phone call to the foundation's listed number, (802) 434-4749, to ask before investing time in a written proposal.