Lundale Farm Inc.

Grant seekers should understand upfront that Lundale Farm Inc. is a direct-operating charity, not a traditional grantmaking foundation, despite carrying an IRS private-foundation classification (990-PF filer, EIN 27-3065409) that lists it as a grantmaker. IRS filings show $0 in grants paid to third parties in every fiscal year on record (2010-2022), and the organization's own About page states plainly that it "operates its own programs rather than making grants." Instead, Lundale channels its roughly $250K-$340K in annual program spending into leasing its 550+ acres in Kimberton/Pottstown, PA (Chester County) to individual regenerative and biodynamic tenant farmers, providing them technical assistance and organizational development support, and running its own Sustainable Forest Program and educational events (the Sunflower Festival, Dinner on the Farm). The single IRS-reported program line — "organizational development and technical assistance to support and establish farming operations on donated farmland," $166,650 in the most recent filed year — is delivered in-house, not disbursed as competitive grants. For organizations seeking funding, Lundale is not a prospect for a standard LOI-to-proposal cycle. The realistic paths in are: (1) individual farmers or farm businesses applying via the site's farmer survey to lease land or receive direct technical assistance; (2) landowners submitting the landowner survey to place property into Lundale's conservation/leasing model; and (3) potential partnership or co-marketing arrangements (as with its Nu Products Co. spice-rub collaboration) rather than grant funding. Executive Director Becki Patterson leads a lean staff (self-described as "a team of one" for correspondence), so relationship-building is informal and slow-moving — a warm introduction through Chester County agricultural or land-trust networks (e.g., French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust, which the founding Morris family also established) is more productive than a cold funding inquiry. Nonprofits seeking a Human Services or farmland-conservation grant should redirect effort toward Lundale's peer funders rather than Lundale itself.

Lundale Farm's IRS Form 990-PF filings show it functions financially as an operating foundation: total assets have grown steadily from about $5.7M in 2012-2014 to $7.42M in FY2022 (most recent year on file), while total giving/program spending rose from $104,966 (2012) to $340,514 (2022) — a roughly 3.2x increase over a decade, tracking overall asset growth. Critically, the grants_paid field is $0 in every fiscal year from 2010 through 2022, confirming that none of this giving figure represents outbound grants to other nonprofits; it is entirely internal program expenditure (staff, land management, farmer support, forestry, education). Revenue is volatile and driven by episodic large contributions rather than steady investment payout: FY2012 saw a one-time revenue spike to $5.84M (largely a $5.81M contribution, likely a land or asset donation), while typical years run $140K-$300K in total revenue, with net investment income contributing $20K-$220K depending on market conditions. Officer compensation has fluctuated sharply — from $0-$6K in several years up to $70K-$85K in 2018-2020 — consistent with a small organization cycling through part-time or newly-hired executive directors (Jodi Gauker at $83,225 is the most recent compensated ED on record; earlier years show Kevin and Becki Patterson at far lower, likely partial-year, compensation). There is no program-area or geographic breakdown to report because Lundale does not disburse third-party grants; all spending is concentrated in its single reported program (organizational development/technical assistance for farming operations, $166,650 in the latest filed year) delivered on its own Chester County, PA land base. Grant seekers should not expect a median grant size, grant range, or multi-year funding trend in the way they would for a conventional foundation — those metrics do not apply here.

Lundale is nominally classified under Human Services (NTEE K25, Farmland Preservation) alongside a peer set of similarly small private foundations, but it stands apart from all of them in one crucial respect: it does not make grants.

All five peers sit in a tight $5.7M-$9.8M asset band, roughly comparable to Lundale's $7.68M, and all share the broad Human Services NTEE classification — but that classification is a poor proxy for actual grantmaking behavior. Heritage Breed Animals and Seed Preservation Inc. (GA) is, by name and mission, likely another direct-operating agricultural-preservation entity rather than a grantmaker, similar to Lundale; the other three peers' actual giving patterns were not available in this data bundle and should be independently verified before an applicant invests time. The practical takeaway: assets in this ~$5-10M private-foundation tier do not reliably predict whether an organization funds outside nonprofits at all, and grant seekers should confirm a foundation's grants-paid history (not just its NTEE code) before applying.

Public information on Lundale Farm's recent activity is thin. The organization's own news archive (lundalefarm.org/category/news) has not been updated since April 2023, and no 2025-2026 press releases, leadership announcements, or new program launches surfaced in web search. The most concrete recent signal is a Lundale Farm Sunflower Festival held in 2025 at its 2501 Pottstown Pike, Pottstown, PA site — a recurring public-access agritourism event rather than a funding announcement. Leadership has been in some flux over the past several IRS filing years: compensation data shows an executive director transition sequence (Jodi Gauker at $83,225 in the most recent filed year, preceded by lower/partial-year compensation for other individuals named Kevin and Becki Patterson), and the current website identifies Becki Patterson as Executive Director with Vincent Pompo, Esq. as Board President, alongside a ten-plus-member board that includes Board Member Emeritus L. Stockton Illoway — husband of co-founder Eleanor Morris. No large new grants, capital campaigns, or program expansions were identifiable in available sources. The most durable recent-activity signal is Lundale's continued operation of its Sustainable Forest Program and its land-leasing model for tenant regenerative/biodynamic farmers, alongside smaller revenue-generating initiatives such as its branded spice-rub partnership with Nu Products Co. Given the lack of fresh public communications, grant seekers or partners should contact the organization directly (info@LundaleFarm.org or 484-644-1455) to confirm current leadership and priorities rather than relying on dated web content.

The single most important tip: do not submit a standard grant proposal or LOI to Lundale Farm — it has no history of disbursing grants to outside organizations, and its 990-PF filings show $0 in grants paid every year from 2010 through 2022. Time spent drafting a conventional funding request will not be productive. Instead: (1) If you are an individual farmer or small farm business interested in leased land, biodynamic/regenerative growing space, or technical/organizational development support, use the farmer survey linked from the Contact page at lundalefarm.org/contact — this is the actual intake mechanism Lundale uses to evaluate prospective tenant-farmer partners. (2) If you own agricultural land in the Chester County, PA region and are considering conservation easements or leasing to mission-aligned farmers, use the parallel landowner survey on the same page. (3) If your organization is exploring a co-marketing, event-partnership, or in-kind collaboration (Lundale has done this before, e.g., its branded spice-rub line with Nu Products Co.), a direct, specific pitch to info@LundaleFarm.org is more likely to get traction than a generic funding ask. (4) Expect slow response times — the organization describes its own capacity as "a small-but-mighty team of one" for correspondence, so plan follow-up outreach at 3-4 week intervals rather than expecting rapid turnaround. (5) Because the board (led by President Vincent Pompo, Esq.) and the Morris family's conservation legacy (French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust, founded 1967) are central to Lundale's identity, any outreach — farmer, landowner, or partnership — should explicitly reference land stewardship, regenerative/biodynamic practice, and multi-generational conservation values; generic sustainability language is less likely to resonate than specific alignment with those themes. (6) Nonprofits specifically seeking grant dollars in the farmland-preservation or sustainable-agriculture space should treat Lundale as a peer/model organization to learn from, not a funding source, and should redirect proposal effort toward funders with an actual disbursement history.