Tenmile Farm Foundation

Tenmile Farm Foundation (EIN 88-1409310, ruling date May 2023) is not a conventional check-writing grantmaker, and applicants who approach it as one will be disappointed. It is an operating private foundation that runs its own regenerative farm in Upstate New York and donates the harvest — vegetables, fruit, herbs, eggs, and poultry — directly to emergency food programs across NYC, the Hudson Valley, and western Connecticut. Every fiscal year on record (2022, 2023) shows $0 in `grants_paid` on its Form 990 despite total giving of $415,786 and $1,730,843 respectively — confirming that its philanthropic output is delivered as in-kind food, not cash awards. There is no public application form, no LOI portal, and no stated deadline; the website's only intake mechanism is a three-field general contact form (name, email, message) shared across volunteers, partners, and donors alike. Third-party funder databases (Impala, Grantmakers.io) independently describe the foundation as invitation-only and non-responsive to unsolicited proposals, which matches the sparse, relationship-first tone of its own site. The foundation describes three ways it engages with partner organizations: as a consultative strategic partner offering planning and documentation support, as a direct custom-grow food supplier tied to its own farm output, and as a matchmaker connecting partners to other complementary organizations. Governance is lean — four directors (Lynn Edens as President/Treasurer, Susanne Bienenstock, Elaine Florio as Secretary, Lawton Adams), all uncompensated, with administration handled through Baobob Advisors, a foundation management firm listed as the c/o contact. First-time organizations should not submit a proposal cold; instead, they should identify a concrete, recurring produce or protein need (e.g., a weekly supply gap for fresh vegetables or eggs) that aligns with what an 80-120 acre working farm can realistically supply, and open a low-friction conversation through the contact form or a warm introduction from an existing food-access partner in the foundation's tri-state service area.

Because Tenmile does not distribute cash grants, there are no per-grant dollar figures to analyze — `grants_paid` is $0 across every filed year (2022 and 2023) and the grantee list in this data bundle is empty (0 tracked grants, no top-50 recipients). What can be measured is total in-kind giving value and asset flow. Total giving rose from $415,786 in FY2022 to $1,730,843 in FY2023 — a roughly 4.2x increase — while total assets swung from $1,594,214 (2022) to a peak of $4,892,167 (2023) before settling at $2,985,322 (2024), tracking large, lumpy contributions rather than steady endowment growth: $2,010,000 received in 2022 and $5,000,000 in 2023, with no contributions figure reported for 2024 and total_giving left blank in that year's filing. Officer compensation was $0 in 2022 but $194,302 in 2023, likely reflecting the point at which the foundation formalized paid administrative support (consistent with the Baobob Advisors management relationship) even as all four board directors remain uncompensated. Net investment income has been modest and volatile ($0 in 2022, $28,796 in 2023), consistent with a foundation that holds working capital rather than a large investment portfolio, and total revenue of $194,504 in FY2024 — down sharply from $5,028,796 in FY2023 — suggests contribution timing is irregular rather than a stable annual pledge. On the operational side, the foundation's own 2025 impact reporting quantifies output directly: 290,300 lbs of vegetables, 36,520 lbs of fruit, and 578,940 eggs, for more than 400,000 lbs of food overall, reaching 2,000+ families weekly. There is no geographic or program-area breakdown to analyze beyond the stated NYC / Hudson Valley / western Connecticut service triangle, and no evidence of any cash-grant program existing alongside the in-kind model.

Tenmile sits in a $2.9M-$3.4M asset band alongside several similarly sized Human Services-classified private foundations, though none of the peers in this comparison set are themselves food-focused operating farms — they appear here purely on asset-size and NTEE-category proximity, which is a useful reminder that "peer" in a 990 database sense does not mean "comparable program model."

None of the peer foundations have public websites in this data set, and their giving levels and application processes are not disclosed in available filings — a pattern common among small, closely-held family and program foundations under $5M in assets. Tenmile is distinguished from this peer group by actually operating a working farm as its grant-delivery mechanism rather than issuing cash awards, and by being unusually transparent about its impact metrics (pounds of food, families served) relative to peers who disclose almost nothing publicly. Applicants should not expect Tenmile's food-donation model, or its openness about outcomes, to be typical of similarly sized foundations in this bracket.

Tenmile Farm Foundation launched publicly on May 18, 2023 via a PR Newswire announcement introducing its Upstate New York farm and its intent to supply emergency food programs across the NYC, Hudson Valley, and western Connecticut region. Since then, the clearest evidence of activity is financial rather than editorial: total assets peaked at $4,892,167 in FY2023 on the strength of a $5,000,000 contribution that year, before settling back to $2,985,322 in FY2024, and total giving value more than quadrupled from $415,786 (FY2022) to $1,730,843 (FY2023). Officer compensation appeared for the first time in FY2023 ($194,302, up from $0 in FY2022), suggesting the foundation added paid administrative capacity — consistent with its listed c/o relationship with Baobob Advisors — around the same time its contribution base scaled up. The foundation's own website reports that 2025 was its highest-impact year to date, with more than 400,000 pounds of food donated (290,300 lbs vegetables, 36,520 lbs fruit, 578,940 eggs) supporting 2,000+ families weekly. No leadership changes were identified; the same four directors (Lynn Edens, Susanne Bienenstock, Elaine Florio, Lawton Adams) appear across available records. Notably, the foundation's own "News" page has not been substantively updated since its May 2023 launch post — that post's body text is still placeholder "Lorem ipsum" copy — indicating that public communications lag behind the foundation's actual operational growth. No new program announcements, executive changes, or press coverage beyond the 2023 launch were found in this research pass.

There is no formal application to prepare for Tenmile Farm Foundation — this is the single most important thing for a grant seeker to internalize before investing time. The foundation does not publish an LOI template, an application portal, a funding cycle, or a deadline, and independent funder-research databases (Impala, Grantmakers.io) both describe it as accepting no unsolicited proposals. Given $0 in `grants_paid` across every filed year, treat any outreach as a request for an in-kind food partnership, not a cash grant — proposals framed around dollar amounts are a mismatch for how this funder actually operates. The single public intake channel is the three-field contact form on tenmilefarmfoundation.org/contact/ (name, email, message); use it to open a conversation rather than to submit a full case for support. The strongest opening message will name your organization's specific, recurring supply gap (for example, "we distribute to 300 households weekly and currently lack a reliable source of fresh vegetables and eggs") rather than a general funding request, since the foundation's stated value proposition is protecting partners from the volatility of government funding by supplying planable, predictable food volume. Emphasize geographic fit explicitly — the foundation's entire distribution footprint is NYC, the Hudson Valley, and western Connecticut, so an organization outside that tri-state radius is very unlikely to be a match regardless of proposal quality. Because the foundation frames itself as offering three engagement modes (strategic/consultative partner, direct custom-grow supplier, and matchmaker to other organizations), it can be useful to indicate in initial outreach which of those modes would be most valuable to your program, since that signals you understand what Tenmile actually offers rather than treating it as a generic funder. A common mistake to avoid: submitting a traditional grant proposal narrative (budget, logic model, outcomes framework) to a foundation that has no mechanism for reviewing or funding it — a short, specific, relationship-opening message is more likely to get a response than a formal packet. Given the small four-person, all-volunteer board and administration via Baobob Advisors, a warm introduction from an existing partner organization in the service region is likely to carry more weight than a cold submission.