Our Educational Foundation Is Now Approved By The IRS

You cannot imagine how long I have been looking forward to being able to make this announcement. The Gwaltney Frontier Farm Educational Foundation is now approved as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit corporation. This is a separate entity from the Gwaltney Frontier Farm, Inc, which is a 501 (c) 5 breed conservation non-profit.

Here is what that means. Contributions to the Educational Foundation are now tax deductible. Of much more importance is the fact that we will now be able to apply for grants from charitable foundations to fund our educational programs.

We have never turned anyone away for lack of ability to pay program fees. We have never charged for our veterans program conducted weekly in conjunction with the local Veterans Hospital. We have never had paid staff. Every thing that is done is done by volunteers. Our horses eat 10-14 tonnes of hay a week. For all of these years we have made do with program fees, contributions, fundraisers, and now,  contributions of the money earned by performances of Pasture #3 (our music program).

Each month we wait until we have enough money to pay our bills and then we write the checks. When there is a shortfall, contributions and loans from program participants keep us a float. And it is a formula that has worked. We pay no rent for our pastures and structures on the land. That has saved a fortune over the years.

The Foundation will be able to accept contributions that will allow us to pay program fees for families that cannot afford to pay full fees. We have always simply absorbed those costs. Now we can accept funding to provide scholarships for our programs.

The Foundation will be able to accept contributions and grants to help cover the cost of our educational programs, both for riding and natural horsemanship programming and also for our other programming, such as teaching microbial farming, teaching trauma related topics and using horses to understand PTSD, teaching heritage livestock preservation, teaching soil and water conservation projects----in short helping to actually pay for what we teach.

It will provide funding to obtain filming equipment to film and distribute our educational programs. That is a very high priority for me. It will allow people thousands of miles from the horse lot to benefit from our educational programs.

And, eventually, I hope that it will provide funding for a paid Educational Director to develop and conduct current and new educational programs. Few people really understand why I so often stress that , at our core, we are an educational institution.  We are a place of learning.

Lastly, this move comes at a good time for us. Though it might seem hard to understand, one of the biggest potential threats that our program faced in years past was to be flush with cash. For example, there was a time, many years ago, when the idea was floated  of us having an indoor arena and a show ring. Such additions would have destroyed our program.

Our 501 (c) 3 status will help us expand and enhance our programs. And I have waited along time to be able to announce this .