Black Farmer Fund

Black Farmer Fund (BFF) is an emerging community investment fund that invests in black food systems entrepreneurs in New York State. Beyond making investments in these communities, they also emphasize building financial education and investment literacy and active involvement of the community when discussing and creating financing options.

Black Farmer Fund's Vision

BFF's vision is a thriving, resilient food economy in which the consumers and producers of this black food ecosystem participate as community wealth builders, to repair black communities’ relationship to food and land.  Achieving this vision requires that Black farmers and food business owners benefit equitably from financing, intellectual capital, technical assistance, networking, and public policies.

• For Black farmers, vendors, food distributors, caterers, restaurant owners, composters, and other food business actors, we will provide non-extractive blended capital financing that suits their needs and their current reality. Community wealth building is key to BFF's mission and BFF also provides opportunities to facilitate learning exchanges with its community members and finance experts to expand their knowledge base around financial tools.

• For social impact investors, BFF provides a means to support and strengthen the economic infrastructure of Black food businesses and build community power and community wealth building.

No award amounts, interest rates, loan terms, or caps are published. Black Farmer Fund describes the instruments but not their pricing or size. What the site does say:

• "We provide low-interest community notes and gifts to businesses that are strengthening the Black food system." No rate is given for "low-interest," and no gift or note amount is published.

• "Black Farmer Fund provides businesses with loans, grants, emergency relief grants, technical assistance, and relationship/network building" — what BFF calls integrated capital, "a blend of financial and non-financial resources."

• Track record rather than terms: 14 businesses "have so far been supported by Black Farmer Fund through a combination of gifts and low-interest loans," and "$14M+" raised.

• Support is not only cash: "This involves providing technical support beyond capital, as we recognize that funding is just one of many factors that keep Black food actors from being successful."

How you would actually get in. There is no open application for the main fund — the entry point is an interest form for BFF Fund 2.0, and investment decisions are made by a 10-member community Investment Committee "co-designing our investment process and making decisions together on BFF Fund 2.0 investments." The one applicant-facing vehicle with a live apply path is the separate BFF Rapid Response Fund, which has "deployed over $233k across the Northeast to farming and food businesses experiencing emergencies" since 2022 — but it publishes no per-grant amount either. It is for one-time emergencies only: "our fund does not cover regular operational or start-up expenses — we're here to help in times of crisis," and it prioritises "businesses and projects that have been serving their communities for at least a year."

Geography. Black-owned food and farming businesses in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, or Pennsylvania.

(The dollar figures elsewhere on the site — the $1.1M pilot fund, the ~$20M Fund 2.0, the accredited-investor thresholds, the $100,000 loan loss reserve — describe money coming into the fund from investors, not what a farm business can receive.)

If you are black food business in New York State looking for community and support, email the black farmer fund to get connected: info@blackfarmerfund.org