Finance for Food & Farming Business Work Group

Goals & Objectives

The mission of the Finance Work Group is to expand the amount, variety, and fairness of capital available to food and farming businesses (FFBs) in the Western NY Food System. Our objectives include defining the current “financial ecosystem” region, identifying its gaps, filling some of the gaps with new information and projects, and identifying new projects that can go further. We are especially committed to ensuring that the system is responsive to the needs of long-excluded businesses, including those that are small, those connected to low-income rural and urban communities, and those run by BIPOC and women entrepreneurs.

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Tasks & Initiatives

Ongoing Tasks

• Host Work Group meeting every 2-4 weeks.
• Expanding membership, as needed and desired.
• Inviting periodic speakers to expand our sense of challenges and opportunities.
• Identifying and posting online useful resources for FFBs in the region.
• Developing promising new projects, short and long term, that expand capital resources for FFBs in the region

Initiatives

• Prepare and publish ecosystem SWOT analysis.
• Complete analysis of crowdfunding performance for FFBs.
• Develop web capability for identifying, publicizing, and mobilizing participation in crowdfunding offerings for FFBs.
• Framing, raising funds for, and launching new capital-raising projects for the region (e.g., one or more funds).
• Mobilizing broad participation in the region to improve and use these tools. 

Work Group Members

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ABBY BENNETT
Coordinator, Project Work Groups

CLAIRE FINNERTY
Work Group Convenor

MAX MACK-HARDIMAN
Buffalo State Small Business Development Center

PURNIMA MOHAN
WEDI Buffalo

DT OGILVIE
Rochester Institute of Technology

JOAN PETZEN
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Wyoming County

JAMES PIERCE
Wyoming County IDA

NATHAN RUDGERS
Farm Credit East

LAURA  SCONDRAS
Farm Service Agency