Who we are and why

There is a need to help struggling farm, homestead or agricultural projects to become established or improve their yield. The Permaculture Foundation Charitable trust is a 509a2 public charity focused on helping with this need.

While there are several Permaculture organizations which focus on teaching and certifying others in Permaculture, there is a lack of organizations that focus directly on implementation. The Permaculture Foundation will focus on implementation (rather than on certification). Our focus is to help farms, people and small businesses directly implement the concepts of yield and sustainability.

The nonprofit will be funded by implementing the very principles that it will be teaching, as well as donations, grants and a Perpetual Permaculture Fund.

What is a Perpetual Permaculture Fund?

Once an entity has been helped it can “re-pay” in two ways:
1) Give back to the organization through donations that can then go on to help another in need. And, or:
2) Pay it forward by helping others.

The Permaculture Foundation will take on a struggling entity as a project and help it quickly and efficiently become independent of the Foundation. The idea is to step in, analize, help, and then exit. This allows an entity to get the help that it desperately needs while not becoming dependant on things that they are capable of doing on their own.

How did we get our name?

For starters, some phrases or mottos that are key to the  foundation:
A)  “Helping Farmers to Help Themselves”
B)  “Helping Others to Help Themselves”
C)  “Working with Nature, not against it”

Helping other to help themselves puts them in a position to be independent and bless others with food, work, resources, etc…

Those concepts are foundational principles that helped us lean towards words such as: Seed, Foundation, Independence, etc…

Getting started in the right direction is a key point to get something planted well, so that they can grow and bloom. Sometimes what prevents a seed from becoming a mighty fruit bearing tree is simply a little help at the beginning. Getting planted in fertile soil.

A well run entity is an inspiration. When a farm or business is running well it becomes a place of inspiration where people visit and dream of creating something for themselves.

The foundation will help improve entities so that they can be an example and a source of inspiration for other projects. The nonprofit fulfilling a goal to help others to create what perhaps they could not do completely on their own, and to help others into a position where they can then help and inspire others.

This nonprofit charitable trust is a puzzle piece that can be the “how to” for taking a project from its current state to a self-sustaining state.

It has taken time and energy to establish the beginnings of this Foundation. It may still take a little time to grow the nonprofit into a tool that is truly efficient, but once established it will become an engine that can help one entity after the next.

The nonprofit will provide resources with a focus on how to:

1) Optimize an entity quickly and efficiently
2) Create immediate, short-term and long-term yield.

So, in trying to name and define a purpose for the nonprofit, “Permaculture” became a key concept.

Definition Of Permaculture: The word, coined by Bill Mollison, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture and permanent culture. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people.

Permaculture can be understood as the growth of agricultural ecosystems in a self-sufficient and sustainable way. This form of agriculture draws inspiration from nature to develop synergetic farming systems based on crop diversity, resilience, natural productivity, and sustainability.

Permaculture is, amongst others, an approach to land management that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole systems thinking. It uses these principles in fields such as regenerative agriculture, rewilding, and community resilience.

Adding the word “Foundation” to Permaculture was also key. The word foundation has a double meaning. 1) Non Profit, 2) A solid base of a project, home, farm or entity.

The founder of The Permaculture Foundation, Joshua Frazier, is a Licensed Realtor and General contractor.  As a licensed B-100 General Contractor, he loves building and remodeling. He said “I understand the need for a good solid foundation. It is important for farms and projects to have a good start upon a solid foundation. It doesn’t matter how incredible the structure if the foundation is not first solid and secure. There is a quote from a movie called ‘The Money Pit’. The movie is about a dream home that begins to fall apart. The remodel project seems to only progress from bad to worse. At the end of the movie the General Contractor says ‘This wasn’t an easy one, but the foundation was good. And if that’s okay, then everything else can be fixed’. While that contractor in the movie was talking about the home, it is clear that the movie director intended the audience to apply that concept to other things, like relationships.”

“The Permaculture Foundation Charitable Trust” or in short, “The Permaculture Foundation” shines a light on the need for a good foundation and good concepts.

The Permaculture Foundation Charitable Trust aims to help people who have a dream but don’t know how go get from where they are to where they would like to be. In short: To help others to create what perhaps they could not do completely on their own, by applying the principles found in the mission statement: To help implement concepts which focus on agricultural harmony, yield and sustainability.

While the aim and focus of the foundation is primarily to give aid to entities that are agricultural in nature, true principles applied correctly are applicable to a wide spectrum of entities, and therefore it may give aid to any entity that it feels falls within its capacity to help. Still, the primary focus is to give aid to farms and to the farmer.

The foundation’s goals for itself are no different from goals and principles it will teach others. While the 501(c)(3) status makes it possible for donations to be made that can bring about much good, The Permaculture Foundation does not plan on requiring donations to be the life blood of the organization. The Permaculture Foundation needs to be strong and live the very principles that it will be teaching.

No “one-solution-fits-all” approach will work with any project. For example: Some farms may be flat, or will not require 50-100+ acres. A single acre, or partial, acre farm can produce so much and provide Provident Living with abundance, and to spare. [Provident Living: Applying Principles of Self-Reliance and Preparedness. Wise and provident living is a lifestyle that builds character and increases our temporal, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being.] Each farm will need observation and inspiration to take the core principles and then figure out its best form of implementation.

So many people have expressed their desire to have a little farm of their own, but just don’t know how to do it. They say “I wish I could do this or that, and I even have some means, yet I don’t know where to begin or how to get there.”

Often times what prevents a good concept from becoming a reality is not the idea or the ability, rather that the tools required are too far out of reach. It would be great to extend opportunities to those who are capable, but simply not fortunate enough to have their own independent financial means.

Sometimes people just need the smallest little bit of help, other times the aid needed to correct and get back on a good path forward is staggering. But once each person, family, or farm reaches the point where help is no longer needed, they can begin to fly on their own, and that is the goal.

The investment needed to help, be it large or small, is definitely worth it.