Yes. We’re planting! That’s the important question.
About a month ago I let folks know that this season was at risk of not happening. Enough folks stepped up and agreed that this is not the time to stop growing food to share with neighbors in the community who are having a hard time getting enough.
Not enough folks have yet come forward to secure all of our goals, but enough to be sure we could get to work. So, yes. We’re planting.
We’re on schedule too. I’ve almost always planted in late May. Between rain, I’ll mow this week and plow as soon as its dry enough. Seeds in the ground after that. I’ll plant the usual mix of produce: corn, green beans, okra, squash, zucchini, and pink eyed purple hulled peas.
Planting is the important question – but it’s not the only question that has made its way onto the Frequently Asked Questions lists of late.
The newest most frequently asked question is, “Why are you using Patreon.com to support the farm and the podcast? Is that a 501c3 platform?”
Good questions. let me answer the second one first. No! Patreon is not designed as a platform for 501c3 organizations and does not provide any functionality or features that would facilitate income tax deductions for contributions. It’s much better than that.
“… so what even *is* Patreon?”
That’s a good question too. Patreon.com is the democratization of the medieval concept of patronage by nobles. You know how it worked. An artist, academic, or visionary of some kind would be discovered by some wealthy noble who happened to fancy their work and deem it worthy of support. The noble would provide funding so the artist, academic, or whomever could devote themselves to their calling without having to spend themselves paying for life to the point that they had nothing left to invest in the calling. We will never know how much brilliance, innovation, or human potential was subsumed into the seas of serfdom for not having had a chance opportunity to pique the random whimsy of a bored noble.
Rather than have to wait to catch the fancy of just the right noble to take notice of one’s work and deem it worthy of support, Patreon.com makes it possible for creators to do the thing they do and receive the support they need to do it. They took the idea of patronage and spread it out among all of us peons who could probably never afford to be any one person’s sponsoring patron no matter how much we valued their work.
Patron. Peon. Patreon.
It’s a website that works the way you’d expect the theoretical offspring of YouTube, Facebook, and PayPal to work. Creators of any kind can set up a site, and offer general content to public visitors, and additional content to supporting patrons — all in an interactive community environment. This blog and the new podcast, Welcome to the Table! the podcast about what people are doing to end hunger, are available to the public. Currently, folks at the Patreon page are getting previews of the audio for upcoming episodes of the podcast interviews raw before they’re edited into full episodes. If we’re connected on Facebook, you’ve seen a few recent experiments with providing brief video visits to the farm when interesting things are happening. There’ll be more of that in the Patrons section as well.
Patreon.com first hit my radar after finding people who are producing podcasts or YouTube content related to hobbies I enjoy. Their work brought me HOURS of enjoyment and enhanced my skills in areas that mattered to me. So, I sponsored their Patreon pages. Not much. $5 here, $25 there – I was working at the time.
Why did I do that? Because I wanted to live in the kind of world where there were people like them doing the things I enjoy in a way that I could benefit from them. Since I want the world to work that way, I had to be one of the people supporting their ability to keep doing that.
Yes, that’s the world I want to live in — a world where people can do valuable things whether those things provide a decent living or not. I believe that will happen here at Healing Springs Acres as well. I’ve done my part to help support the things I want to be true in the world. The right folks will come along here who want there to be room in the world for a farm here and there that grows food to give away and provides encouragement and resources for others to do the same kind of thing their own way – whether it pays a decent living or not.
For about 20 years I worked successfully as an executive in the 501c3 world. I know well much of the deep value held in that framework for encouraging good work. I also know some of its pitfalls and weaknesses. I don’t have an axe to grind, I’ve just decided I’m not going to live in that world any more. Some folks won’t be comfortable stepping outside the 501c3 framework for supporting things. I’m good with that and I respect that decision.
I know I’m supposed to say that Jesus is one of the greatest influences on my life. While that’s true enough, it’s also true that Hank Williams Jr. was one of the most deeply influential forces in my formative years. Hank Jr. and I don’t jive on a lot stuff as much these days, but one of my favorite stories from his autobiography comes from the period in his career when he was still essentially touring to sing his dad’s music for the audiences who had loved Hank Williams so much and couldn’t let him go.
As Hank Jr. got old enough to have his own tastes he got fascinated with rock-n-roll and wanted to try out some music of his own. Audiences were hostile. They did NOT want to hear him sing anything but those old songs the old way. When he tried to add a song or two of his own to the set, people would get up cussin’ and walk out.
One night Hank Jr. sang one of his songs and the crowd started to thin. A few people here and there seemed to be into it. Hank Jr. turned around and told the band to keep playing. More people left. By the end of just a few songs, about 80% of the audience had left seething. They kept playing.
Hank left the stage assuming his career had just taken a nosedive. His manager told him to turn back around and take another look at the electric energy in the audience that had stayed.
A little over a year ago I was approached by a producer about starting a podcast. I’ve mentioned that elsewhere. What I haven’t shared is what happened at a cookout 3 weeks later. I was the new person in a group of gathered friends.
Amid regular get-to-know-you questions I ended up sharing the shortest possible version of what Healing Springs Acres is and does. Just the farm and growing food to give away. I didn’t mention anything about the then-only-days-old idea of the podcast about what others are doing to end hunger.
The guy across the table from me just looked at me between burger bites (and, I gotta tell you, these were good burgers…) and said, “You know, you should start a podcast and a Patreon page. There are people who would want to hear more and support what you’re doing.” Another person beside me said, “Yeah, I’d give money to support that…” She was one of the first to take a virtual seat at The Patron’s Table.
By the end of the drive home I’d decided to play to the audience that wanted to hear more – whether I knew who you were yet or not. When I worked in the 501c3 world, one of the things that was pervasively true was that most of the money we raised, as much as 70-80% came from folks who didn’t care whether or not they got a tax deduction. Their decision to support the organizations I worked for was utterly independent of the tax benefits they would happen to get. The smaller portion of money that came from folks who were tax motivated required jumping through a lot of hoops that might make sense for larger organizations, but rarely do for projects on the scale of Healing Springs Acres.
In the past the farm has operated as a project under various other 501c3 organizations so that folks could make charitable contributions for which they got documentation for a tax deduction. That made sense for a while, but doesn’t any longer. It’s also never made sense to seek 501c3 status for Healing Springs Acres directly I still don’t think it does.
When I started this project I made conscious choices that allowed me to keep overall costs as low as possible. Adding the time and expenses required to acquire and maintain 501c3 status would have me spending more time and money counting my time and money than I have time and money. I’m not going to live in that world. I’m satisfied with sticking with support from the folks motivated by nothing more than the idea that they want to live in a world where there are farms that grow food to give away and offer encouragement and resources for others who want to do the same thing their own way. That’s enough.
Listen, if you need to get up and leave because you thought this was gonna be a different kind of show. It’s OK. No hard feelings. At this point, I still know most of the folks reading these posts. What I know about you is that you’re good folks who do good things every chance you get. Keep it up. I respect any preferences you have for sticking with a 501c3 model for supporting good things in the world. Go do more of it!
If you’re one of the folks who sticks around for little more than electric energy. Buckle up. We’re gonna rock…
