We are extremely grateful for your support in fiscal year 2025 (Oct. 1, 2025-Sept. 30, 2025).
PFI’s members, donors, sponsors and grantors provided vital financial resources to serve our farmers’ direct needs. When farms succeed, so does the whole community! As financial supporters of PFI, you are key partners with farmers who steward land, water and air while also increasing profits and nourishing the community.
Your support added up to $837,240 in donations and sponsorships, and $356,665 in memberships – providing critical, flexible funding for farmer-led education, research and innovation. Plus, additional public and private support grew our cost-share programs.
In total, Practical Farmers steered $21 million in activity in fiscal year 2025. We kindly refer you to the 2025 Annual Report (printed and online) for a full reporting of impact. And we are pleased to share the following snapshot of what we accomplished together:
- PFI’s membership base grew to 9,912 individuals.
- Our programs helped 2,430 farmers plant cover crops on 903,193 acres.
- We organized 287 farmer-led educational events, welcoming 7,086 attendees.
- Farmers completed 185 on-farm research trials with PFI’s guidance.
- PFI helped 91 land seekers find land that matches their farming needs.
The print issue includes a listing of PFI’s supporters in fiscal year 2025. Please let me know if you’d like your name listed in a different way in the future, or if you see needed corrections. Your generous financial support is greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Terri Mork Speirs
Development Director | Practical Farmers of Iowa
Donor and Sponsor Highlights
Katherine McCormick and Rakesh Kumar
When Katherine McCormick and Rakesh Kumar decided to get married, they also decided to do something different with their wedding guests. Instead of setting up a traditional gift registry, they asked their friends to donate to organizations important to the couple. One of their suggestions was Practical Farmers.
Katherine had become familiar with PFI 10 years prior when she met PFI members throughout Iowa while working on behalf of a national environmental nonprofit. Friends of the newlyweds donated to PFI to celebrate their wedding and honor their values. PFI is grateful to receive permission to share their gorgeous photo from their family-only civil ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa, which was held prior to their wedding in Chicago.
Legacy Society
Rich Pirog is a longtime PFI member and a PFI Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award recipient. His career tells the story of his values. Rich is the former PFI interim executive director, former associate director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and recently retired director of the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems.
Rich is also a member of PFI’s Legacy Society, a growing list of people who have indicated that they’ve included a planned gift to PFI in their will or estate plans.
“I believe in PFI’s values and mission. I want to continue to see it grow into the future.”
– Rich Pirog
There are many ways to make a planned gift to PFI – ensuring that your values live into the future. These gifts also provide for your loved ones, and can help them save on taxes. For instance, you can:
- Designate part of your retirement plan for PFI
- Leave a life insurance policy
- Make a gift through your will or trust
- Make a gift now and receive income for life with a charitable gift annuity
- Consult your legal and financial advisors for guidance on planned giving tools that will work best for you.
Sponsors and Funders
PFI’s field days are free and open to the public – thanks to our generous sponsors and other funders – allowing for robust farmer-to-farmer connection. For example, last year Sunderman Farm Management helped sponsor the field day hosted by PFI lifetime member Jeremy Gustafson who farms near Boone, Iowa. Pictured here is Jeremy’s tabletop demonstration of how cover cropping holds soil together, almost like chocolate cake. This field day topped off by serving attendees actual cake as a celebration of PFI’s 40th anniversary.
Supply Chain Partners
PFI member Jon Robertson of Hudson, Iowa, hosted our supply chain partners on his farm to show how their support is making a difference. In this photo, Jon (center) explains his installation of saturated buffers, a water conservation option that removes little to no land from production, requires little maintenance and does not affect crop yields when placed in ideal sites.
Visible behind the group in yellow is a field Jon enrolled in PF’s cover crop cost-share program. On-farm visits give supply chain partners firsthand insight into farmers’ priorities and challenges. We appreciate their partnership and financial support as well as their eagerness to learn.
