Persimmon Collective Fund supports leasing and landless farmers in acquiring land and building long-term land security. Our goal is to ensure land retention and legacy farming for future generations.
We facilitate this by helping to mobilize significant capital for down payments, coordinating aligned funders, donors, and lenders, and providing access to legal services and financial expertise. We work with farmers and farm collectives to develop creative, non-traditional strategies as alternatives to asset-based lending, which is a system that has historically contributed to BIPOC land loss.
With the PCF’s integrated capital approach, farmers can act on time-sensitive purchase options while accessing right-sized loan structures to best support their financial needs, both immediate and long-term.
WHY WE STAND IN THE GAP FOR FARMERS
Farmers, especially in the South, encounter persistent barriers to land access and retention.
As we work to protect the dignity and labor of all farmers, we are aware that the termination of federally funded, equity-based financial and technical assistance programs nationally as well as decades of socio-historical discriminatory factors disproportionately impacts land tenure access for Black, Indigenous and other farmers of color. We address this gap by offering alternatives that center equity, dignity, and long-term stewardship.
BRIDGE LOANS
The Bridge Loan Program is a culmination of Persimmon Collective Fund’s innovative leadership towards resourcing and supporting farmers and land stewards of color in the U.S South combined with Equity Trust’s long-standing commitment to directly serving farmers with the skills and knowledge to secure land. This partnership was forged through a shared mission and vision to offer Southern BIPOC farmers accessible and alternative lending options that promote growth, sustainability and empowerment rather than extraction and exclusion.
The PCF Bridge Loans are structured to preserve the dignity of our borrowers. We recognize the ways in which our banking system affects low-income people of color, and how restrictive and intimidating the process of accessing capital can be.
Our lending options are:
Designed with an eye forward; towards the conservation and protection of land, to take land off the speculative market
Intentioned to keep land securely in the hands of Black, Indigenous and People of Color into perpetuity
RECENT PROJECTS
TIERRA FERTIL COOP
Leicester, NC
WATERS EDGE FARMSTEAD
Candler, NC
TERNAWTHERI FARM
Graham, NC