Shelburne Farms

Shelburne Farms' mission is to inspire and cultivate learning for a sustainable future. The nonprofit offers learning experiences that are grounded in place and enriched by nature to help educators and students create a more thriving world. The organization's home campus is a 1,400- acre diversified working farm located in Shelburne, Vermont on the homelands of the winooskik band of the abenaki. The farm is a national historic landmark and serves as a living classroom that invites program participants, visitors, and overnight guests to learn, grow, and be inspired. Shelburne Farms realizes its mission through programs offered under the umbrella of education for sustainability. Our work seeks to create space, spark conversations, and share stories to inspire educators, students, and learners of all ages to build a better future for everyone. Through a diverse portfolio of programs and activities, Shelburne Farms: engages youth and people of all ages in learning experiences that inspire them to build diverse, resilient, caring communities; practices stewardship and embodies values of place and community through caring for and sharing our natural, agricultural, cultural, and human resources; and collaborates with educators and other local, national and international partners to advance education for sustainability worldwide. Shelburne Farms is supported by charitable contributions, tuition, fees and additional revenue from its mission advancing enterprises, including a grass-based dairy and award-winning farmstead cheese making operation, an organic market garden, maple sugaring and lumber operation, special events, year-round guest accommodations, and farm-to-table food services. Following the gift of the property to the nonprofit in 1984, growing programs and improving the historic property as an inspiring campus for learning have been ongoing endeavors. In its 51st year as an educational nonprofit, the organization continues to touch the lives of thousands of people. In 2023, the farm received charitable support from 4,096 individual donors from 48 states and 6 countries. Shelburne Farms' professional learning programs served 1,500 educators from across the country and around the world, both on-site and virtually. Welcome center attendance for the walking trails and children's farmyard totaled 131,000 people. In addition, 10,359 youth attended school programs and summer camps, and 21,011 others came to stay at the farm and/or participate in family and adult programs, and events. Every educator is seen as a life-long partner working to increase the impact of education for sustainability locally, nationally, and internationally. Ultimately the success of the education programs at Shelburne Farms is measured by deepening teacher practice and student learning, leading to improvements in quality of life for generations to come. Through the Shelburne Farms institute for sustainable schools, the hub for all professional learning programming, an innovative education for sustainability graduate certificate program is being offered in collaboration with the university of Vermont. Shelburne Farms also continued to receive significant donor-designated funding for its education for sustainability programs. Gifts and grants provided critical support for the farm-based education network, Vermont feed (food education everyday) in collaboration with nofa-vt, and for climate change education programming. In partnership with the usda, Shelburne Farms is playing a leadership role in expanding farm to school programs nationally. Capital gifts and grants also made possible continuing campus capital improvements and program development, including advancing the strategic climate action goal to "implement initiatives to achieve net zero on our campus by 2028 and advance climate action through education for sustainability globally." Shelburne Farms' vision is a healthy and just world rooted in stewardship and community. To learn more about how Shelburne Farms is working to inspire an emerging generation of change makers, please visit www.shelburnefarms.org.