Why Foodies And Farmers Are Flocking To A Crowdfunding Site Called Barnraiser

In North San Juan, California, an organic farmer named Amigo Bob Cantisano needed at least $20,000 to plant a "mother orchard" of heirloom organic fruit and nut trees from specimens that had survived from the Gold Rush era in the Sierra Nevada mountains. His goal: to preserve the precious drought- and pest-resistant varieties for posterity.

In Santa Cruz, California, three young women who studied  the healing properties of bone broth, sought a minimum of $15,000 to  buy a 60-gallon kettle and other equipment to ramp up production at their little startup Kitchen Witch Bone Broth, which sells six different kinds of broth, made from different types of animal bones and packed in glass jars.

In New York, Stephen Ritz, an educator who founded the Green Bronx Machine, wanted to raise at least $33,000 to convert an old school library into a national health center, with an indoor urban farm, cooking and education program for school kids in the Bronx that would serve as a national prototype.

These three small, disparate ventures successfully got the funds they were looking for -- and then some -- on Barnraiser, a crowdfunding platform and community that revolves around sustainable and healthy food, what some like to call the "good-food movement."

So far, Barnraiser, which officially launched a year ago, has helped farmers, food startups, nonprofits, educators, artisans and others in some 40 U.S. states raise more than $1.2 million through rewards-based crowdfunding. Their varied voices and projects contribute to what Barnraiser's CEO Eileen Gordon Chiarello described as  “a growing tapestry of stories of America rebuilding itself, one project at a time.”

Chiarello worked for a dozen years in the media and restaurant industries with her husband, Michael, a chef and restaurateur in the Napa Valley. No stranger to entrepreneurship or food, she raised $2 million in a seed round to launch Barnraiser. Her investors, she said, are "higher-end angels who are happy to share our view."

To be sure, all the funds collected to date on Barnraiser are still a mere drop in the very big bucket of the nation's food system, and the site also has a long way to go before it catches up with the Kickstarters and Indiegogo's of the crowdfunding universe.

But that's not what matters to Chiarello, who told me the platform is fueling a growing movement of people who want to produce and consume healthy food. The average sum raised on the platform is a modest $12,000, but for many farmers and food entrepreneurs, that's enough to make a serious difference.

About 65% of projects meet their funding goals, said Chiarello. Like Kickstarter, it's an all-or-nothing model and successful  campaigns pay a percentage of their total take to the platform. On other crowdfunding sites, competition is intense, and food and farm projects often don't fare as well. Only about 30% get funded on Kickstarter,  she said.

"We have a 65% success rate. We would be appalled at a 30% success rate." (Actually, I did my own check on the success rate for Kickstarter campaigns in the food category, and, it's presently even lower -- just 25.8 %.)

"One of the quickly apparent problems in working with these growing businesses, particularly food innovators is the question of where to go next, whom do I talk to next, what kind of funding is appropriate," Chiarello explained.

They often lack the working capital to grow their business to the next level. She's hoping to provide even more assistance in future months to the Barnraiser community, thanks to a freshly inked partnership agreement with the new consumer packaged goods incubator Sonoma Brands, launched in January by  food and wine entrepreneur Jon Sebastiani. Sebastiani, the founder of Krave Jerky, sold his startup to the Hershey  Company after just two years of operation for $220 million.

The new partnership  means that food entrepreneurs in the Barnraiser community will be exposed to Sebastiani and his team when they are looking for equity-based investments, Chiarello said. The two companies will also be collaborating on a series of mentorship experiences.

You won't see many high-tech gizmos with elaborate pre-order campaigns on Barnraiser. The stories unfolding in these campaigns reflect personal dreams and sometimes heartache.

Take the Ramini Mozzarella Farm, in Tomales, California.  Audrey Hitchcock, an architect, and her late husband, Craig, started the operation in 2009 with five Italian water buffalo in Marin County.  In their first four years, they learned about the intricacies of both animal husbandry and cheesemaking. "It was Craig's dream initially, but I immediately fell in love with the idea, animals, cheese and spending my days by my husband's side as we tackled every hurdle. Ramini Mozzarella is our baby, we raised it together, she wrote on her campaign page.

In 2014, Craig was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and he died the following year. But the couple's  business dream has flourished.  Hitchcock's herd has grown to 45 buffalo, and she's expecting about 10 new births early this year, according to her campaign page.  Last year,  she processed 25,000 pounds of milk and made 60 to 80 pounds of cheese twice a week, which always sells out. Her campaign to raise $11,000, which ends on Feb. 29,  will enable her to add six new milking stalls and replace her wheelbarrow with an ATV, among other things.  As of today, Hitchcock had reached 63% of her fundraising goal.

And many fundraisers do exceed their goals: Cantina scored $33,347 to collect heirloom breeds of apples, cherries, almonds, plums  filberts, grapes and peaches forces heirloom orchard project, reaching 167% of his goal; the  cofounders of Kitchen Witch conjured up more than $19,000 for their fledgling business; and the Green Bronx Machine,  raised more than $39,283, giving educator and founder Stephen Ritz, the resources he needs to build his urban education center.

Rhiannon Henry, who cofounded Kitchen Witch with Magali Brecke and Missy Woolstenhulme, said they turned to crowdfunding to step up production of their small-batch broths and get onto retailers' shelves.

"We went with Barnraiser because they were specific to our sector," said Henry, who is completeing her Masters degree in acupuncture. "Barnraiser is really a melding of the food and agriculture industry, and a perfect fit for us." In keeping with the Barnraiser ethos, Kitchen Witch only sources its products from humanely raised, pasture-based animals.

Kitchen Witch netted about $17,000 from their Barnraiser campaign, after fees. That sum helped them more than double their production and  buy  ingredients in bulk at lower prices. They have since expanded into various retail outlets in the Bay area, including five Whole Foods stores.

Like many budding food and farm entrepreneurs, the founders of Kitchen Witch were consumed with passion for their project, but they didn't know much about raising money, or running a business. Barnraiser's support made a difference. "They’ve certainly been a facilitator of networking and introductions and they helped us a ton," Henry said.