Grower Programs
Capacity Building Grant
The Capacity Building Grant is a grant fund housed by Advocates for Urban Agriculture in partnership with Food:Land:Opportunity (F.L.O.) and is model for community-led resource distribution. These funds support urban farms and community gardens to enrich the local food economy, production and distribution throughout the Chicago area.
Recipients are selected by an Advisory Committee composed of community residents who are past grantees, grower or supporters of earth stewardship.
[Image: Zafra Farm: Incubator farm in the South Side of Chicago owned and led by QTBIPOC growers]
Latest updates:
(8/29/2025)
The 2025 Capacity Building Grant nomination form is now open! See below for eligibility requirements, key documents, and information on how to apply by the October 3rd, 2025 deadline. You can also submit draft grant documents for grant writing support from the grant administrator, Bea Fry, before final submission of your grant materials.
(11/22/24)
The 2024 Capacity Building Application deadline has been extended! See below for eligibility requirements, key documents, and information on how to apply by the new December 6th, 2024 deadline.
(10/21/24)
The 2024 Capacity Building Application is now open! See below for eligibility requirements, key documents, and information on how to apply by the November 29th, 2024 deadline.
✲
We’d love to support you! Learn more about how to apply below.
AUA is ready and committed to supporting growers like you to create a more just food future. The grant has long supported grantees with strong community connections. The 2025 grant cycle leans into the power of community connection by moving to a nomination process - where community members can nominate farms and community gardens for funds, supporting their local farmers and community gardeners while reducing the administrative strain of completing their own application. Growing spaces can also self-nominate.
Please complete the following application and submit by 3pm CST on October 3rd, 2025. Nominations will be reviewed on a rolling basis by the grant review committee and recipients will be awarded funds by December 10th, 2025. Nomination forms can be submitted via Google Form or via email in a document format of your choice. Both options can be found below.
If you have any questions about this grant nomination form or require additional accommodations to complete an application, please contact Bea Fry at bea@auachicago.org.
Want a preview of the nomination form or want to download a copy and submit via email? Click here.
Keep scrolling for key information and applicant resources below!
Empowering Growers through Collective Grantmaking
[Image: Oscar Villa: Oscar Villa, Beekeeper Founder of Bee-utiful Honey & Candles]
-
The operation must be located in one of the following Illinois counties: Cook, Lake, McHenry, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Grundy, Will, or Kankakee.
-
The fam or community garden must both of the following:
less than 5 growing acres
Have an annual budget less than $250,000
-
The farm or community garden must have one of the following:
Focused on providing food for the local community, especially the grants three prioritized communities: Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and/or disabled communities.
Farms/community gardens that have developed strong partnerships with the local community.
Farms/community gardens that employ people from the community where they grow.
Farms/community gardens that have existing community partners and incorporate those partnerships into their project proposal.
Farms/community gardens that provide educational resources within their community.
-
The farm or community garden must be a legal entity or will be within a year. This can be For-profit, Non-profit, or DBA. This includes operations which are fiscally sponsored. The nominated growing space must be a farm, community garden, or a collective made up of farms and/or community gardens.
See below for a list of eligibility criteria.
The farm or community garden must meet all of the following requirements to be eligible to receive funds.
This grant prioritizes farms and community gardens which are owned and led by BIPOC, those with disabilities, and transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary individuals.
Foundational Documents
The continued evolution of the fund is grounded in a series of four documents. Co-created during conversations held among a group of growers in the region in 2019 and 2020, these documents have shaped, and continue to guide, all future iterations of the grant program.
[Image: cohort of Capacity Building Grant co-creators]
Applicant resources
We want to make this process as supportive of growers as possible. We’ve curated a list of resources to aid applicants in their grant writing process and give you the confidence in the materials you submit for funding consideration.
-
The Preliminary Feedback Form supports applicants with grant writing assistance on their draft nomination form materials. Submissions to the form will be reviewed, and feedback returned, on a rolling basis until the deadline on September 22nd, 2025. The feedback can then be integrated into finalized grant materials and submitted by the grant deadline.
-
The Frequently Asked Questions offers answers to common questions AUA has been asked about the granting process since the inception of the program.
-
COMING SOON!
The nomination form guide serves as a roadmap to the main questions throughout the nomination form, providing insights from the review committee on how best to answer questions for clarity and to drive impact.
-
COMING SOON!
The 2025 grant information presentation provides potential applicants with a broad-based overview of the grant, including: grant purpose, eligibility, resources, and includes questions asked by applicants in the past which are not included in the FAQ’s.
Dedicated to transparent processes.
See below for more information on the grant timeline, including award dates and resource deadlines.
8/29/2025
Applications open
09/01/2025
Preliminary Feedback Form opens
09/22/2025
Preliminary Feedback Form closes
10/03/2025
Application closes
12/10/2025
Latest date for award notification
Equal Opportunity Statement
AUA works affirmatively to foster inclusive programming and does not discriminate in the selection of participants on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability, income, marital status, or any other dimension of identity. AUA strongly encourages applications from candidates and individuals with voices that have been historically under-represented in the food system, including but not limited to women, people of color, Black and Indigenous people.
While the focus is on the viability and scalability of urban farm businesses, home, school, or community gardeners are encouraged to work with us as well. For additional support in those areas, please see our Resource page for a comprehensive listing of applicable resources and local organizations.