A ladybug rests on a white clover flower in the foreground, with yellow wildflowers and green foliage blurred in the background.

With this campaign, the UVE crew invites you to imagine—and help build—a different way of financing agriculture. As women working in agriculture, we know firsthand what it feels like to enter financial relationships where the power dynamics are tilted toward the other party. Our experience is far from unique. We believe there is another way forward, rooted in community, shared responsibility, and the understanding that we are more resilient when we work together. After two years of reorganization, reflection, and finding our equilibrium, UVE is entering a new chapter.  As we shared in our recent newsletters, <a href="https://www.uvehub.com/campaigns/view-email/WzRBBTa-CSWfB1Jj7zsi1Z2PSZkqgm0ggvE2Z5lZ9Z7dLrVuUZ0wdnbeeJEnwYgWLy9bmjLG2FXlyuwEibDI_sXl29Xoh0kjeUkjVEneoei4PCz3Q1FKKCPjpTYirmW_JxUSW8SaPMb9KjpUwQ2qvrxunyAXj7mUjhJZTw==?ss_source=sscampaigns&amp;ss_campaign_id=6a8e168c29bd247f665506f3&amp;ss_email_id=6a90a639ca511d426bd2644c&amp;ss_campaign_name=The+End+of+an+Era&amp;ss_campaign_sent_date=2026-08-27T21%3A04%3A15Z" target="_blank">The End of an Era</a> and <a href="https://www.uvehub.com/campaigns/view-email/dnMwaPeltsCXV_8UvXzv8HMT4L2TAw5bwBhRLo-kMXiq0a34bVmk1H7DXHVo32XpTMjKueTJMIlQuIwZ2PJHqYX0CXS3exEET2fKlp3bW7qMrF65Rwjdi8UF7IG4Prm2hCOv-PrZG6zyA11eRsl9nJjQMdX4W_7wfWlMTQ==?ss_source=sscampaigns&amp;ss_campaign_id=6ab1dc95099e331fa0bb684f&amp;ss_email_id=6ab2cf5e99d7753a6da351bc&amp;ss_campaign_name=Finding+Our+Equilibrium&amp;ss_campaign_sent_date=2026-09-22T18%3A56%3A42Z" target="_blank">Finding Our Equilibrium</a>, we’ve been rethinking how we organize and sustain this work. UVE is now a fiscally sponsored project of<a href="https://inquiringsystems.org/" target="_blank"> Inquiring Systems, Inc. (ISI)</a>, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. This transition opens an exciting new door: we can now receive charitable donations and philanthropic support to strengthen our work. This transition also brought a practical challenge. When UVE operated as a for-profit S-corporation, we relied on a seasonal line of credit to bridge the gap between providing services and receiving payment. Under our new structure, we’ve lost access to that credit. But we’ve gained the opportunity to build a different kind of financial foundation, rooted in community, shared investment, and mutual resilience. That change prompted us to rethink both how we finance our work and the kind of financial model we want to help make possible. We’re raising $72,000 to cover the cash UVE anticipates needing over the course of a year to meet its existing work and project commitments, based on the land stewards we currently serve. This figure reflects the real cash-flow needs of delivering our work and meeting our financial obligations, including paying our team reliably when client payments are delayed. Building this reserve will give UVE greater stability and flexibility without replacing the earned income that sustains our work. <img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1792786362/wysiwyg/pd0bpiygxsvlkplaprl8.jpg" style="width:600px;display:block;vertical-align:top;margin:5px auto;text-align:center;padding:0px 1px;max-width:100%" />The UVE Crew: Andrea Malmberg, Beth Robinette, Abbey Kingdon, Caitlin Roberts, Dora Cohen, MacKay Gibbs, and Virginie Pointeau. In <a href="https://www.uvehub.com/holistic-management" target="_blank">Holistic Management</a>, we pay attention to the sources of the money and energy that sustain our businesses and lives. Where our resources come from, and how we manage them, shapes our resilience and our freedom to make decisions. For a small organization or business like UVE, having reserves to draw on rather than relying entirely on a line of credit can make all the difference. This thinking resonates with the work of Zach Ducheneaux, whose lived experience and work we came to know through a multi-year project with the Intertribal Agriculture Council. Listening to Zach recently reminded us that financial systems are human-made—and that we can change how they work. As he put it on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-business-of-soil-health/id1765382992?i=1000710036126" target="_blank">The Business of Soil Health podcast</a>: “If you do not have enough money in the bank to guarantee that you can operate the next year, you are a victim in a conversation instead of a stakeholder.” He further explores this idea in this <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/transformational-investing-in-food-systems_aor-161-the-5th-c-of-agricultural-lending-activity-7349144940859318274-mhvK" target="_blank">LinkedIn article</a>. UVE has a business model and a Holistic Financial Plan guiding our decisions. Our work includes <a href="https://www.uvehub.com/eov-monitoring" target="_blank">ecological monitoring</a>, <a href="https://www.uvehub.com/holistic-management" target="_blank">Holistic Management</a> education and implementation support, succession planning, and conflict resolution. Much of this work is seasonal: we deliver services and incur costs before the corresponding invoices are paid. Stronger financial reserves will help us bridge those gaps, maintain reliable cash flow, and pay our team consistently.  We’re not looking to replace earned income with donations; we’re building the financial foundation that allows our work to flourish. Just as importantly, stronger reserves will allow us to work with a wider range of producers and communities through more flexible fee-for-service arrangements. Today, our ability to serve some land stewards is limited by whether they have enough cash on hand to pay for services when they’re delivered. We want to change that. Greater financial stability will give us more flexibility to work alongside producers and communities as they build their own financial resilience and make the transition toward regenerative practices. This is what Taking Root means to us. We want to move beyond a cycle of financial uncertainty and build deep roots: a foundation that makes UVE more resilient and allows us to build reciprocal, lasting relationships with a diverse community of land stewards. Holistic Management can help producers strengthen the profitability and resilience of their operations, but many lack the financial breathing room to access the support and make the transition. By making our services more accessible, we can help more people establish the foundations they need to thrive. Our vision is to help model a financial approach that creates health throughout the whole system: from individual farms, ranches, and organizations to entire communities and regions.  While this campaign focuses on agriculture, the underlying principles of financial resilience and shared responsibility apply far beyond it. At its heart, this is about helping the people and communities who care for the land develop the knowledge, tools, and relationships they need to thrive. When land stewards take root, the benefits extend far beyond individual operations: healthier soils, diverse and thriving grasslands, richer biodiversity, stronger rural economies, and more resilient communities. To support this next chapter, we’ve refined and templatized an 18-month Holistic Financial Income and Expense Plan, grounded in the Holistic Management body of knowledge developed by Allan Savory and Jody Butterfield. We’re sharing this resource as part of the campaign because we believe financial resilience is something we can learn, practice, and build together. When you contribute to the UVE Taking Root campaign, you’ll receive our financial planning template, a tutorial to help you use it, and access to our on-demand Holistic Financial Planning course. For one-time gifts of $250 or more, and for recurring monthly or annual gifts at any level, we’ll also offer a complimentary one-on-one session. You can use this time to explore your financial landscape, work on financial planning and analysis, revisit your Holistic Context, or discuss another area of UVE’s work that would be valuable to you. We invite you to join us in building and testing financial models that strengthen the resilience of rural communities and support thriving, diverse agricultural livelihoods. By investing in UVE’s foundation, you’re participating in a wider shift toward regeneration that creates the conditions for people, communities, and living systems to take root and flourish.  Together, we can grow something that benefits us all.

UVE

UVE Taking Root: Growing a Stronger Foundation for Regeneration

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