Crowdsourced Funds Sow Seeds

When Allegheny County farmers Jen Montgomery and Greg Boulos came to us with the idea of creating an organic farm collective to preserve endangered seeds, we were intrigued. The couple used Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste, a list of endangered seeds in the United States, to select seeds with a high risk of extinction. They hoped to save those seeds by raising awareness in their community about the importance of preserving the rare seeds’ heritage.

The challenge was to fund their project. The couple decided to use Kickstarter because they wanted to build a web-based community on an open-sourced platform. This enabled community gardens to connect with each other, and the information sharing that resulted strengthened the movement to preserve endangered seeds. News outlets Pop City Media and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette picked up their story.

After reaching their funding goal, Heritage Seeds Co. blossomed. We worked with Jen and Greg to create a brand identity that illustrates the traditional farming culture that their seeds represent. We produced videos to help them tell their story and designed a website, Heritageseeds.org, that made learning about endangered seeds an interesting and straightforward process.

Through crowdfunding, Jen and Greg were able to garner community support for a project that directly benefits their local environment and puts healthy and tasty food on the table.