Land Stewardship Project

Land Stewardship Project
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • Long Range Plan
    • Staff Directory
    • Board of Directors
      • LSP Board Committees
    • LSP Steering Committees & Working Groups
    • Contact Us
    • Past LSP Projects
    • Employment & Volunteer Opportunities
    • LSP Publications
    • Financial Statements
  • The Latest
    • Community Care
    • Songs for the Soil
    • CSA Farm Directory
    • Upcoming Events
    • News
      • News Releases
      • Media Contacts
      • LSP in the News
    • Blog
    • Podcast
    • Land Stewardship Letter
    • LIVE-WIRE Sign-up
    • Myth Busters
    • Fact Sheets
    • Farm Crisis Resources
  • For Farmers & Landowners
    • Farmland Clearinghouse
    • New Farmers
      • Farm Beginnings Class
      • Journeyperson Course
      • Farm Dreams
      • Accessing Farmland
      • Farmland Clearinghouse
      • Beginning/Retiring Farmer Tax Credit
      • Beginning Farmer Profiles
      • Fresh Voices Podcast Series
    • Retiring Farmers & Landowners
      • Farmland Clearinghouse
      • Farm Transition Planning Course
      • Conservation Leases
      • Beginning/Retiring Farmer Tax Credit
      • Land Transition Tools
      • Transition Stories
    • Soil Health
      • Cover Crops
      • Grazing
      • No-till
      • Microbiology
      • Kernza
      • Soil Builders’ Network
      • Soil Builders’ E-Letters
      • Soil Health Steering Committee Members
      • Ear Dirt Soil Health Podcast Series
    • Cropping Systems Calculator
    • Conservation Leases
  • Creating Change
    • Community-Based Food Systems
      • Ear Bites Community-Based Food Podcast Series
    • Policy Campaigns
      • Soil Health & Climate Change
      • Healthcare
      • Factory Farms
        • Anti-Competitiveness & Price Gouging
        • LSP Powerline Story Center
      • Federal Policy
        • A Farm Bill For Us
      • State Policy
        • MN Farm, Food & Climate Funding
      • Developing Leadership
    • Justice & Stewardship
    • Organizational Stewardship
  • Get Involved
    • Your Membership Matters
    • Take Action!
    • Upcoming Events
    • Land Stewardship Action Fund
    • Connect with LSP
      • Stay Connected
      • Join, Donate, or Renew Today!
      • Shop
      • Employment & Volunteer Opportunities
      • Legacy Giving
    • Network with LSP Members
      • Farmland Clearinghouse
      • Soil Health
    • Farmland Clearinghouse
  • Join, Donate, or Renew Today!
  • Stay Connected
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
Search
More...

Contributing to the Cause

For the First Time in Our History, LSP is Changing its Membership Rates

By Scott Elkins
July 8, 2025

Share

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • email

The Land Stewardship Project became a membership organization in 1994, 12 years after we were founded. The people leading the grassroots work knew that to realize the positive transformation of the farm and food system, LSP had to be organizing people, ideas, and money.

Becoming a member by making a financial contribution has always been about both:

• taking action on shared values, and
• providing flexible income that LSP can direct as needed to emerging work.

July 1 marked the beginning of a new budget year for the Land Stewardship Project, and it also marked another first in LSP’s history: raising the suggested amounts we ask people to contribute toward their membership.

In early 2025, LSP’s Membership Team convened a group of LSP members to discuss and develop recommendations to grow and deepen our Membership Program. One recommendation that emerged from that group was to reflect the value of membership by increasing our payment levels. This decision came after 30 years of setting the basic membership payment level at $35.

It has always been and will continue to be LSP’s practice to consider a contribution of any amount as enough to make someone an LSP member. We know that everyone has a different capacity to give. What’s important is that people are taking action on their shared values by contributing from the resources they have.

Why ask for specific amounts, then?

Well, our basic membership payment level reflects some of the costs that go into administering a membership, like printing and mailing the Land Stewardship Letter and maintaining our systems for membership outreach around events and action alerts. We don’t offer “tiered” levels that reflect different benefits, because we believe that the person who gives $10 out of their fixed income should receive the same benefits as the person who can distribute $1,000 out of their retirement account.

There’s a lot of research to support the power of suggestion when it comes to fundraising, so we give people several specific options when deciding what works best for them. Members who can pay double or triple the basic ask make it possible for us to offer membership to those who need to give below the basic ask.

Am I divulging some of the “secret sauce” when it comes to fundraising? Well, maybe.

But that’s because LSP members aren’t just donors; they are the ones directing and inspiring our work, testifying at the Legislature, hosting soil health workshops, and volunteering their time. They are members because they believe in our vision of vibrant rural communities being places of belonging and opportunity for everyone.

Our members take action on their values because they know that clean water, healthy soil, and more farmers on the land are vital to sustaining our communities and our planet. At a time of rising costs, it’s LSP’s responsibility to be realistic with our members about what we need to get the work done.

Starting this week, you will be seeing different amounts on our website donation form and mailers: $45, $75, $150, and $300. Check out our new membership web page to find out why membership matters and to get inspired by the stories of LSP members taking action.

One more thing: the number one reason people become dues-paying members of LSP is because they were asked. In this spirit, I am asking you to ask one other person in your life to become a member of LSP, giving them an opportunity to invest in a farm and food system that works for everyone.

Together, we can continue to build a stronger, deeper, and more diverse network of members who are committed to the grassroots transformation of agriculture and land stewardship.

Scott Elkins is LSP’s executive director.

Category: Blog
Tags: Land Stewardship Project members • membership

Upcoming Events

×

September 2025

Monday September 8

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Anne Biklé in conversation with Ross Evelsizer: What Your Food Ate
Monday September 8
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Anne Biklé in conversation with Ross Evelsizer: What Your Food Ate
Pulpit Rock Brewing Company, 207 College Dr, Decorah, IA 52101, USA

Join Anne Biklé (co-author, What Your Food Ate: How to Restore Our Land and Reclaim Our Health) and NEIA RC & D Natural Resource Projects Director, Ross Evelsizer, for a conversation and Q & A session followed by a book signing. Everyone is invited to this free event sponsored by the Oneota Valley Literary Foundation, with support from Pulpit Rock Brewing and Dragonfly Books.
 
Details on the Sept. 8 event are here.

Tuesday September 9

9:00 am – 3:00 pm
'Growing Resilience' Field Day at Churchill Reserve Grass-Fed Beef
Tuesday September 9
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
'Growing Resilience' Field Day at Churchill Reserve Grass-Fed Beef
36001 63rd Avenue Way Cannon Falls, MN, 55009

Spend a day with Clean River Partners and farmers discussing their experiences with different conservation management practices as they navigate the challenges of making a livelihood, accessing land and markets, and dealing with unpredictable weather conditions.

Join farmers Bryan Lips (BT Farms), Wendy Johnson (Jóia Food & Fiber Farm), Todd Churchill (Churchill Reserve), Helen Forsythe (Feed the People Farm Cooperative), and more, to discuss topics like wide-row corn and cover crops, the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program, agroforestry, growing small grains, and prescribed grazing. 

For more information and to register, click here. 

Join with Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/sft-zqyb-qkm

Learn more about Meet at: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9282720

6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
The Ground We Share: Conversations on Soil, Food, and Health
Tuesday September 9
6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
The Ground We Share: Conversations on Soil, Food, and Health
Center for Faith and Life, 555 Luther Dr, Decorah, IA 52101, USA

6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.: Pre-Event: Doors open for interactive exhibits to experience soil, food, and human health:

  • Engage with soil health & water quality demonstrations (Regenerating Soil and Community Student/Faculty team)
  • Learn about regenerative agriculture practices (Winneshiek County Soil and Water Conservation District)
  • Experience and taste healthy food produced from the Driftless (Oneota Food Co-op)
  • Peruse and check out gardening, cooking, and health books (Decorah Public Library)
  • Connect with expertise elevating that food is health (Erin Meyer, MSFS RD)

7:30 p.m.: Presentation by Anne Biklé: Linking Soil Health to Human Health

Prelude: Dance performance by Luther College Orchesis Dance Group & faculty guests

Is it true that you are what you eat? Not entirely. The full story lies in how we grow the crops and raise animals that make their way into our bodies. Biklé will draw on her most recent book, “What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health“, co-authored with her husband David Montgomery. 

8:30 pm: Soil, Food, and Health Conversation and Q & A with an award-winning panel of local/regional soil and human health care providers

A panel of local regenerative farmers will present and take questions.

Details on the Sept. 9 event are here. 

Wednesday September 10

All Day
Deadline: Comment on MN Nutrient Reduction Strategy
Wednesday September 10
Deadline: Comment on MN Nutrient Reduction Strategy
Online

SHARE

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is accepting comments on updating its Minnesota Nutrient Reduction Strategy 2025 (full draft document found here), which establishes a roadmap for reaching both phosphorus and nitrate reduction goals. 

Please take a moment to review LSP’s comments and rationale for actionable items for this plan and submit your comments via the MPCA’s online form before Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 11:59 p.m.

LSP is asking MPCA to:

  • Strengthen data collection and reporting requirements for fertilizer retailers by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and documentation of nitrogen fertilizer application rates by responsible parties (e.g. crop retailers).
  • Build a Small Grain Initiative and a safety net for farmers who want to reduce their nitrogen fertilizer applications by transitioning into more diverse cropping systems.
  • Grow farmer power, farmer networks, and locally led, flexible and outcome-based approaches like the Olmsted County Groundwater Protection and Soil Health Program.

 For details on how to comment, check out LSP’s action alert.

10:00 am – 2:00 pm
LSP Lewiston Office Lunch & Discussion
Wednesday September 10
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
LSP Lewiston Office Lunch & Discussion
180 E Main St, Lewiston, MN 55952, USA

The Land Stewardship Project is hosting lunch for you before harvest time makes us all busy!

Our Lewiston September Potluck will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 10, from noon to 2 p.m., at our office in downtown Lewiston, Minn. (180 E. Main Street). This will be an opportunity to build community, hear from other farmers, socialize, and enjoy a great meal together. We also invite everyone to take a self-guided tour of the newly renovated spaces in our office that we have been working on over the winter. As a member-driven organization, this is your space too. 

 LSP will be providing the main dish (meat and vegetarian options) and we invite you to bring a dish to pass. This event is open to all, so please bring a friend or two as well. Let’s celebrate the joy of summer through good food and good company!

 RSVP’s are encouraged, but not required. Hope to see you there — you can RSVP by e-mailing LSP’s Kate Rowe directly.

View Full Calendar

Recent Posts

  • Land Line: MAHA, Bumper Corn Crop, Oats, Defining Regenerative Ag, Feeding the World, CAFO Hotspots August 28, 2025
  • Farmers to AG: Take Action to Counteract Community-Killing Consolidation August 27, 2025
  • Tell the MPCA by Sept. 10 to Focus on Clean Water, New Crops & Living Cover August 22, 2025
  • Land Line: Farm Finance Crisis, Mental Health, Inflated Inputs, Crop-Livestock Synergy, Bread Bloat, Pesticides in Water, Soil Health & MAHA August 9, 2025
  • Farmers Gather in Madison to Discuss ‘Bringing Small Grains Back to Minnesota’ August 6, 2025

Montevideo

111 North First Street
Montevideo, MN 56265

(320) 269-2105

Lewiston

180 E. Main Street
Lewiston, MN 55952

(507) 523-3366

Minneapolis

821 E. 35th Street #200
Minneapolis, MN 55407

(612) 722-6377

  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Land Stewardship Project. All rights reserved.

https://landstewardshipproject.org/contributing-to-the-cause