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Foundation created to energize community support for UC ANR mission
Board of Directors to promote philanthropy through advocacy and fundraising in support of agriculture, natural resources and community health
The new University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Foundation has been established to advance UC ANR's essential research and extension mission.
The foundation – to be incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization following approval by UC President Michael Drake in October – will support programs that promote California's agriculture and food systems; natural ecosystems and working landscapes; and healthy and thriving communities.
“The establishment of this foundation could not have come at a better time, as it will inspire the vital resources and energy we need to meet the pressing challenges we pinpointed in our recently released Strategic Vision 2040,” said Glenda Humiston, UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources.
Modeled after similar entities at UC campuses, the UC ANR Foundation will be guided by a volunteer Board of Directors. Representing a variety of regions and communities across California, the directors collectively bring years of experience in the agriculture, natural resources, government, academic and nonprofit sectors.
“By tapping into the board's connections, relationships and knowledge of our work and its impact, UC ANR is well-positioned to undertake significant and truly transformative fundraising initiatives and campaigns,” said Greg Gibbs, executive director of UC ANR Development Services.
The Board currently comprises eight community leaders and three ex officio members:
Don Bransford
Owner and Operator
Bransford Farms
Tom Delfino
Sr. Principal
S.S. Papadopulos & Associates
Bill Frost
UC Cooperative Extension Advisor Emeritus and former Associate Vice President
UC ANR
Anne Haddix
Co-President, Board of Directors
UC Master Gardeners of Sonoma County (Volunteer)
Corinne Martinez, Board Chair
President and Chief Operations Officer
Berryessa Gap Vineyards
Soapy Mulholland
Principal
Sopac & Associates LLC
Sharon Nance
President
NTAPROBLM LLC Inc.
Stephen Reid
Head Gardener of the Rose Garden
The Huntington Library and Botanic Gardens
Ex Officio Members
Greg Gibbs, Board Secretary
Executive Director, Development Services
UC ANR
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
UC ANR
Tu Tran, Board Treasurer
Associate Vice President
UC ANR
“We are grateful to the members of the new board for their leadership, expertise and passion for our mission, and we're thankful to the many donors – past, present and future – who generously support our work to improve lives all across California,” Humiston said.
History of philanthropic support empowered creation of foundation
It has been that outpouring of support – channeled by Gibbs' fundraising team – that enabled the establishment of the UC ANR Foundation. Gibbs was part of a nascent development team created just seven years ago, in 2017, to increase private funding from individuals, foundations, companies and agricultural commodities groups.
Within that time, the Development Services team has raised crucial funds for a wide range of impactful programs and projects. For example, philanthropic support is fueling efforts to cultivate workforce development in agriculture and related fields in Orange County, drive innovations in the “circular bioeconomy” within the San Joaquin Valley, strengthen wildfire resiliency in communities across the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and propel leading-edge research to benefit growers of citrus, grapes and other valuable commodities.
“People are seeing the true impact of UC ANR, and I think this foundation board is a testament to that,” Gibbs said. “It's a validation of all the work that's been done over the last seven years.”
In 2023, a Vice President's Cabinet began laying the groundwork for the foundation by establishing its bylaws and structure. That group comprised several current board members, as well as Andrea Ambrose, UC ANR director of advancement; Adina Merenlender, professor of Cooperative Extension in conservation science; and Kerry Tucker, chief strategic counsel at Nuffer, Smith, Tucker.
Then, presented with UC ANR's track record of robust fundraising and measurable impacts, UC President Drake approved the incorporation of the new nonprofit foundation on Oct. 2. The foundation will begin work with UC ANR leadership and staff in early 2025 to develop short- and long-term fundraising plans.
For the public, there is an immediate opportunity to support UC ANR's work – Giving Tuesday. From midnight to midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 3, visit donate.ucanr.edu to donate and participate in a global online giving event.
“Just as UC ANR programs significantly improve lives in California and across the nation and world, our donors substantively improve those programs,” Gibbs said. “They believe in what we do, and they make our research and extension activities better in every sense – more impactful, more accessible and more sustainable.”
For more information on the UC ANR Foundation and opportunities to contribute, contact Greg Gibbs at glgibbs@ucanr.edu.
Status of Contracts & Grants Awards and Billings
The UC ANR Aggie Enterprise Team is pleased to provide the following update on Contracts & Grants (C&G) Awards and Billings, after consulting and engaging with UC Davis Contracts and Grants Accounting:
- Awards Update:
There are currently 44 award-related transactions (including new awards, amendments, and advance accounts) pending entry into the system. UC Davis Contracts and Grants Accounting will provide weekly updates, which will offer better visibility into the status and progress of these transactions. - Unbilled Invoices:
The UC Davis Contracts and Grants Accounting (CGA) team is actively addressing a backlog of unprocessed/unbilled invoices from both campus and UC ANR awards. Although we do not yet have a detailed breakdown of UCD vs. ANR invoices, we are working closely with the CGA team to obtain this information to better monitor the progress of UC ANR's invoices. Additionally, UCD has partnered with Deloitte to resolve the invoicing issues and streamline the process moving forward. To support these efforts, the UCD Pre-Bill Cost Reimbursable Report is being enhanced, and, if available, we will provide further details in our next update. - Escalation Process:
The ANR team is finalizing a formal escalation process to efficiently address billing inquiries. This process will be shared with account managers (associate directors, county directors and office managers). This process will help guide how to escalate issues for prioritization and timely resolution with UCD. In the meantime, if you have any C&G billing inquiries, please contact your account manager.
Thank you for your continued collaboration.
Best regards,
UC ANR Aggie Enterprise Team
Workshop on agritourism regulations highlights good ideas, challenges across California
Image: California Department of Fish & Wildlife, CC BY 2.0.
This fall, UCCE Food Systems Advisor Olivia Henry worked with UC SAREP's Agritourism Coordinator Rachael Callahan and Alexis Koefoed of Pleasants Valley Agricultural Association to host a webinar on models of agritourism regulations across California. As defined by UC SAREP, agritourism is a commercial enterprise at a farm or ranch for the enjoyment of visitors that generates supplemental income. Agritourism activities include u-picks, farm stays, weddings, mountain biking and more. Many of these activities are not allowed in agriculturally zoned areas without being explicitly included in the relevant county or city code.
In March, Solano County planners floated the idea of creating an agritourism overlay for the Pleasants Valley, Lagoon Valley and Winters areas. Henry, Callahan and Koefoed wondered what creative policy ideas for supporting agritourism might apply to this corner of Solano County, where small farms and ranches line valleys at the base of low mountains. The webinar's six speakers came from Contra Costa, Santa Barbara and El Dorado counties — all places where agritourism regulations were recently adopted or updated. Speakers included representatives from the county and agritourism farmers that been active in the policy making process. The intent of the webinar was for both Solano County staff as well as local farmers to attend and learn about their role in the process. Learning from their peers, county staff heard about regulations that could potentially be adapted for Solano county, while farmers gained insights into how to engage with the county. You can watch a recording of the webinar or view slides.
Here are a few takeaways:
Developing regulations takes time.
Solano County farmers could expect to wait years before new agritourism rules are on the books. In Contra Costa County, the process began in 2016 at the urging of a county supervisor to look into ways to support the economic viability of agriculture. It was only in March 2024 when the Agritourism Ordinance was finally adopted by the Board of Supervisors. In Santa Barbara County, what is now called the Agriculture Enterprise Ordinance has been in the works since 2016. Even when policy is adopted, it may need to be regularly revised. That's the case with El Dorado County's Ranch Marketing Ordinance, which has been around in some form since the 1980s but has been regularly updated to better account for small farms, wineries and most recently challenges with on-farm weddings.
Educational events can fall into grey areas.
Attendees were asked which agritourism topics they were most interested in, and many people indicated they wanted to hear about how other counties' policies address on-farm educational experiences such as tours and classes. Santa Barbara's Agriculture Enterprise Ordinance exempts low-intensity “educational experiences” under a certain size from needing a permit, with larger and more frequent tours — as well as those taking place next to legacy crow crop properties — needing a conditional use permit. Neither the El Dorado or Contra Costa codes explicitly mention things like tours or classes, although the Ranch Marketing Ordinance does have specific requirements for “marketing events” in which farms offer special product sales or promotions. Speakers explained that, even if small educational events are in a regulatory grey area, their counties were most concerned about high-impact agritourism uses: events with lots of people, cars, noise and water use.
Regulating large events can be a challenge.
Big events can be a major revenue opportunity for farmers, but planners worry about traffic, effects on neighbors and other impacts in neighborhoods that weren't designed for large crowds. El Dorado County has a creative way to let neighbors know that big events are coming up nearby: the Ranch Marketing and Winery Event Data portal lists the date, location, hours and point of contact for special events. All that information has to be posted two weeks in advance. Still, Agricultural Commissioner LeeAnne Mila said complaints about weddings have increased to the point where she recently proposed a new permit requirement for farms to host special events. In Contra Costa County, one of the unique concerns around high-intensity agritourism uses is water. Principal Planner Jennifer Cruz explained that stress on groundwater resources was a major consideration during the policy development process. The final ordinance explicitly requires bed and breakfast establishments and farm-to-table restaurants to have a retail water supplier or be located within the boundaries of a specific groundwater sub-basin.
How do you make sure farming is the primary land use, not tourism?
The goal of agritourism is to help farms stay economically resilient, and that's what regulators say they want, too. But some speakers addressed the worry that making tourism activities allowable in agriculturally zoned areas will make entertainment the primary land use, not growing food. Rancher Guner Tautrim said that in Santa Barbara County, part of their strategy was to limit the scale and frequency of events to “a threshold to where it's helping the rancher but it's not making so much money that they're like, ‘Oh, I'm not even going to plant my crop.'”
In Contra Costa, the ordinance tries to address this concern by requiring that agritourism operators submit an “agricultural activities and promotion plan” with permit applications for uses like farm stays, farm dinners and farm-to-table restaurants. The plan has to demonstrate that the primary use of the land is for growing food, and should show how the use “will promote local agriculture and educate guests.”
In El Dorado County, Mila said she is concerned about “fake farms” that plant the required minimum acreage of crops – five acres of permanent cropland or ten acres of annual cropland — with the ultimate intent of running a wedding business and not a farm business. The current code allows those farms to host 24 special events per year without a land use permit. In an effort to reinforce the primacy of ag, Mila put forward revision to allow 12 special events per year with an administrative permit, and an additional two events allowed for every “confirmed additional 5 acres of crop cultivated and capable of producing a commercial crop” up to 24 events per year.
Agritourism regulations are zoning regulations – but other departments are involved, too
Agritourism regulations are fundamentally zoning regulations: rules that say what you can do on a given parcel of land. Zoning is the purview of planning departments, and these departments are usually the first stop for agritourism operators looking to find out if their project is allowable, and whether or not a land use permit is needed. But getting an agritourism enterprise off the ground means also working with other departments and jurisdictions. In Santa Barbara County, rancher Tautrim cautioned that supportive zoning regulations don't mean agritourism projects will be met with open arms by every regulator. He explained that environmental health departments might ask for septic systems, or fire departments might ask for sprinkler systems — all expensive investments that could scuttle a project. “A lot of these ideas we're coming up with [in the Agriculture Enterprise Ordinance] are not going to be viable for those of us without big pocketbooks to pay for these upfront costs.”
Image: UC SAREP
Foundation created to energize community support for UC ANR mission
Board of Directors to promote philanthropy through advocacy and fundraising in support of agriculture, natural resources and community health
The new University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Foundation has been established to advance UC ANR's essential research and extension mission.
The foundation – to be incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization following approval by UC President Michael Drake in October – will support programs that promote California's agriculture and food systems; natural ecosystems and working landscapes; and healthy and thriving communities.
“The establishment of this foundation could not have come at a better time, as it will inspire the vital resources and energy we need to meet the pressing challenges we pinpointed in our recently released Strategic Vision 2040,” said Glenda Humiston, UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources.
Modeled after similar entities at UC campuses, the UC ANR Foundation will be guided by a volunteer Board of Directors. Representing a variety of regions and communities across California, the directors collectively bring years of experience in the agriculture, natural resources, government, academic and nonprofit sectors.
“By tapping into the board's connections, relationships and knowledge of our work and its impact, UC ANR is well-positioned to undertake significant and truly transformative fundraising initiatives and campaigns,” said Greg Gibbs, executive director of UC ANR Development Services.
The Board currently comprises eight community leaders and three ex officio members:
Don Bransford
Owner and Operator
Bransford Farms
Tom Delfino
Sr. Principal
S.S. Papadopulos & Associates
Bill Frost
UC Cooperative Extension Advisor Emeritus and former Associate Vice President
UC ANR
Anne Haddix
Co-President, Board of Directors
UC Master Gardeners of Sonoma County (Volunteer)
Corinne Martinez, Board Chair
President and Chief Operations Officer
Berryessa Gap Vineyards
Soapy Mulholland
Principal
Sopac & Associates LLC
Sharon Nance
President
NTAPROBLM LLC Inc.
Stephen Reid
Head Gardener of the Rose Garden
The Huntington Library and Botanic Gardens
Ex Officio Members
Greg Gibbs, Board Secretary
Executive Director, Development Services
UC ANR
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
UC ANR
Tu Tran, Board Treasurer
Associate Vice President
UC ANR
“We are grateful to the members of the new board for their leadership, expertise and passion for our mission, and we're thankful to the many donors – past, present and future – who generously support our work to improve lives all across California,” Humiston said.
History of philanthropic support empowered creation of foundation
It has been that outpouring of support – channeled by Gibbs' fundraising team – that enabled the establishment of the UC ANR Foundation. Gibbs was part of a nascent development team created just seven years ago, in 2017, to increase private funding from individuals, foundations, companies and agricultural commodities groups.
Within that time, the Development Services team has raised crucial funds for a wide range of impactful programs and projects. For example, philanthropic support is fueling efforts to cultivate workforce development in agriculture and related fields in Orange County, drive innovations in the “circular bioeconomy” within the San Joaquin Valley, strengthen wildfire resiliency in communities across the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and propel leading-edge research to benefit growers of citrus, grapes and other valuable commodities.
“People are seeing the true impact of UC ANR, and I think this foundation board is a testament to that,” Gibbs said. “It's a validation of all the work that's been done over the last seven years.”
In 2023, a Vice President's Cabinet began laying the groundwork for the foundation by establishing its bylaws and structure. That group comprised several current board members, as well as Andrea Ambrose, UC ANR director of advancement; Adina Merenlender, professor of Cooperative Extension in conservation science; and Kerry Tucker, chief strategic counsel at Nuffer, Smith, Tucker.
Then, presented with UC ANR's track record of robust fundraising and measurable impacts, UC President Drake approved the incorporation of the new nonprofit foundation on Oct. 2. The foundation will begin work with UC ANR leadership and staff in early 2025 to develop short- and long-term fundraising plans.
For the public, there is an immediate opportunity to support UC ANR's work – Giving Tuesday. From midnight to midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 3, visit donate.ucanr.edu to donate and participate in a global online giving event.
“Just as UC ANR programs significantly improve lives in California and across the nation and world, our donors substantively improve those programs,” Gibbs said. “They believe in what we do, and they make our research and extension activities better in every sense – more impactful, more accessible and more sustainable.”
For more information on the UC ANR Foundation and opportunities to contribute, contact Greg Gibbs at glgibbs@ucanr.edu.
President Drake urges UC students, faculty and staff to get flu vaccine
The following message is from UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D.
Colleagues:
Respiratory virus season is approaching. If you haven't yet received your flu vaccine, please remember that all covered students, faculty, other academic appointees, and staff are required to get vaccinated against influenza or opt out using a form supplied by their location. President Drake has extended the compliance deadline from Nov. 1, 2024, to no later than Dec. 1, 2024. (Individual UC locations may choose to enforce an earlier deadline.)
If you are planning to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday or winter break, keep in mind that it takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies that protect against flu to develop in the body. We also strongly encourage everyone who is eligible to get a COVID-19 booster vaccine in the coming weeks. For questions about vaccine policy at your location, contact your health care facilitator.
For general questions or comments regarding the UC Policy on Vaccination Programs, contact vaccinepolicycomments@ucop.edu.
Michael V. Drake, M.D.
UC President
For more information about UC ANR's flu vaccine policy, contact Pia Wright, ELR compliance coordinator in Human Resources, at pwright@ucanr.edu or (530) 750-1288.
