Seed Savers Exchange Launches Endowment

In 2025, something new was planted—a financial commitment for the gardeners and seed savers yet to come. Seed Savers Exchange formally launched the Seed Savers Exchange Endowment Fund, a sustaining fund designed to safeguard the work at the heart of our mission: stewarding culturally rooted, open-pollinated seeds and the community knowledge that keeps them alive.

The endowment was launched with a generous gift of $1 million from Amy Goldman Fowler, longtime seed champion, award-winning author, and current Seed Savers Exchange special advisor. For Amy, the continuation and care of the seed collection is her first priority; it’s foundational work that requires steady, reliable resources year after year. In her words, the endowment will “help ensure the continuation and care of the seed collection…freeing the organization to meet new challenges and opportunities without sacrificing the daily work of preservation.” The endowment’s role is simple and profound: provide the stable funding that keeps this essential work moving forward. Since the endowment’s launch, other friends and supporters of Seed Savers Exchange have directed their philanthropy to the fund, echoing Amy’s sentiment that caring for the collection long into the future is possible when we invest today.

Seed Savers Exchange Executive Director Mike Bollinger and Amy Goldman Fowler pose outside the Lillian Goldman Visitors Center at Heritage Farm during the 50th-anniversary celebration.

Amy Goldman Fowler’s founding gift of $1 million to the endowment fund is a seed: powerful, and meant to be grown by the gifts of others to reach the initial goal of $5 million in five years. Every contribution is a step toward that future.

Click here for more information about the Seed Savers Exchange Endowment.