Fruit Trees For Your Community
The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) is an award-winning international nonprofit charity dedicated to planting fruitful trees and plants to alleviate world hunger, combat global warming, strengthen communities, and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water. FTPF programs strategically donate orchards where the harvest will best serve communities for generations, at places such as community gardens, public schools, city/state parks, low-income neighborhoods, Native American reservations, international hunger relief sites, and animal sanctuaries.
What FTPF Provides
Our orchard donations are available for recipients who pledge to care for their trees and utilize them for a charitable purpose. If selected for an orchard donation, FTPF provides high-quality fruit trees and shrubs, equipment, on-site orchard design expertise and oversight, horticultural workshops, and aftercare training and manuals. We subsidize deer fencing and drip irrigation as needed, and incorporate these installations into the event day. FTPF also helps coordinate all aspects of the planting, and offers an inspirational, educational experience for volunteers interested in learning more about trees. Free arboricultural workshops are available throughout the day of the planting and, for schools, a fun, age-appropriate curriculum, with our educators, emphasizing the importance of trees for the environment and fruit in the diet is available.
See the requirements section below, then download FTPF’s application form here. Submit form via email to info@ftpf.org.
Timing
Unless otherwise stated for a particular program, there is no deadline for applications. FTPF accepts applications on a rolling basis. Please understand that FTPF’s current schedule is at near capacity, and due to the large number of applications we receive, we are unable to respond to every request, unless there is an excellent match for one of our programs. We will send an acknowledgment letter once we receive your application, and then be in touch with you again in the future should an opportunity arise to offer an orchard donation. Often times, with patience, we are able to make worthy projects happen once we have the information in our system. There is no need to resubmit an application, your information remains in our system permanently.
Requirements
1. Recipients must be nonprofits, NGOs, public schools, or government entities serving a charitable purpose. Please note that we are currently at capacity for our international programming and not accepting applications outside of the United States. Any applications submitted from outside the U.S. will not be processed at this time, however, should that change, we will make an announcement on this page.
2. Recipients must be fully committed to caring for the trees in perpetuity with a clear goal to use the orchard to further their charitable mission.
3. Recipients must have a horticulturally appropriate planting site, capable of hosting a grove of fruit trees at approximately 15 ft. intervals. The minimum number of trees varies from program to program, however, a ballpark minimum is around 15-20 trees. Our application helps evaluate all the appropriate site factors.
4. Recipients must either a) own the planting site, b) have a long-term lease in place, or c) work with a nonprofit or government entity that owns the planting site with a long-term usage agreement in place.
5. The orchard must have a reliable source of year-round irrigation nearby.
6. Recipients must help coordinate the attendance of local volunteers on planting day. Orchard stewardship is maximized when local volunteers are involved.
7. Please note that we accept applications on a rolling basis with no deadlines. Applications remain in our database until an opportunity to collaborate arises if it’s deemed to be a good fit. We will send an acknowledgment of your application once submitted and then be back in touch at a future date if accepted into the program. If you don’t hear from us immediately, please know that your information will remain active in our system with no need to reapply.
