A Site Visit with The Randall Charitable Trust and Our Village Gardens
Site visits.
Not every foundation does them, but when they do, they can be an opportunity to show your work to potential funders.
This is how a site visit went with one of my clients, Our Village Gardens (OVG).
Our Village Gardens provides their neighbors with fresh, healthy produce grown just blocks from where it is sold.
For context, OVG had never applied to The Robert D. and Marcia H. Randall Charitable Trust. We submitted a letter of inquiry, and then we were invited to submit a full application.
After we submitted the application, the trust requested a site visit.
Brian and Lynn wanted to see if what we wrote in the grant was actually true.
For this visit, several things set us up for success.
First, the board chair of Our Village Gardens was eager to participate and welcome the foundation leaders.
Second, multiple staff were present. Both co directors were there, plus operations staff. The foundation was going to hear many voices.
This is good because when only one person does all the talking, the energy can sink. With several people ready to speak, the conversation stayed lively.
When Lynn and Brian from the foundation arrived, OVG immediately created a welcoming space.
We paused, took a collective breath, introduced everyone, and shared a few laughs.
It was a bit like setting the table before a meal.
Before diving into the full experience of the programs, OVG explained what they were about to see.
They described the market, what was in it, and they described the garden, what grows there, and the neighbors who tend it.
This created collective anticipation.
Together, we were building excitement about what we were going to see during the site visit.
What made this site visit so special is that we had two locations to visit, each within walking distance of where we started.
The first space we visited was The Village Market.
When the foundation walked in, they could not help but smile.
They saw customers purchasing food and admired the fresh, delicious produce on display.
Any questions they asked were met with thoughtful and in-depth answers from Daniel, Waso, Shawn, and Alife, showing just how much time and care they had put into this work.
The next place we visited was the garden, about a three-minute walk from the market.
Walking in felt like stepping into a dream. It was a beautifully maintained garden, full of life.
Fresh, plump grapes hung from the rafters inside the gazebo.
When Waso noticed the foundation leaders admiring them, he suggested, “Pick some grapes and enjoy.”
We all did, and they were delicious.
The garden and market visits created space for unscripted interactions.
Community members wandered over and were welcomed as part of the story.
Staff trusted their neighbors enough to let them speak freely. Trustees asked questions directly, people responded openly, and the air felt honest and unscripted.
This moment tied everything together.
The foundation was seeing what they had read in the grant.
By the time we wrapped, relationships had opened a little wider and the visit had captured the heart of OVG’s work.
When the site visit was over, everyone could tell that it went really well. But we avoided thinking we had the gift in the bag.
Afterward, the foundation followed up with questions. They wanted financial documents clarified. They asked for profit and loss statements.
Responding promptly and honestly is just as important so that it doesn’t sour any goodwill that was built from the site visit.
We wanted to carry the same energy carried forward into the admin side.
A month or so later, the foundation’s board met, and their decision came in.
Our Village Gardens received its first grant from The Randall Trust. They were funded for the full amount requested, $14,000.
A rare first time outcome. 🪴