Stakeholders
As a multi-stakeholder cooperative, we are structured to balance the needs and contributions of diverse groups of partners, all needed to make the project work.
Farmer-Caretakers
Farmer-caretakers are the “employee” stakeholders in other coops and the faculty of the Lifeboat Academy. Farmer-caretakers are “all in” and can live full-time at the Farmastery. Access comes with an equal obligation of care and proportional access to the fruits of the collective labour of the Commons.
Our innovative share structure and transition economics model allow farmer-caretakers to start with a small financial investment and convert long-term care into sweat-equity and full ownership of their fair share.
Interested in becoming a Timeshare Cropper? Send us an email at friends@lifeboat.academy.
Timeshare Croppers
Picture this: your hands in the soil, the smell of earth rising. You plant beans, weed rows, share laughter with others beside you. At harvest, you take some food home, and some goes into the common pot. This isn’t labor-for-rent. It’s belonging. It’s remembering that tending the land is how we tend each other.
As a Timeshare Cropper, your shares in the Lifeboat Academy Coop translate directly into time you get to spend at the Farmastery, whether once a year, once a season or more. Each time you return, you’ll be able to observe the changes that come with the cycle of the seasons, and see the fruits of your labor from previous visits. Your investment in the Farmastery will be visible and tangible: your money and your labor will feed you and future generations.
It’s the perfect solution for those currently tied to urban lives who dream of having a deeper connection with land, food sovereignty and a community of people who care. For timeshare-croppers, Spalding Valley Farm operates like a time-share in a homestead.
Interested in becoming a Timeshare Cropper? Send us an email at friends@lifeboat.academy.
Community Partners
Our community partners keep us buoyant, honest and connected to place. Our coop structure allows groups as well as individuals to own part of the commons. We welcome allies in health, wellness, food security, environment, reconciliation and social justice to join the Lifeboat Academy to access the potential this land holds for healing, ceremony, and celebration.
We encourage our neighbours to own a piece of the commons. Community shares are full members of the association, able to participate in our governance, sit on the Stewardship Council, and engage in all of our farm activities at reduced rates.
Benefactors
Money is like manure: left in piles, it stinks. Spread on fertile ground, it grows life. At the Farmastery, your investment doesn’t buy outcomes — it becomes soil. It nourishes a place where people remember how to breathe, how to share, how to hope.
As a Benefactor, you create the conditions necessary for life to thrive. Your investment converts financial wealth to soil health, nourishing the farm and those who tend it for generations to come. The return on your investment takes the shape of pro-social benefits for all who are connected to the Farmastery, in perpetuity.
Your shares can be dedicated to making access available to people based on special characteristics or interests (e.g. sponsor a caretaker, youth, LGBTQ+, students, BIPOC, etc) and you have representation on the Stewardship Council and can participate in any activities of the Association..
You also have the confidence knowing that your investment is backed by the real estate and assets of the association so if the coop is dissolved, you will be made whole
Interested in becoming a benefactor? Send us an email at friends@lifeboat.academy.
And for people who want the details, check out the Nitty-Gritty page.