Home-Grown Food Network, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization incorporated in California on April 3, 2003. While our complete 1023 application for that status will be available online soon, for your information, and for other similar organizations to use, you can review the supplementary questions asked by the IRS after we submitted our 1023 application and our answers to those questions here .  Meanwhile, feel welcome to browse, copy, and if you are part of a non-profit corporation, otherwise use in any way you wish, our Articles of Incorporation and By Laws. You also might be interested in how we support this work.  Our financial support comes from sponsorships, donations (corporations, foundations, and other not-for-profit organizations), grants and fundraising events.  We also are largely self-supporting through our own contributions, as we live in an ultra-low-cost house, grow our own food, and use renewable energy and rainwater to meet our energy and utility needs.  Therefore, for the work we accomplish, our financial needs are relatively small.  Self-reliance and accomplishing great things by working on a small scale are two ways of working we demonstrate through our own daily lives. For the support we do need, we benefit from sponsorships, in-kind donations from many sources, labor donated by volunteers of all skill levels and types, and cash donations from many individuals and businesses.  Other pages of this site invite you to participate in the work through any or all of these ways.  Our basic principle of supporting the non-profit corporation is to obtain small amounts from many sources and methods, rather than counting on large grants or fund streams.  We do not have any connection with government at this time, but we are not averse to such connections if we can maintain the vision and mission of the organization at the same time we work with government.  We are and will at all times remain independent of any religion, political party, or creed, although we can be described generally as progressive, spiritually-based and centered, and following in the footsteps of Plato, Thoreau, Gandhi and King.. We also are our own patrons when necessary, doing project work for money.  Brenda is a retired lawyer who does research and writing; Art is a journalist, writer, and teacher; and Peter makes money as a man of many talents:  he is at various times a web designer (who designed this site, through his separate company, Clean Sweep Vision, Inc.); accountant; executive producer of a TV production company, Inspirational Films, L.P.; and land use planning consultant.  To supplement our self support and intermittent donations, HGFN has several ongoing fund raising projects.  We hold two large garage sales per year, where we and volunteers sell items supporters donate (many to other volunteers and supporters, demonstrating both the law of circulation and the principle that one person's trash is another's treasure!).  These sales are followed by fundraising dinners where we serve buffets of yuscious (yummy and luscious) dishes prepared with foods from the gardens, have raffles and silent auctions of donated items, and have a fun time with also donated great prizes, at casino nights.  We also sell donated collectible and used books through this website, at the HGFN Book Mart, through another page at this site. And don't forget our blogs! - they are another great way to keep you in touch with HGFN history in the making!