Nurturing soil health innovations and education — this is the mission of the Dan Gillespie Soil Health Fund. And that goal is being accomplished.

The Battle Creek FFA received a $1,500 grant from the soil health fund and a Nebraska Community Foundation Youth Engagement Grant to acquire a state-of-the-art, environmentally controlled grow room that allowed students to study cover crop varieties and effectiveness on soil erosion and infiltration.

The project included a visual and oral presentation, with Ryan Zohner and Sydney Kuchar representing the team, which earned a top-10 finalist ranking at the National FFA Convention.

Central City High School student Akeyli Bush also gained support from the soil health fund toward her scientific research on the impact of land management techniques on soil aggregation and the soil microbiome.

Honoring soil health hero

These are just two examples of grants for projects that the late Dan Gillespie, a no-till farmer and soil health advocate for whom the fund was named, would have supported. Gillespie started using no-till practices in 1986. He joined the Natural Resources Conservation Service a year later, where he helped develop a cost-share no-till incentive program.

He served as an NRCS no-till specialist from 2004 until his retirement in 2020. Shortly after retirement, Gillespie was diagnosed with ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a terminal neurodegenerative disease. He passed away in February 2022 at age 67. His family, friends and soil health advocates around the region founded this fund in his honor in order to carry on Gillespie’s life work.

“Dan and I were sitting at his home in Battle Creek at the end of June 2020 when he turned to me and said, ‘I want to give $5,000 to a young farmer practicing good soil health,’” recalls Gillespie’s sister, Rebecca Evert. “I thought it was such a generous gesture, especially given his prognosis with ALS. Then it occurred to me and other family members that we could support his intentions to ‘pay forward’ his soil health passion and experience.”

That’s how the Dan Gillespie Soil Health Fund was established. “Our first grant supported No Till on the Plains, and a three-day bus trip for over 20 farmers and agronomists to visit no-till operations and visit with no-till researchers across Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota,” Evert says. “Dan had participated in one of these bus trips, and it was instrumental — along with witnessing a rainfall simulator demonstration — to his own education and adaptation of soil health practices.”

There are two grant cycles per year, with application deadlines of March 1 and Oct. 1. “Prior to each grant cycle, Nebraska Community Foundation and DG SH Fund advisory committee members send out media blasts to email lists and contacts to solicit grant applications,” Evert says. “The committee members individually score each application, meet to review, discuss pros and cons of each application, and then make the grant award decisions.”

There is feedback for applicants who didn’t fully meet criteria, along with recommendations, so they can apply again. Total endowment fund donations — with an individual donation of $10,000 and several challenge donations ranging from $2,500 to $5,000 — have grown to just over $100,000, Evert says.

“Our available annual grant amount is calculated based on the total endowment amount, so the grant amount grows as the fund grows,” she adds.

So far, a total of $7,200 has been awarded through six grants. But new applications were accepted and reviewed in March and September, so new awards have been made, with the grant amounts going up from $1,500 to $2,900. The grant amounts will continue to increase, Evert says.

Greater good

Evert recalls repeatedly saying that Gillespie’s lifelong passion for soil health is “for the greater good of us all.”

“This greater good lies in past, present and future efforts and doing the greatest possible good for the greatest number of individuals,” she explains. “Our youth are our future, and they are benefiting from the support and mentoring that Dan provided throughout his life, via his NRCS work and other community and family commitments, like serving 33 years as ‘Dan the Tree Man’ as a fourth through sixth grade annual conservation educator, or in his school board participation, as a church elder, and in the love he had for his five daughters and his grandchildren.

“This fund allows us to continue supporting young farmers, ranchers, researchers, educators and community organizations who share and will carry on Dan’s passion for soil health.”

The March 1 grant application cycle is now closed, and seven applications were considered by the advisory board — the most of any grant cycle so far. The next grant cycle deadline is Oct. 1.

If you are interested in applying for a Dan Gillespie Soil Health Fund grant, visit go.unl.edu/dgfund and click on “Apply for Grant.” You can also send mail to the Dan Gillespie Soil Health Fund, Nebraska Community Foundation, 8100 S. 15th St., Suite A, Lincoln, NE 68512.

Those wishing to contribute to the fund can use the same contact information. To learn more, contact Evert at 707-322-0670 or email [email protected].

Projects receiving grant funds

Dan Gillespie Soil Health Fund advisory committee