Small Business Market Development Support
The Forever Green Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Program is a new offering designed to support product and market development featuring continuous living cover (CLC) crops—Kernza(R) perennial grain, American elderberries, hybrid hazelnuts, winter barley, winter camelina, hybrid winter rye, or pennycress—through funding support, access to resources, and tailored mini-consulting projects.
Why?
CLC market development is challenging yet imperative to scaling novel crops. SMEs can be major innovators in this area, leading the way in new product development and commercialization. By doing so, they can directly advance perennial agriculture, agroforestry, and regenerative agriculture initiatives that support soil health, biodiversity, water quality, local communities and ecosystems.
Program Offerings
Financial Support
Up to $9,000 in direct financial support for marketing and product development costs.
Examples include trade show participation, packaging design, and recipe development.
Project Support
$7,800 equivalent in in-kind services:
1-3 business development projects completed by the Markets team (see to the right).
Projects may include market research, product positioning, and marketing materials.
Program Structure
12 months of structured support:
2 peer-to-peer engagement events.
Regular check-ins with the Markets team to discuss business development progress.
- These meetings are a time to define goals, identify areas of focus, coordinate staff projects, and provide additional support within the program and will occur biweekly to monthly during the program timeframe.
Program Timeline
Applications for our 2026 program cycle are now open and will close November 19th, 2025. Use the link at the top of the page to access the application.
Please provide your contact information if you would like to be contacted about future application cycles.
Group 1: August 1, 2025 - July 31, 2026 (12 months)
- The program will start with a kick-off meeting to establish a schedule for 1:1 engagement with selected businesses.
- These check-ins will be times to define goals, identify areas of focus, coordinate staff projects, and provide additional support within the program scope.
- Two peer-to-peer learning and in-person activities will take place through the duration of the program, scheduled according to group availability.
For more information on our program structure, please refer to the program guide linked below:
Group 2: January 1, 2026 - December 31, 2026 (12 months)
Applications for the 2026 SME program are open now through November 19th. You may access the application through this link.
Check out the full program guide here:
Program Updates
FAQs
I have an early-stage business concept that involves CLC crops. Do I qualify for this program?
Our SME Program is intended for established small-to-medium sized businesses. We're looking for businesses that have existing operations, revenue, and the capacity to implement or accelerate new CLC products within the program timeframe. This program accelerates product development by filling in the gaps and reducing risk for current business.
We are developing an Entrepreneur in Residence program. If you are in an earlier stage of business development (i.e. pre-incorporation or no product in market) or at a point of significant change in business leadership and strategy, it is intended to provide the talent, resources, structure, and access to capital to develop and launch an impactful business in regenerative agriculture. If you’d like to receive information about this program when it launches (expected Winter 2025-2026), you can provide your contact information here.
Do participants have to take advantage of all the funding categories?
No, selected participants can focus Forever Green support on the areas most relevant to their business needs, provided these are clearly articulated in the application and mutually agreed upon with Forever Green during the program kick-off.
Alternatively, businesses do not have to use the financial support, and can choose to focus on Forever Green project support. In this case, funding may be repurposed to other program members. To this end, we do take fit for the program design structure into consideration in the application selection process.
Can we use Forever Green staff support for more than 8-hours a month?
Yes, the ‘8-hours a month’ is the average over the course of the program. Depending on business needs and agreed-upon projects, this time may be consolidated; e.g., we may coordinate a more intensive 3-month period where Forever Green provides multiple days of support, and then scale back during quiet periods.
All project timing and scope will be mutually agreed upon during program kick-off and can be adjusted as needed throughout the program.
What if we cannot attend in-person events in St. Paul, Minnesota?
We strongly encourage participants to attend the select in-person engagements. We can work with selected participants to enable alternative engagements if needed. If attendance is a question of travel funds, Forever Green can provide small travel stipends.
If I am not selected as a participant, or if I choose not to apply, can I still engage with Forever Green in some way?
Yes, this program is intended to intensify our engagement with a small number of SMEs so Forever Green and these partners can achieve our goals more effectively. On a per-case basis, we are always happy to be a resource, answer questions, and generally support SMEs outside of this SME program, as capacity allows. This is consistent with our past approach to market development.
My company is not a food business. Do I still qualify?
We are looking to support a broad range of commercial applications to advance CLC. These include distilling, brewing, bakery, restaurant, catering, food retail, CPG, animal feed, poultry, plant nursery, milling, pet food, and malting.
Do I have to be located in Minnesota or source CLC crop ingredients specifically from Minnesota to participate in this program?
No. This was a requirement for Round 1 applicants to this program, but we have broadened the eligibility guidelines for Round 2.