Page 35 - BusinessWest February 17, 2021

Harold Grinspoon
Philanthropist; Founder, Aspen Square Management
By Highlighting and Supporting the Under-recognized, He’s Changing Lives
FBy Joseph Bednar
or almost three decades, Harold Grinspoon has built an impressive net- work of philanthropic endeavors by asking a key question: who deserves more help and recognition than they’re currently receiving?
The most recent major piece of that network, the Local Farmer Awards, are a perfect example.
Leah Martin Photography
“Farmers have a really hard time making a living, and they work so hard,” he told BusinessWest, citing, as an example, a farmstand he frequents in the Berkshires, whose proprietor once told him about her difficulties getting water from a nearby mountain to her farm.
“Selling corn at fifty cents an ear doesn’t leave too much extra for a pipeline,” he said. “She gave me an idea — what can we do for the farmers? Farmers need help. Farmers never ask for help. They’re the most humble, hardworking people in the world. And this idea came to me to help them with capital improvements.”
Since the 2015 launch of the Local Farmer Awards, the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation (HGCF) has given 375 awards
— of up to $2,500 — to about 200 farmers in Western Mass. to aid with capital projects. In doing so, the foundation and its team of corporate partners has invested more than $885,000 in local farming.
“We don’t do anything alone,” said Cari Carpenter, director of the Local Farmer Awards and the Entrepreneurship Initiative, two key programs of the HGCF. “Big Y came on board right at the start because they’re such advocates for local products and wanted to support the local farmers.”
DIFFERENCE
FEBRUARY 17, 2021 35
“Farmers need
help. Farmers never
ask for help. They’re
the most humble,
hardworking people
in the world. And this
idea came to me to
help them with capital
”
In other words, making a difference shouldn’t be a solo performance.
“From my point of view, if you made the money in the Valley, you’d better give it back to the Valley,” he said. “You have to give back. This is where you made your living, and these are the people you need to support.”
In the case of farmers, that support is more critical now than ever.
Other program partners — Baystate
Health, Ann and Steve Davis, Farm Credit
East, HP Hood, and PeoplesBank — have
signed on over the years as well, making the Local Farmer Awards an ideal representation of what Grinspoon tries to accomplish with each of his charitable programs (and we’ll talk about several of them in a bit). That is, partnering with like-minded individuals, foundations, and businesses to not only support worthy causes, but stimulate philanthropy across the region.
improvements.
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