Support our Flock and Project!
Friend of Tivoli Lake Preserve and Farm, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Tivoli Lake Preserve.
Support Friends of Tivoli Lake and Farm's long-term conservational, educational and recreational efforts in Albany, NY by making a donation today. Your tax-deductible donation provides needed support to our garden, compost, art, and environmental education programs.
Our EIN number is 37-1931984.
Make a donation
Prefer to Pay by Check?
If you prefer to make a payment via check, please make it payable to “Friends of Tivoli Lake Preserve and Farm, Inc.” and mail to:
Friends of Tivoli Lake Preserve and Farm, Inc.
817 Livingston Avenue
Albany, NY 12206
The vision for 2024 and beyond!
Below is a list of some programming we hope to continue next season. Your donation will go towards supporting the team that will provide this programming.
Flax garden programming ~ Our flax garden has been growing for the past three years, and we hope to continue hiring local artists to help us bring more workshops about spinning, plant dyes, and more. Funds raised will help with materials and educator fees.
Raised beds for our friends at the Livingston Apartments ~ We are so grateful for our partnership with the Livingston Apartments and want to bring some joy to their doorstep. Funds will be used to maintain the beds built next to the building, including purchasing plants and materials to shore up the fences to protect the plants.
High School Internship Program ~ This program is now a year-round paid internship program for 6 students. Starting in the summer months, the students work together to learn about growing things in all the ways (seeds, friendships, dreams!), and in the winter months, they take their learnings to create a project for their neighborhood.
Year-round monthly programming ~ Including organized walks on the trails (winter walks, art classes, bird and plant identification), trail clean-up events, and garden work days.
Growing our garden ~ We are so honored and humbled to work with the land. Over the past few years, our hugelkultur beds have grown and shifted shapes ~ they have literally moved from rows to pods, and we are even trying to create a sunflower spiral! As we’ve watched it change, we allow ourselves to co-create with the Earth, and our garden is now a combination of curated plants, veggies, native herbs, and wildflowers. In 2024, we dream of planting 1,000 sunflowers and flowers between our two garden spaces. Why flowers? Because they bring joy, smell delightful, and are hopefully a dreamy space for pollinators. We hope the sunflower spiral will become a little place for you to have a moment (who knows if it will turn out, but we love trying our hand at these things!).
“Garden with Friends” public programming ~ Between mid-May and October, you can join us in the garden space at Tivoli. You’ll work alongside our high school interns and help us tend to the land. Some nights have special guests and workshops.
Normanskill Garden Work Parties ~ We’ll also have garden work parties at our Normanskill space!
Composting ~ We are a drop-off site for your food scraps! Help us raise funds to support our team, helping with compost turns and processing.
Staffing ~ To continue bringing programming to the Preserve and offering events, we must have educators to help support these programs. Funds help provide stipends to educators to help manage the gardens, compost, and programs mentioned above. Without the leadership of educators, our programs would not exist.
Animals ~ As always, funds are used to support the flock to ensure we have enough hay, minerals, grain, and vet visits so everyone's bellies are happy, well-fed, and cared for throughout the year.
Thank “ewe”!
Please note we are currently out of yarn, but are currently getting this processed for 2024.
Your donation helps
us in many ways:
$15 can buy two bales of straw which is used as bedding for our flock.
$20 can help us purchase gardening gloves, trash bags, hand tools, and other supplies needed for our projects.
$25 is enough to fund annual vaccinations for one animal. Our sheep and alpacas get rabies, CDT, and dewormers (as-needed).
$30 can pay for enough grain to supplement our sheep for one month.
$35 could plant a native tree in Tivoli Lake Nature Preserve and further contribute to the preserve’s biodiversity.
$60 can buy seeds and starter plants for the garden.
$125 allows us to provide medical care and quality feed for one sheep or alpaca.
$150 purchases a wheelbarrow and tools that can be used for hauling food scraps to our compost pile and finished compost to our gardens!
$160 shears one of our beautiful alpacas (we have three!). Our alpacas are sheared in the Spring.
$250 shears our entire flock of 19 sheep, which helps our animals and supports local sheep shearers.
Some consider the practice of sheep shearing a dying art!
$300 allows us to foster creativity by supporting fiber art workshops and events.
$570 allows us to buy 100 bales of hay. Our animals typically go through 500+ bales each winter and spring. With climate change making New York so unpredictable, hay prices are increasing.
$800+ goes towards the stipend for our incredible educators who help manage programs.
$1,500 can further support art projects by funding the processing of our wool. After the sheep and alpacas are sheared, the wool goes to a local mill to be cleaned and processed. Part of it is turned into yarn or left as clean wool and used in art workshops yearly.
Thank you to
our Supporters
Grants and Foundations
Carl E. Touhey Foundation
Stewart’s Holiday Match Program
Honest Weight Enviro Tokens Program
Regeneron
Livingston School Apartments
Hannaford Bloomin’ 4 Good Program
Individual Contributions
Megan Alix
Mary Millus
Emma Green Club
Anne Klaeysen
John Klaeysen
Paul Klaeysen
Rich Polec
Kevin Kuhne and Laura Silver-Kuhne
Stephen Piusz
Martha Swan
Mike Matthews
Sarah Read
Carmen Duncan
Robert Ward
Pauline Carrico
Gail Golderman
Sheryl DeCrosta
Christine Kielb
Jeannie Langdon
Dominick Calsolaro
Sam and Christine Carrera
Mary DiChristopher
Ann Connolly
Victoria van der Laan
Steven Bush
Bryan LaVigne
Michael Moran
Ashley Fedor
Carmen Serrano
Catherine Holmes
Landon Letzkus
Gary and Pam Kleppel
Meredith Levine
Marisa DeDominicis
Francesca Faber
Beth Petrenko
Hayden Taylor
Tommy Ryan
Donna Perry
Sarah Boink
Susan DeBois
Chris Morris
James and Karen Beil
Ann Harrison
Marc Gerstman
Sophie Sumner
Kathryn Richter
Ruth Smith
Ilene and Paula Cutler-Lockshon
Glenn Newman
Iris Whalen
George Choorackal
Melissa Gurr
Mary Anne Vigliante Michele Musto
Phyllis Morrison
Kathy Witherspoon Margaret Taranto
Tina Lieberman
Sean Madden
Dylan Carey
Kate Gaffney
Alexandra and Joaquim Pinheiro
Michael Ransom
Emily Newman
Andrew Newman
Catherine Sears
Mark and Kristen King
Charles Houghton
Ash Rabi
Daniel Kelly
Ian Benjamin
Worth Gretter
Michael Cavanaugh
Jeff Jones
Kathleen Moser
Ellie Irons
Joshua Farrell
Chris Hodgkins
Margaret Ciccocioppo
Briela Tollisen
Julie McLafferty
David Franklin
Hillary Gaeta
Ruth Smith
Radix Ecological Sustainability Center
Dee and Frank Wind
Barbara A. Peer
Victoria Roberts
Willow Eyres
Young Peacemakers Week
Emily Widdekind
Alexis Bhagat
Daniel Kirk-Davidoff
Maggie Oldendorf
John Baranowski
Beautiful sheep imagery by KT Bierman