Community Giving

The Chestnut School is committed to resilience and health for the planet and our communities!

We’re dedicated to supporting the work of activists, non-profits, and reputable companies devoted to building a culture of ecological abundance, herbal accessibility, and social justice for all.

Our Community Giving initiatives channel funds to a wide range of impactful projects and organizations—since our online school launched in 2016, we have contributed over $950,000 in donations, reparations, sponsorships, and scholarships.

Click here to read the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Anti-Racism Statement.

1 Million Redwoods Campaign

For The Wild is planting millions of trees, native plants and fungal companions to mitigate climate change and rapid species loss. Chestnut School donated three Medicine Making Course enrollments to the campaign. Read more here.

Sun streaming into a forest.
American Herbalists Guild Conference logo

American Herbalists Guild Conference
(Supporting Diversity, Equity, and Justice in Herbalism Award)

The AHG Award for Notable Work Supporting Diversity, Equity, and Justice in Herbalism is an annual award from the American Herbalists Guild to recognize outstanding accomplishments in herbal medicine that address health care needs, and strengthen herbal traditions, heritage, and wisdom within diverse communities.  Above all, this award recognizes communities speaking with their own voices and on their own behalf.

Ancient Song Doula Services

Ancient Song Doula Services is an international doula certifying organization whose goal is to offer quality doula services to women of color and low-income families who otherwise would not be able to afford doula care as well as to train a workforce of full-spectrum doulas to address health inequities within the communities they serve.

Ancient Song Doula Services logo
Asheville Greenworks logo

Asheville Greenworks

Asheville GreenWorks works to enhance the environment and quality of life for all residents of Asheville and Buncombe County through community-based, volunteer-led environmental conservation projects and education programs.

BIPOC Community Urban Farm Fund

The BIPOC Community Urban Farm Fund was set up to establish a Black-owned and Black-led urban farm accessible to all BIPOC folks to learn, grow, take root, in Los Angeles, CA.

A person holding a basket in a garden.
Black Girl Magik logo.

Black Girl Magik

Black Girl Magik is a wellness company creating space for Black women to grow, heal and learn. Black Girl Magik helps awaken the healer within Black women through practices and education rooted in spirituality, wellness, and holistic healing.

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc. is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.

Black Lives Matter
Cazimi Healing logo

Cazimi Healing

Cazimi Healing is a plant medicine and healing practice offering wellness products, holistic health & healing services, and classes & workshops to support community health, healing and resilience.

Cazimi Healing is committed to offering quality, affordable and accessible healthcare and healing for all, especially queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people, people of color, and low income people.

Climate Justice Alliance

The Climate Justice Alliance formed to create a new center of gravity in the climate movement by uniting frontline communities into a formidable force. They believe that the process of transition must place race, gender and class at the center of the solutions equation in order to make it a truly Just Transition.

Climate Justice Alliance logo.
Community Advocacy & Healing Project logo

Community Advocacy & Healing Project

The Community Advocacy and Healing Project is building community through healing and human centered advocacy, events, and programs. Creating community through collaborative efforts to educate, mobilize, organize, and love the people impacted, serving, and working within oppressive systems. Human centered advocacy focuses on improving the holistic quality of life of people impacted by and working within oppressive systems.

Compassion Acupuncture Project

The Compassion Acupuncture Project is a direct platform to pay it forward by donating towards sliding scale and scholarship acupuncture treatments and herbal medicine for those in need. The project will directly serve members of the following communities: the LGBTQIA community, People of Color, the creative community (artists, dancers, makers, and musicians).

The Compassion Acupuncture Project logo
Emancipate NC logo

Emancipate NC

Through community education, narrative shift, and idea incubation, Emancipate NC supports North Carolina’s people as they free themselves from mass incarceration and structural racism.

Every Mother Counts

Every Mother Counts is a non-profit organization dedicated to making pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother.

Every Mother Counts logo
Farmworker Justice logo

Farmworker Justice

Farmworker Justice is a nonprofit organization that seeks to empower farmworkers to improve their living and working conditions, immigration status, health, occupational safety, and access to justice.

Feeding America

As the largest network of food banks, pantries, and meal programs in the country, Feeding America is the leading organization in the fight against hunger in the United States. 200 food banks strong, they serve over 40 million people in virtually every community in America. Since their beginnings 40 years ago, Feeding America has made innovative strides in combatting food waste and providing fresh food to hungry people across the country.

Feeding America logo
Free Fire Cider logo

Free Fire Cider

Free Fire Cider is run by herbalists working together with herbalist Rosemary Gladstar, who coined the phrase “fire cider” and started sharing the recipe over 25 years ago,  to protect the name Fire Cider from trademarks. They are committed to providing information and materials for the herbal community so that together, we can fight to keep traditional remedies free and available to everyone!

Global Earth Repair Conference

Regeneration International‘s mission is to promote, facilitate and accelerate the global transition to regenerative food, farming and land management for the purpose of restoring climate stability, ending world hunger and rebuilding deteriorated social, ecological and economic systems.

The Global Earth Repair Conference Included: Over 150 presenters; keynote talks; over 200 workshops, panels, round-table discussions, and working groups with experts in many fields of ecosystem restoration and social transformation; field trips to successful earth repair projects on the Olympic Peninsula; ceremony, music and art; honoring the heroes & heroines of earth repair.

Regeneration International logo
Gullah Geechee Herbal Gathering logo

Gullah Geechee Herbal Gathering

The Gullah Geechee Herbal Gathering is a one day annual conference geared towards exploring the historical and cultural uses of herbs and plant medicine in the Gullah/Geechee Nation and within the Diaspora. Herbalism in the Gullah Geechee culture has been passed down from generation to generation, most directly from the enslaved and it is the event’s goal to help educate and heal the community with this information. They seek to empower the community to further care for themselves and their families with this acquired knowledge.

The event will consist of workshops, plant walks, nutritious food, and a marketplace of herbal vendors, fun herbal activities, guided movement activities and more.

Health Justice Commons

Health Justice Commons works at the intersection of multiple injustices to empower targeted communities to re-imagine and re-design healthcare and healing for the 21st Century.

Health Justice Commons Logo.
Herbalista Free Clinic logo

Herbalista and the Herb Bus

The Herbalista Free Clinic provides free herbal care via their mobile clinics, the Herb Bus and the Herb Cart, to underserved communities in Atlanta and around the country. In addition to clinical services they also offer herbal education, training other herbalists on how they can start up mobile clinics in their neck of the woods. Chestnut School will be matching donations and contributing enrollments for their upcoming annual campaign.

Hood Herbalism

Hood Herbalism is a community herbal education project creating spaces for people to interact with plants and learn basic herbal medicine making skills.

Hood Herbalism logo
I Heart Pisgah logo 

I Heart Pisgah

I HEART PISGAH is a coalition of over 100 organizations and businesses—and thousands of individuals—who support more protected areas for the Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest.

I HEART PISGAH supports strong, lasting protections for the Pisgah-Nantahala and its old-growth forests, headwaters, pristine streams, trail corridors, rare species, and recreational hubs.

The U.S. Forest Service is finalizing a 30-year forest management plan for the Pisgah-Nantahala this year, and over 92 percent of the 22,000 public comments on the plan support protected areas in Pisgah.

I HEART PISGAH works to ensure that the public’s voice is heard and the most important recreation and conservation areas are permanently protected.

International African American Museum

Located on the site where almost half of all African captives arrived in the U.S., the International African American Museum will share the untold stories of the African American journey at one of our country’s most sacred sites. Opening 2022.
International African American Museum logo.
Man preparing food in a commercial setting.

Medicinal and Horticultural Gardens Project

Chef Zu of Kings Apron is planning to build out a series of healing spaces in Atlanta where individuals and families can practice horticultural therapy as well as get a better understanding of traditional medicine through herbalism and medicinal mushrooms. Read more about the project here.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund logo
National Black Food & Justice Alliance logo

National Black Food & Justice Alliance

The National Black Food & Justice Alliance is a coalition of Black-led organizations, developing Black leadership, supporting Black communities, organizing Black self-determination, and building institutions for Black food sovereignty & liberation.

The Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance

The Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance (NAFSA) supports Native communities nationally with advocacy, education, and networking as they revitalize their indigenous food systems.

Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance logo
The Natural Way Birthing Project logo

The Natural Way Birthing Project

The Natural Way Birthing Project‘s mission is to help lower the infant mortality risk factors and nurture families through education, advocacy and support during pregnancy and beyond. Chestnut School annually donates an enrollment to our Medicine Making Course.

NOLA Herb Gathering

The NOLA Herb Gathering is a family friendly conference embracing self care as health care through the intergenerational and cultural uses of herbal and plant medicine. Teachers and presenters share their wisdom of using plant medicine with the intent to care for themselves, their families and communities. There is also a local artisan market focused on small businesses that center their work on plants and a raffle to raise money for a worthy cause. The gathering is full of fun and learning how to work with the earth to take care of ourselves.

NOLA Herb Gathering logo
Organic Growers School logo

Organic Growers School

Organic Growers School is the premiere provider of practical and affordable organic education in the Southern Appalachians, building a vibrant food and farming community by boosting the success of organic home growers and farmers in our region. Chestnut School donates a Medicine Making Course enrollment to their annual conference raffle.

Plants and Healers International

The mission of Plants and Healers International is to celebrate and further the work of Frank C. Cook IV by connecting communities and supporting activities that promote his vision of advancing human culture in harmony with the natural world. PHI facilitates knowledge exchange, skill building, inspires individuals and equips communities with tools to transition to a sustainable society that is in harmony with the natural world. Their interactive website, documentaries, international herbal resource centers and the published writings of Frank Cook are some ways in which the organization hopes to make a profound and positive impact on the world. Chestnut School is contributing $1,000 to an upcoming trip to China that is a collaboration with PHI and Joe Hollis of Mountain Gardens. Joe has been cultivating Chinese medicinal herbs in the Appalachian Mountains for decades and will be collecting seeds and knowledge on this voyage.

Plants and Healers International logo
Rootwork Herbals logo

Rootworks Herbals

Rootwork Herbals was founded by Amanda David, a plant lover from way back who has been intimately studying herbal medicine for over 20 years. Rootwork Herbals seeks to serve the community through herbal education, consultations and handcrafted remedies that are high quality and accessible to all. They strive to inspire and empower people to take back responsibility for their health utilizing plant medicine in a way that is bioregional, regenerative and joyful.

The Sentencing Project

Founded in 1986, The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.

The Sentencing Project logo
Sacred Waters Logo.

Sacred Waters Retreat

Sacred Waters Retreat is a professional organization designed to hold space for women of color in safe places for ritual, healing & restoration. Participants share and explore ancient healing traditions by remembering, resurrecting & honoring their legacies at various locations around the world.

SistasCaring4Sistas

SistasCaring4Sistas is a community-based doula program committed to social justice and reducing health disparities for women and infants of color.

Sistas Caring 4 Sistas logo
SEWW logo

Southeast Women's Herbal Conference

Southeast Wise Women offers renowned educational events for women to learn, connect and deepen into the Wise Woman Tradition, inspiring women to deepen a connection to ourselves, the Earth and each other. Chestnut School donates Medicine Making Course enrollments to the annual conference raffle to raise funds for their scholarship program.

The Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. Using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy, the SPLC works toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality.

The Southern Poverty Law Center logo
Medic and Healers Council logo

Standing Rock Medic + Healer Council

With funding organized in part by the Herbal Action Network, these inspiring water protectors coordinated medical and healing supplies, human resources, and other types of medical/healing aid for the NoDAPL resistance camps. Learn more hereThe Herbal Action Network connects herbalists around the country in support of social and environmental justice.

Sustainable Herbs Project

The Sustainable Herbs Project is an interactive documentary following medicinal plants through the supply chain to provide you with the information needed to feel more confident about the herbal remedies you purchase. With interviews, stories, videos, and facts, they’ll bring the supply chain to life. Chestnut School donated an Herbal Immersion scholarship to their Kickstarter campaign.

A person working a farm with machinery.
Three hands hold up hand shovels.

Swannanoa Women’s Prison Garden

Incarcerated women are gardening, growing and transforming their lives in the Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women Garden program. This vital program seeks to provide tools to inmates to empower themselves while reducing North Carolina’s 40% recidivism rate by:

-Providing a pathway for inmates to connect with nature and the community

-Providing opportunities for inmates to build skills in the field of agriculture

-Offer job training and entrepreneurship education

Chestnut School donated two Herbal Immersion enrollments to their campaign–find out more on their fundraising page.

Village Birth International

Village Birth International is committed to universal health equity for all families by eliminating the impact of racism and systemic oppression on perinatal outcomes.

Village Birth International logo
A smiley face made from fruits and vegetables.

We Give a Share

We Give a Share is a grassroots initiative uniting Asheville, NC area farms, chef activists, and those communities who benefit most from fresh, deliciously prepared foods. This innovative networked community-center model goes beyond a typical CSA by offering supporters an opportunity to buy a nominal “share” of the farm dedicated to growing specifically for Southside Kitchen.

We Love Lake Street

We Love Lake Street is a crowd-sharing campaign created by Minneapolis’ Lake Street Council in the wake of the violent unrest over the death of George Floyd. Donations help rebuild Lake Street’s diverse small businesses and community organizations that have been most affected.

We Love Lake Street Logo.
NC Herb Association logo

Wild Herb Weekend

The Wild Herb Weekend is the North Carolina Herb Association’s annual conference, held in the beautiful high mountain location of Valle Crucis, NC in late July. There is something for everyone at this intimate little conference. Whether you grow herbs for a hobby, use herbs for healing, or want to start a commercial herb operation, you will find many interesting sessions and hands-on workshops and plant walks to participate in!