Case Study: Black Squirrel Farms builds a community-powered walnut collection network with NationBuilder

Black Squirrel Farms grows black walnut collections 10x with NationBuilder

Black Squirrel Farms, a small agricultural business, faced the challenge of building a community movement to collect and process a wasted local resource—black walnuts—in order to save centuries-old trees and establish a viable business. To manage this growing, non-traditional community of contributors and customers, they turned to the NationBuilder platform to track interactions and streamline operations.

Using NationBuilder, the company implemented a centralized system to run its website, send emails, handle basic accounting, and, most importantly, catalogue every person who drops off walnuts or makes a purchase. This solution enabled Black Squirrel Farms to grow its community efforts significantly, resulting in a tenfold increase in walnuts received from 2020 to 2025 and fostering a people-centric approach to conservation that encourages landowners to preserve their trees.

Black Squirrel Farms