BEN'S RANCH FOUNDATION INC

Programs

1. Our small group programs continued to grow in 2025. Eligible youth ages 13-18 participate in work on a farm or at a stable, nursery or other agricultural facility, typically for three hours per week or six weeks. Our content includes a broad range of skill development and experiences. The principles of social emotional learning and employability concepts as well as a variety of soft skills are integrated into each session. Participating youth learn to work with new adults and their peers, solve problems, improve communication and gain skills which raise self-confidence and stimulate curiosity. In 2025 the program served 38 new youth in the 6-week program. In addition, during 2025 the foundation continued a pilot program with a local school district, in which a group of students fitting our requirements were selected by the school and were transported once per week to one of our locations to perform work projects, learn about animals and local agribusinesses and about career opportunities in agricultural, outdoor and natural resources industries.participants pay $300 to participate in a small group program. And, when needed, the foundation discounts or waives this fee for…

   $326,349 spent$110,791 earned by the program
   96% of program spending

2. Another small group program is the "bootcamp" which gives youth and their caregivers an opportunity to work on a farm for several hours on one date. During the bootcamp, youth typically complete one or more projects which can range from carpentry to gardening, to painting and handling livestock. The experience provides our foundation and parents and caregivers insight into how each young person would respond to our 6-week program or a paid internship. In 2025 our bootcamps attracted 45 new participants, many of whom participated in our small 6-week program after a bootcamp.in a post-program survey, 100 percent of caregivers and parents reported that they would recommend the programs to other parents and 87 percent reported significant improvement in the mental health of their teens.there is no charge for participation in a bootcamp.

3. Our paid internships continue to be a key program. Eligible youth ages 14-18 are placed into a part-time paid job at a farm, stable or ranch engaged and screened by the foundation, where they earn wages and job experience and do chores and projects as employees of the host farm. The foundation offers to reimburse host employers for up to six months, and no less than three, providing an incentive for those hosts to employ one of our teens. Many of our interns continue their jobs after their graduation, or six months of employment. In 2025 we placed seven new interns into such jobs at one of the 13 host sites we have arranged.typically, most interns have completed our small group program prior to taking an internship job, providing an opportunity for training and evaluation of their qualifications and readiness to move into a paid job, often their first.there is no cost for participation in a paid internship arranged by the foundation, so there is no revenue. The direct costs for reimbursement of wages to host employers totaled $9990.00 in 2025.

   $9,990 spent
   3% of program spending

4. Through our partnership with the hamilton county parks department, we also provided first-time-horse experiences to 179 hamilton county youth during the summer. We also worked with the area youth assistant programs to provide a summer camp program designed to give at-risk youth work experience and skill development. We also launched our first preventative wellness camp for youth 11-13. This was successful and we will expand to two in the summer of 2026. In addition, we grew relationships with local agribusinesses, which gives our teens valuable exposure to local career opportunities and insight into various fields of agriculture.in total, we served youth from seven area counties representing 23 schools. Our youth come from diverse racial, demographic and socio-economic backgrounds. Using pre- and post-experience surveys developed with assistance from purdue university, we gathered important outcomes data throughout the year. This data, together with data collected over many years, will be reviewed in 2026 by purdue researchers toward the goal of a peer-reviewed review on the impact our programs have on the youth we serve.apart from participation fee income, the foundation was…

   $3,626 spent$7,550 earned by the program
   1% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $339,965.