Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share types have evolved significantly over the years and we see many innovations. Farmers use the phrase "CSA" and its framework to describe all kinds of selling strategies.
With this chart, we aim to help you understand how GrownBy can work for your variation on CSA. Our support and sales staff are on hand to help you set up your shop and we highly encourage you — especially if your model is a bit quirky — to reach out to us!
| Type of CSA Style | Does this work on GrownBy? | Considerations |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional CSA | YES! | Instructions and video |
| Customizable Box CSA | YES! | - FAQ - Contact our support team to start set up - Example Farm: Ridge to Reef Farm |
| Spenddown CSA (or Credit CSA) | YES! | - Works great for pre-ordered shares. - Sell farm credit to the member and then they can shop each week. - Set up farm credit as a digital product. - Use promotions and discounts if that's part of your model. - Can work well for "shares" that are debited at a market stand, too, if farmers or customers use the mobile app. - Example farm: The Lo Farm |
| Free Choice Shares | Can work | - If the member picks up on site, GrownBy works wonderfully. - Other methods like pre-ordered boxes can also work, and you should contact our team to set up. - Example farm: River Queen Greens |
| Flexible week CSA | YES! | - Create a weekly box and encourage members to buy in advance for the weeks they want to pickup. - Or… use vacation weeks to allow members to opt out of weeks they don't want to pickup. - Example Farm: Massaro Community Farm |
| Bi-weekly or monthly shares | YES! | - Many farms use this strategy, often with two different share products with names like "Bi-weekly A week" and "biweekly B week". - Using a share template makes it extra easy and makes reports clearer! |
| Small/Medium/Large shares | YES! | Simply create different share products for each size. |
| Rolling shares | YES! | - Work with our support team to make a schedule that is longer than the number of pick-ups in the share. - Pay extra attention to the billing end date. |
| Multi-farm CSA | YES, depending | - Any farm on GrownBy can add products from other producers. - Use the producer field in a product to be transparent with customers. Consider prominently featuring the logo of the other producer in the product photo. - Sign-in sheet exports and Invoice Detail exports include producer fields to allow for better management. - Payment goes through one primary farm. |
| U-pick CSA | YES! | - Farms do this in many different ways, so contact our support team to discuss your method and how to do it on GrownBy. - Some farms sell a one-priced share and others might sell time slots. |
| Year-round shares | YES! | Create a Year-round schedule. |
| Sliding Scales or Tiers | YES! | Use a share template to make a share and then have different price tiers nested in that template. |
| Workplace CSA | YES! | - Works like other CSAs. - Can use a private CSA if only employees can pickup from this location. |
| Delivered CSA | YES! | See this article on delivery. |
| Shipped CSA | YES! | See this article on shipping. |