Cornelius Blanding has over 25 years of experience serving black farmers, landowners, and limited resource cooperatives as well as rural communities in the South and internationally. He has worked as a small business development & management consultant, manager of a multi-million-dollar revolving loan fund, domestic and international project director, Director of Field Operations & Special Projects, Deputy Director and has been serving as the Executive Director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund since 2015. Cornelius served and continues to serve on various boards and committees, including: the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Farm & Forest Carbon Solutions Task Force, Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance Steering Committee, Socially Disadvantaged Farmers & Ranchers Policy Research Center’s Advisory Board, Nationwide’s Board Council, National Cooperative Business Association’s Board of Directors, Cooperative Development Foundation Board, Agricultural Safety & Health Council of America, Southeast Climate Consortium, Presbyterian Committee on the Self Development of People, USDA State Emergency Board (Georgia), a Blue Ribbon Panel for the Duke Endowment’s Rural Church Program Area and was appointed by the US Secretary of Agriculture to serve on the Land Tenure Sub-Committee of the USDA Advisory Committee on Beginning Farmers & Ranchers.
The fund now welcomes funding from a broad array of donors to continue to support rural Black community self determination throughout the Black Belt region.