Thimble Farm is now expected to go on the market after a community coalition that had formed last year to buy the farm failed to raise enough money.

The group was called the Martha’s Vineyard Farm Project and the goal was to buy the 37-acre farm that is currently leased by Whippoorwill Farm owner Andrew Woodruff.

But farm owner Eric Grubman, a seasonal resident of Katama, confirmed that the coalition was unable to realize a plan to buy the farm and turn it into a nonprofit food-producing operation.

“I’m disappointed,” Mr. Grubman said. “I’ve been thinking it through, and I think I am going to put it on the market . . . there’s interest in it. I’m sorry to see the project not succeed. I went into this being willing to give it some time but not do it myself,” he added.

Mr. Grubman is executive vice president of the National Football League. He bought the farm in 2007 for $2.45 million and leased it out to the Whippoorwill operation. The land has an agricultural preservation restriction on it held by the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank. The restriction is an impediment to housing development, but would not block a private estate such as a horse farm.

Last June, Mr. Grubman decided he no longer wished to own the property and asked Mr. Woodruff to come up with a plan by the end of the year. In response, the farm project was formed, which included the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, Island Grown Initiative and others. The group worked to craft a deal to buy the farm in the Iron Hill area off the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road and convert it to a nonprofit dedicated to food production. The goal was to raise $2.5 million; Mr. Grubman had offered to donate back a portion of the property’s value toward the sale.

But with no significant donors, the farm committee dissolved in March, Island Grown Initiative president Sarah McKay said this week. Ms. McKay said the group had one pledge for $200,000 that was contingent on other donations, far short of the goal. Ms. McKay said she, too, was disappointed. “It’s sad, personally I went through the sadness of it back [in February] when I realized our efforts were in vain,” she said.

She said a slim hope remains that the farm can be saved.

“Until there’s a closing or a property transfer, it’s not done,” she said. “I don’t know what the next chapter is going to be and I hope whoever is out there as a potential buyer, they have a connection to food and farming to some degree.”

The Farm Institute in Katama explored its own avenues to possibly assist with the project, but executive director Jon Previant said the board of directors had to pass in the end. “We evaluated the opportunity and just decided that we didn’t have resources to move forward,” he said Monday. “I’m deeply disappointed the farm may be lost to food production because it represents four per cent of acres on the Island [in active food production] — it’s a big loss,” he said, adding: “Mr. Grubman, over the many years he’s owned it, has been extremely patient and willing to entertain almost any idea. Unfortunately the money wasn’t forthcoming.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Woodruff, who has already moved the Whippoorwill base of operation back to his own property on Old County Road, e-mailed a newsletter Monday to members of the community supported agriculture program confirming the news that this will likely be his last year at Thimble Farm. The full text of that letter appears on page 11.

“Several weeks ago, I began to plow the fields at Thimble Farm for what most likely will be the last time. As the dust rose up from the turning of the soil, I began to wonder just what this land could mean to our community — not only now, but 30 years from now,” he wrote.

About the farm project he said: “This was a serious attempt to keep the land in food production as a community resource.”

And he praised Mr. Grubman:

“I cannot thank Mr. Grubman enough for his willingness to help with this effort. In my mind it was a very generous offer to give the Island an opportunity to save this farm, and I still can’t help but wonder if there is a means to find a way to keep this land in food production forever.

“ . . . So I ask, again, if you are a person with interest in a sustainable food system on our Island; if you know someone who may have the means to participate in an effort to save this land — the time to act is now . . . this was and still is a worthwhile effort to pursue in protecting one of our most valuable agricultural resources on the Island.”