Thimble Farm, 40 acres of fertile farmland in the center of the Vineyard whose future has been uncertain for the better part of the last year, will be saved as a working farm.

The nonprofit Island Grown Initiative announced this week that it will take ownership of the farm, thanks to generous donations from both the owner of the property and two seasonal Vineyard residents. Most of the purchase price, which had not been disclosed by press time, was donated by farm owner Eric Grubman and Allan and Shelley Holt of Washington, D.C. and Chilmark. Mr. Grubman, a seasonal resident of Katama, made a “huge contribution,” IGI president Sarah McKay told the Gazette early this week.

“We have been blessed with very generous donors,” she said. “It’s a sense of relief, responsibility, respect, humility. All of it. It’s incredible.”

The closing is expected to take place today.

IGI noted in a press release that went out about the sale yesterday that the Holts stepped forward to contribute to the purchase after they read a story in the Gazette last month about the disbanding of the Martha’s Vineyard Farm Project. A coalition that included IGI, the project formed last year to buy the farm, but failed to raise enough money.

Mrs. McKay said after reading the story, Mrs. Holt called her friend Mary Kenworth, the co-owner of State Road restaurant and an IGI supporter.

“It’s my understanding . . . she picked up the phone and said to Mary we know you’re involved with IGI, what can we do to help?” said Mrs. McKay.

Mr. Holt, who is a managing director at the private equity firm The Carlyle Group in Washington, D.C., said he and his wife are “very happy to be doing this.”

“I think it’s great it’s happening,” he told the Gazette this week. “Eric Grubman has been incredibly patient. I wish I knew about it earlier.”

Mr. Holt said his wife shared the Gazette story with him and they decided they wanted to help.

“We said, wow, we always like to give back to the Island in any way we can and this is great and something that interests us very much,” he said.

The Holts have been coming to the Island for nearly 20 years, and built a home in Chilmark four years ago.

“I wish I could spend more time there . . . my kids have always loved it and we have always loved it,” Mr. Holt said.

This marks the second time Thimble Farm has been rescued in an eleventh-hour sale. Mr. Grubman, executive vice president of the National Football League, bought the property in 2007 for $2.45 million after reading accounts in the Gazette that the farm might be sold into the private residential market. Mr. Grubman bought the property and kept it in food production, but last year he said the time had come for the farm to have new owners.

After the farm project fell apart, Tea Lane Associates listed the property for sale in m