November 2019 – Extension Foundation

21 Project & Program Teams Attend October Impact Collaborative Summit, 6 Awarded Grants

For Immediate Release
November 26th, 2019
Contact: Aaron Weibe, aaronweibe@eXtension.org

21 Project and Program teams across Cooperative Extension representing 24 institutions attended the Impact Collaborative in Atlanta for a unique opportunity to create impactful results at the local level by increasing Cooperative Extension’s organizational readiness and capacity for innovation and change. Teams were connected with skills, tools, resources, Coaches, Facilitators, and Key Informants that helped expand and deepen their impact.

Teams were provided one-on-one coaching by the Impact Collaborative’s network of Innovation Facilitators, including 11 Coaches representing 10 institutions. 28 Key Informants from across Extension and other external organizations assisted teams in program development on a range of topics including team development, program development, communications and marketing, readiness, evaluation, and visualization.

During three days of hard work, teams participated in a Presentation Showcase where they presented their project or program to fellow participants, Coaches, and Key Informants. All teams had an opportunity to apply for six $5000 grants to bring new capacity to their project. The recipients of these grants are:

National Sustainability Synergies Squad (Florida A&M University, University of Florida, Tuskegee University, University of Georgia)

Project Description: This team attended the 1st and 2nd Impact Collaborative Summits and we represent leaders from two ANREP Initiatives: the National Network for Sustainable Living Education (NNSLE) and the National Extension Energy Initiative (NEEI). This past April, NNSLE and NEEI hosted the Joint National Sustainability Summit (NSS) and National Extension Energy Summit (NEES) in Tampa, FL. With a theme of ‘Harnessing Our Collective Energy to Address the Rising Tide”, the conference engaged 185 Extension educators, researchers, students, community partners, and practitioners around issues of climate change, energy, water, land, food systems, and community capacity and resilience. Details of the event are at https://nationalextensionsummits.com.

CIVIC (Florida A&M, University of Florida)

Project Description: Developing a panhandle In Service Training for agents to identify needs of small farmers and develop deliberative frameworks. Specifics include developing training objectives and curriculum to focus on identifying and training UU community leaders and using a method other than a deliberative forum (world café) to identify audience needs. It is hoped that developing this curriculum will lead to fundability in the long term.

Promoting Rural Community Wellness (University of Minnesota)

Project Description: This team aims to design a tool-kit that will offer communities the resources (e.g., strategies, people, and other materials) to support a comprehensive community approach to building community wellness. Specifically, this work is designed to address rural stress and the issues arising in the agricultural community.

Virtual Park Ranger (Oregon State University)

Project Description: This project aims to connect outdoor with health, targeting children and families to enrich their outdoor experience through a co-development of a mobile app with the end users. At this Summit, our team would like to 1) learn more about how to identify and solidify the most feasible feature(s) to begin designing with the vision of building a platform that we can continue to expand, and 2) how to crowdsource and crowdfund to support ideas.

Tuskegee Public Dialogue Team (Tuskegee University):

Project Description: The TPDT focuses on building capacity within the Tuskegee University Cooperative Extension program to help communities engage in civil dialogues around racial issues and their intersections with the food system. This project represents an integrative community based public dialogue program tailored for the Black Belt region that produces community assessments enabling a platform for action unlike programs that overlook the impacts of the race within community understanding. Ultimately, a key aim of this project is to chart a course for Extension to become more relevant in the Black Belt region.

Southern Jagriculture (Southern University):

Project Description: Team Jagriculture’s program addresses Emergency Preparedness, and how to increase engagement for vulnerable populations around the state of Louisiana while also focusing on maximizing our impact within their communities.

Results

The full Summit evaluation report and a detailed listing of the participating teams and institutions is available at impact.eXtension.org/success. Highlights of that evaluation include:

93.2% will recommend the Impact Collaborative Summit to others
In what ways did the Impact Collaborative Summit help your team?
- Team Growth (89.5%)
- Uncovered gaps in project planning (84.2%)
- New ideas (78.9%)
- New innovation or increased innovation (73.7%)
- Gave ways to tell our team/project story 73.7%
- New techniques and tools 73.7%
Aspects of the event that were most useful
- Team Time (75.3%)
- Program Development Key Informants (69.9%)
- Visualization Key Informants (69.9%)
- Team Coaches (63%)
- Propelling Community Impact Framework (58.9%)
- Evaluation Key Informants (53.4%)
- Team Development Key Informants (52.1%)

About the eXtension Foundation

The eXtension Foundation is a membership-based non-profit designed to be the engine fueling U.S. Cooperative Extension’s advancement in making a more visible and measurable impact in support of education outreach from land-grant universities/colleges located in every state and territory. eXtension provides an array of opportunities for Extension professionals that foster innovation creation, the adoption of innovations at member institutions, and increased impact of Extension programs.

November 26, 2019/by Aaron Weibe

CRM for Extension – Use cases

Fellowships, Uncategorized

Stephen Judd is serving as the eXtension Foundation Customer Relationship Management Fellow. This post is an update on progress on this funded Fellowship from the USDA-NIFA New Technologies for Agricultural Extension (NTAE) Cooperative Agreement.

Armed with our goals and personas, it’s time to articulate what our people will actually do with a customer relationship management (CRM) system. At this point, we’re still not evaluating specific CRMs, but identifying its uses, so that we will be able to assess which features and capabilities will be needed for our organization.

To accomplish our task, we will build up a library of use cases that will help us identify how our CRM should behave. These use cases will be based around the business processes where we believe CRM will be useful and will take the perspective of the personas we’ve created.

Description of use cases from usability.gov:

“A use case is a written description of how users will perform tasks on your website. It outlines, from a user’s point of view, a system’s behavior as it responds to a request. Each use case is represented as a sequence of simple steps, beginning with a user’s goal and ending when that goal is fulfilled.”

In our situation, we won’t focus on the individual steps of a process, but rather on the tasks associated with particular use cases. These tasks will help inform us of the CRM features or capabilities that we will want to be evaluating for when looking at specific CRM systems. We can assume that any CRM will be able to store the contact information (name, email, phone, address, etc.) for people. We’ll also be assuming that the people interacting with the CRM have the necessary licenses and/or permissions to accomplish their tasks.

Example use cases:

Use Case 1	Advisory Councils
Actor	Persona – Extension Support Staff – Sam
Each county in our Extension organization has an Advisory Council, comprised of citizens and decision-makers that help guide the activities of Extension in that county. Sam uses the CRM to keep track of current council members, their roles, and term on the council for Sam’s county. Sam is often asked for a list of council members and their roles.
Tasks	Lookup or create contact and contact info Add contact to a list of Advisory Council members Create or edit information related to Advisory Council membership Create or run report of current Advisory Council members with specific information about them and their membership
CRM Implications	Duplicate person (contact) management Way to create lists or groups of people Custom information (fields) for certain types of lists Customizable reports and filters

Use Case 2	Track interactions with people
Actor	Persona – Extension Specialist / Agent / Educator – Reilly
Extension professionals have many interactions with the people we serve each day. Reilly would like to keep track of many of these interactions in the CRM, both to help as Reilly has subsequent interactions with the person and to assist colleagues that may interact with the same person. Ideally, Reilly would like to be able to accomplish this using a mobile phone shortly after the interaction or through an email application, without having to log in to a separate interface. Reilly also needs to be able to generate reports of these interactions.
Tasks	Lookup or create contact and contact info Record interaction with person Create or run report of interactions for specified time periods
CRM Implications	Duplicate person (contact) management Way to create and associate interactions with people (contacts) Visibility of interactions for other users of CRM Integration with email application Mobile interface or app

Use Case 3	Government officials / decision-makers
Actor	Persona – Extension Administrator – Pat
Part of the continued support and funding for Extension programs is based on the support of government officials and decision-makers. Pat would like to use CRM to maintain the contact information for these people and record interactions with them. Pat needs reports that can be shared with others in the organization.
Tasks	Lookup or create contact and contact info Indicate that person is government official or decison-maker Record interaction with person Create or run report of interactions for specified time periods
CRM Implications	Duplicate person (contact) management Way to create lists or groups of people Custom information (fields) for certain types of lists Way to create and associate interactions with people (contacts) Visibility of interactions for other users of CRM Customizable and shareable reports and filters

These three use cases are simplified, but could be made as detailed or complex as you’d like. Their purpose is to describe the way people will interact with the CRM and help identify the specific CRM features and capabilities that we should evaluate.

The use cases should be based on what people will actually need to do with the CRM to conduct business processes that you’ve identified that fit with your organizational goals. Implications for how data may need to be structured and shared will be important when you are doing the actual evaluation of CRM systems.

Based on the use cases above, we can start constructing a list of CRM features for evaluation:

Duplicate management
Contact grouping or lists
Custom attributes for contacts or lists
Tracking interactions
Sharing and visibility between CRM users
Reporting capabilities, including customization, sharing, filtering, saving, etc.

Other use cases you may consider developing include managing mass email, event registrations, and volunteer hour tracking. The sky’s the limit, just keep them aligned with your people and the business processes that fit your organizational goals.

I welcome feedback and questions at stephen.judd@unh.edu

Previous post: CRM for Extension – Personas

November 25, 2019/by Aaron Weibe

CRM for Extension – Personas

Fellowships, News, Newsroom

As previously discussed, when evaluating customer relationship management software (CRM) for Extension it is important to understand how CRM fits with the organization’s goals and strategies. Perhaps equally important, is understanding the people who will be using the CRM. Throughout the process, you must keep in mind who the users are, what they need to accomplish, and how they’ll interact with the CRM.

A recommended approach, used in user-centric software design and marketing, is to develop user personas. From Wikipedia: “A user persona is a representation of the goals and behavior of a hypothesized group of users.” Through the thoughtful creation of a handful (3-6) of personas that represent the broader groups of people who will interact with the CRM, an evaluation team can maintain a user-centered focus on the CRM, while also aligning with organizational goals.

The ultimate success of a CRM implementation will hinge as much on user adoption and satisfaction, as it does on the capabilities of the CRM. Users will enter and use data, create and use reports, and help identify new opportunities and obstacles.

Below are some example, abbreviated personas that can serve as a starting point for Extension organizations to build appropriate personas that represent their people and circumstances.

Example persona – Extension Administrator

Pat has been the Assistant Director of Operations and Governmental Affairs for Cooperative Extension for three years. Pat has worked in three different Extension organizations, starting as a community development specialist twenty years ago. Pat’s current responsibilities include maintaining and cultivating relationships with government and university officials throughout the state and encouraging their support for Extension activities.

Pat often meets individually, attends meetings, exchanges email, and has phone calls with decision-makers. Pat reports on these interactions to the Director and Leadership Team at their regular meetings. Pat keeps track of these interactions in a daily calendar and in email.

Example persona – Extension Specialist / Agent

Reilly has been a Plant Health Specialist with Extension for the past seven years. When a graduate student, Reilly worked in a diagnostic lab and enjoyed solving problems and helping growers address their issues. Now, in addition to doing diagnostic work, Reilly visits agricultural operations with the local Ag. agents for consultations and presents at workshops for growers.

Reilly has a local database to track plant samples, clients, and diagnoses and keeps track of farm visits and workshops in Outlook. Reilly also interacts with a number of colleagues around the country and at the Department of Agriculture to conduct research, brainstorm problems, and address emerging issues.

Example persona – Extension Support Staff

Sam has worked as an administrative assistant in the county extension office for two years. It was overwhelming at first, trying to learn about all of the natural resources and agriculture programs that needed support, but Sam, as a former 4-Her, caught on quickly. It took a while to sort through Sam’s predecessor’s files and lists, but Sam now has a system that seems to work. Sam is adept with computers and enjoys keeping spreadsheets of participants from Extension events, creating event flyers and emails, and interacting with the clientele who pop by the office.

Sam’s day is never the same, varying from planning and promoting a big upcoming workshop, answering phone calls, preparing factsheets, coordinating meetings, designing flyers, posting to the website, etc.

About personas

In getting started with personas, it is important to remember that they are meant to be representative of a type or group of people – they can’t capture every individuality. They are a tool that will help maintain a focus on the people who will use the CRM. For example, instead of thinking of how all administrators will use the system, the evaluation team can ask how their persona, Pat, will use the system – what will Pat have to do to make the system useful and how will the system help Pat.

The example personas, above, are not completely fleshed out, but are intended to serve as a starting point for Extension organizations to create their own. The personas may even prove useful in projects beyond CRM evaluation.

In the next post of this series, I’ll discuss use cases and how they can get you down the path to figuring out what features and capabilities a CRM needs to have to adequately meet your goals and serve your people.

I welcome feedback and questions at stephen.judd@unh.edu

Previous post: CRM for Extension – Step 0

November 19, 2019/by Aaron Weibe

CRM for Extension – Step 0

Fellowships, News, Newsroom

Over half of the Extension organizations, recently surveyed, report considering the adoption of customer relationship management software (CRM). This post will describe the considerations that need to be in place before a CRM evaluation should take place – this is step zero.

CRM is not a goal, outcome, or strategy

CRM is one tool, among many technologies, and is not a goal, outcome, or strategy, in and of itself. Therefore, prior to even evaluating the use of a CRM, the Extension organization needs to have clearly stated goals and objectives. In examining these goals, you should ask yourself, “what strategies do we need to implement to achieve the goal?” Then, ask if CRM is one of the tools that might help you implement the strategy.

If an organization starts considering CRM without identifying how it fits with their strategy, they risk implementing a shiny new technology that creates extra work, with no relevant results.

Example: To better understand our reach: how many people (unique count) do we serve, how do they interact with our programs (do they access offerings from multiple programs/efforts?), and are we serving a representative portion of the population?

This example may lend itself to the use of CRM to aggregate the information about clientele, their participation in events, and their demographic profiles.

Current processes may need to change

Often, implementing a CRM drives changes to existing business processes. It is important to assess your organization’s willingness to change the way it does business before embarking on a CRM evaluation. It is highly unlikely that a successful CRM implementation can be done, without also evaluating and changing your current processes. This requires buy-in from across the organization and participation from a diverse set of stakeholders in the evaluation process. While there is a tendency to view CRM as just another IT tool, its impact will be widespread.

Example: How do you currently register people for your events, or do they just sign-in when they arrive? If you intend to use CRM to track participation, you’ll need to consider how that information will be captured in the system. Does your current registration system have the ability to integrate with other systems, do you need to change registration platforms? Will you use web-based forms to allow registration and bring the data directly into CRM? If you use paper-based registrations, who will enter the data into CRM?

One strategy with CRM implementation is to identify one or two priority areas to address first, and incorporate other processes later. Trying to modify too many business processes at once to fit with the CRM can doom a project to failure and create confusion and frustration.

CRM isn’t free

Even if a CRM is open-source and doesn’t have a licensing fee, it won’t be adopted by your organization without cost. Implementing CRM requires significant time and effort, both by those who support it technically and those who will be interacting with it. Before evaluating CRM, determine the resources your organization is willing to commit to an implementation, in the short-term and long-term. Unlike a business that may see a CRM as a way to increase sales and revenues, most Extension organizations will not be able to quantify monetary gains or savings from a CRM.

Example costs:

Licensing / hosting fees

Technical support, configuration, integration, and administration

User training

Assessing and modifying business processes

Communication with internal and external stakeholders

Summary

While CRM is only a tool, it can have a widespread impact on how your organization gets things done. Part of evaluating a CRM is determining how it fits with your organization’s goals, how ready your organization is to change processes, and what your organization is willing to invest for those changes. The evaluation process should involve a diverse set of internal stakeholders who will be impacted to ensure that the impact is understood and that the CRM chosen fits the needs, goals, and capacity of your organization.

It’s probably a good idea to think beyond the Extension organization, as well. Does your university use CRM, or are they considering it? Should you be part of the university’s CRM or independent? These considerations add to the complexity of the process, but thinking about them from the start can avoid potential deadends in the future.

I welcome feedback and questions at stephen.judd@unh.edu

Previous post: What is Customer Relationship Management and why would Extension care?

Next post: CRM for Extension – Personas

November 8, 2019/by Aaron Weibe

21 Project & Program Teams Attend October Impact Collaborative Summit, 6 Awarded Grants

Results

About the eXtension Foundation

CRM for Extension – Use cases

Example use cases:

CRM for Extension – Personas

Example persona – Extension Administrator

Example persona – Extension Specialist / Agent

Example persona – Extension Support Staff

About personas

CRM for Extension – Step 0

CRM is not a goal, outcome, or strategy

Current processes may need to change

CRM isn’t free

Summary

Quick Links

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