ICYMI – Recommended Summer Reading from Extension Foundation

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The Extension Foundation has recently released several new and previously published titles on various topics, from climate and extreme weather to building farm and farm family resilience. Check out our bookshelf to learn more about what other Extension professionals are doing in their work. 

ICYMI, here are a few recent titles that may interest you.

Program Planning and Team Building: If you’re using the summer to plan upcoming Extension programs, take a peek at Engaged Program Planning for Extension Foundation Impact Collaborative Teams. This publication provides context and guidance on community engagement and team building using the Impact Collaborative methodology. The Impact Collaborative is a methodology that helps Cooperative Extension projects, programs, and initiatives to be innovative and community-engaged efforts that result in measurable and visible local impact. Whether your team is looking to improve an existing program or expand its reach to new audiences, the Impact Collaborative process, engagements, and activities provide project teams with tools to develop innovative, community-based approaches to problem-solving. Learn more about the upcoming Impact Collaborative, an entirely virtual event slated for October 4th-6th, 2022. 

 

Digital Communications: Thinking about how to communicate your Extension story? This publication features curated and original content contributed by Extension professionals from around the country. You’ll find perspective pieces about technology use in Extension and practical information about specific social media platforms, SEO, and content strategy that will enable you to apply what they’ve learned and to take action.

 

Climate and Extreme Weather: Many of us are considering how our Extension programs can help our clientele adapt to/mitigate the effects of a changing climate and extreme weather events. This report contains a national inventory of Cooperative Extension programs and practices in climate and extreme weather. It offers Extension educators and upper administration insight regarding successes, challenges, and gaps in programming. 

 

You can find the entire library of publications (now numbering more than two dozen) here. New publications are released regularly, so please check back often.

 

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Extension Foundation Says Farewell to Longtime Technology Team Member

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The Extension Foundation offers its sincere gratitude to Ben MacNeill who has been part of the Extension Foundation team since 2006. In July 2022, Ben will be transitioning to a new role outside of the Extension Foundation.

Ben has been working with the Foundation through a full-time buyout from North Carolina State University. One of the original architects of many of the Extension Foundation’s former technology infrastructure under the “eXtension” brand, Ben has played a leading role in the implementation of national technology solutions for Cooperative Extension. More recently, Ben has played a major role in transitioning the Extension Foundation towards commercial technology tools for use by Cooperative Extension. In addition, Ben has provided expertise and leadership on the Extension Foundation’s Ask Extension system (formerly Ask An Expert) which has enabled Cooperative Extension to answer over 500,000 questions from the public and better connect the public with Cooperative Extension resources.

Ben is often the go-to customer support agent for providing web development support for the Extension Foundation’s 100+ National Cooperative Extension Project websites, assisting Land-grant university professionals with technical needs. His demeanor is often described by colleagues as kind and pleasant when solving both big and small technical problems.

On behalf of the Extension Foundation, we wish Ben and his family the best in his next adventure and thank him for 16 years of service to the Extension Foundation and Cooperative Extension.

For those that have worked closely with Ben, the Extension Foundation will continue to provide support and service on WordPress Sites, Ask Extension, and other technology platforms. For assistance, please continue to email contact-us@extension.org.

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Request for Applications! Grant Writing Support Team

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ELIGIBILITY: U.S. Based Grant Writer or firm that provides grant writing and grant coaching support to project teams.

APPLICATION: The deadline for receipt of your application is September 1, 2022. A cover letter and a resume should be submitted through this web form: https://registry.extension.org/221955250538862

Extension Foundation, founded in 2006, is a 100% virtual, member-based network supporting approximately 32,000 Extension professionals at 112 Land-Grant Universities. The Extension Foundation is part of the Cooperative Extension System (CES), which encompasses all U.S. states and territories. Extension Foundation is a national organization and operates as a multi-state entity: we are incorporated in Missouri. Given the broad geographic distribution of our staff and Board of Directors, we are a virtual organization highly reliant on video conferencing and other tools for collaboration in addition to email. All staff and contractors work remotely from home.

This position will work with the Extension Partnership and Development team and program development teams on various grant opportunities.  The Foundation works with multiple Universities/Colleges on various RFAs, grant concept notes, and proposals, including a breadth of topical areas.

Services Desired:  Seeking support for writing and editing grant proposals and working with grant development teams. Skills are expected in the following areas:

  • Ability to support teams in developing a proposal narrative based on already completed design documents through the reading and editing of proposals. (Design requirements, strategy scenario, Content Outlines, Action checklists, Initial Budget Elements, and Costs are developed by the grant strategy team.)
  • Synthesize grant team members’ input for incorporation into the grant narrative to provide clarity, consistency, and context to make the grant easily read and understood.
  • Ensure the grant proposal adheres to application instructions as outlined in grant RFAs and the internally-provided design documents.
  • Thoroughly review and edit for narrative quality, content completion, alignment with provided design documents and RFA requirements, formatting, grammar, and punctuation.
  • Skills to work with a Program team and develop one or more strategy scenarios to address the requirements of the grant while incorporating the pre-determined design principles of the RFAs
  • Develop and create action checklists/timelines for proposal completion with the grant proposal team
  • Ability to work in a fast-paced environment

For additional information, questions, or clarifications, please contact brennakotar@extension.org.

Applications will be reviewed after the due date of September 1, 2022.

To apply for this position, click here:  https://registry.extension.org/221955250538862

This contract will report to the Grants Development Specialist. This is a contract role.

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