Getting Started with the Extension Foundation

,

At the request of Cooperative Extension professionals, the Extension Foundation has developed an interactive tool to help Land-grant university professionals get familiarized with the Extension Foundation, its tools, national funded programs, services, and learn how the Foundation can be a partner in making a greater impact on local issues. The Extension Foundation serves all 112 Land-grant universities in the United States regardless of membership. Extension Foundation members receive additional benefits through our Member Services that can be found on our website at extension.org.

It is available at extension.org/start and can be found under the About section of the extension.org website, and on Connect Extension. The Foundation invites its land-grant university partners regardless of membership status to include this tool in the onboarding of new employees to help share how the Foundation can serve local needs, funding opportunities available through the Foundation, and to stay connected to national projects. 

Land-grant university professionals and the public can explore information about the Extension Foundation’s five national funded programs, how to take advantage of member services, technology tools available, frequently asked questions, contact information, and how to stay connected with the Extension Foundation. 

About the Extension Foundation

The Extension Foundation was formed in 2006 by Extension Directors and Administrators. The Foundation partners with Cooperative Extension through liaison roles and a formal plan of work with the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) to increase system capacity while providing programmatic services, and helping Extension programs scale and investigate new methods and models for implementing programs. The Foundation provides professional development to Cooperative Extension professionals and offers exclusive services to its members. In 2020 and 2021, the Extension Foundation has awarded 85% of its direct funding back to the Cooperative Extension System, 100% of funds are used to support Cooperative Extension initiatives.

/by

New Report Provides Regional Assessment of Ecosystem Services in Northeast U.S.

,

A new report – Ecosystem Services in Working Lands Practice and Policy of the U.S. Northeast – has been added to the Extension Foundation’s bookshelf.

Authored by Northeast Ecosystems Services Fellows  Alicia F. Coleman, PhD, and Mario R. Machado, PhD, the report documents results from an assessment of over 1,300 ecosystem service provisioning programs and policies across the U.S. Northeast (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia, as well as in the District of Columbia.) 

The assessment describes the programs’ institutional arrangements, their incentive structures, and the ecosystem services they provide. The analysis is tied to goals for the Northeast region developed by the Association of Northeast Extension Directors (NEED) and Northeastern Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (NERA). The assessment is intended to build the capacity of Cooperative Extension and the Agricultural Research Station system’s work in supporting producers to deliver ecosystem services on working lands. In addition to providing analysis, a linked database captures a time-bound dataset that can be filtered by state.

Additional titles have recently become available in the Extension Foundation library on topics such as creating mass media campaigns, game-based education, wellness in “tough times,” innovating curriculum, prescribed fire, emergency preparation and response, understanding food labels, and building farm and farm family resilience. You can find the entire library of publications here.

A note about our Publications: 

After listening to the feedback of our Cooperative Extension partners, the new Publication bookshelf serves as a replacement for our old eFieldbook library. We greatly value and appreciate the feedback we received, including eliminating a LinkedIn login to access titles on the bookshelf. All titles are publicly available on our Connect Extension platform. Titles that were on our former eFieldbook bookshelf are in the process of being migrated.

 

/by

Getting to the Heart of the Matter: COVID-19 Vaccination Education Survey

,

Cooperative Extension professionals across the system and at all levels are invited to share their opinions and experiences regarding COVID-19 vaccinations and vaccination education.

This project is sponsored by the Extension Foundation and the Extension Collaborative on Immunization Teaching and Engagement (EXCITE).

Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow Center for Media & Health Promotion Research, WSU Extension, and the WSU College of Education are conducting a needs assessment to gain insight into the current realities of Cooperative Extension professionals regarding COVID-19 vaccinations and vaccination education.

This is a short survey that should take about 15-20 minutes to complete:

https://wsu.co1.qualtrics.com/…m/SV_3jU0g7onaHBbd5k

The results of the needs assessment will be used to develop communication strategies and tools to help Cooperative Extension professionals at all levels and across the entire system feel more comfortable, willing, and confident with COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

These will support Cooperative Extension professionals, who choose to, serving as trusted and compassionate messengers of accurate vaccination information in their communities so individuals can make the decision that is in their best interest.

Your feedback about your experiences and opinions with COVID-19 vaccinations and education will be very useful for helping us understand the barriers and challenges faced by Cooperative Extension Professionals.

Please take the time to complete this survey. Every response is important!

It is only with your assistance that we can understand the full range of opinions and experiences about COVID-19 vaccinations across the Cooperative Extension System and all types of Land Grant Universities.

Your participation is voluntary and your responses will be kept confidential. No personally identifiable information will be associated with your responses in any reports of these data.

If you have questions or comments about the survey, please feel free to email us at eaustin@wsu.edu or ask for Erica at 509-335-8840.

This study has been certified as Exempt by the WSU Human Research Protection Program: irb@wsu.edu.

/by

New Publication Helps Cooperative Extension Professionals Engage Communities

,

A new publication – Engaging Communities Through Issues Forums: A How-To Guide for Onsite and Online Community Engagement – is available from the Extension Foundation.

The publication explores the use of issue forums as a community engagement tool in Extension work. Both a process guide and content publication, it is a comprehensive “how-to” designed to help Cooperative Extension professionals successfully develop and implement issues forums in both onsite and online settings. Each section of the publication includes Our Story, a narrative of the key lessons learned by the authors. This publication will be of value to Cooperative Extension professionals and other organizations and institutions that are considering ways to increase community engagement to collaboratively address issues.

It was written by a team from the University of Maryland Extension, University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, and Ohio State University who have been involved in a multi-year project. This project has focused on engaging communities in helping to address issues facing farmers and farm families. The authors are Bonnie Braun and Jesse Ketterman from the University of Maryland, Maria Pippidis from the University of Delaware; and Shoshana Inwood and Nicole Wright from Ohio State University. 

As the authors noted, “The need to move from face-to-face to online forums arose with the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought funding and consulting services to enable us to compare outcomes of face-to-face forums with those of an online forum…This project allowed us to test on-site vs online forums, to create this how-to e-Pub, and to offer professional development to those wanting to learn about conducting their own forums.” 

This publication is the second produced by the team for NTAE. The team’s first publication –  Building Farm and Family Family Resilience in our Communities: A Guide for Extension Professionals to Engage Strategically – strengthens the ability of Cooperative Extension professionals to reduce risk and stressors and increase the resilience of farms and farming families with the context of a sociological framework. 

The project was supported by a grant from the New Technologies in Agricultural Extension (NTAE) program. The team was supported in their work by the Extension Foundation. The Northeast Extension Risk Management Educational Center and the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development provided support for the on-site forums.

Additional titles have recently become available in the Extension Foundation library on topics such as creating mass media campaigns, game-based education, wellness in “tough times,” innovating curriculum, prescribed fire, emergency preparation and response, understanding food labels, and building farm and farm family resilience. You can find the entire library of publications here.

A note about our Publications: 

After listening to the feedback of our Cooperative Extension partners, the new Publication bookshelf serves as a replacement for our old eFieldbook library. We greatly value and appreciate the feedback we received, including eliminating a LinkedIn login to access titles on the bookshelf. All titles are publicly available on our Connect Extension platform. Titles that were on our former eFieldbook bookshelf are in the process of being migrated.

/by

Impact Collaborative Launches Three New Professional Development Series for 2022

,

For 2022, the Extension Foundation’s Impact Collaborative Program has launched three new professional development series for Extension Foundation members:

Extension Skills

Each second Thursday of the month, the Impact Collaborative’s Extension Skills series will provide an opportunity for Cooperative Extension professionals to build capacity with tools, processes and tech skills training.

For March 2022, join Victor Villegas and Molly Immendorf as they share their favorite tools and tips for creating and hosting engaging dynamic meetings and webinars. While Zoom will be the primary platform demonstrated, most of these tools and tips will translate to platforms like Teams, WebEX, and others. Some tools to be shared will include free or low-cost third party tools. Be sure to bring your own tools and tips to share. Collectively, we’ll create some ah-has and examples to try in this fun session.

Dynamic Discussions

Each fourth Thursday of the month, the Impact Collaborative will host professionals from across Cooperative Extension and beyond to address hot topics of interest to Cooperative Extension.

For March 2022: As Extension professionals, our job is to communicate science to the public. Yet, in the ever growing and ever changing spaces of global media, successfully sharing science has become a monumental task. Agents of misinformation abound and it seems like there are always new—and worse—distortions of the science to be found. For the last 30 years, climate change communicators and communication scientists have been studying the misinformation campaigns, learning how and why they work, and developing means to successfully communicate climate topics in spite of them. What we have learned about climate communication is relevant to all science communication. This Dynamic Discussion will present the basic tenets of “information disorder” and begin the conversation on what Extension professionals can do to further science communication in their fields.

Program Center Stage

The Program Center Stage will highlight programs from across the system including current and past New Technologies from Ag Extension projects, Impact Collaborative projects, National programs like EXCITE, and more on the 4th Mondays of each month at 2 PM ET.

For March 2022: the Southern JAGriculture (Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center, SUAREC) team prioritizes emergency preparedness and answering the calls of our community following an emergency. After the danger is controlled and the threat is managed, they provide programming and support to aid communities and Louisiana citizens in the Recovery phase.

Utilizing the historic 2016 Louisiana Flood as their conceptual lens, this webinar will focus on our individual efforts as second responders, SUAREC’s response to help mitigate future losses, the role and linkage of Extension professional as second responders, and much more. Be prepared to leave with a Social Action charge!

This team was supported by the Extension Foundation’s New Technologies for Ag Extension Program and released a publication about their work in 2021.

The Impact Collaborative is a bundle of services and events that are funded by and for Extension Foundation members only. To learn more about all Impact Collaborative opportunities, please visit the Impact Collaborative Events Calendar on Connect Extension. For inquiries on membership in the Extension Foundation, please contact membership@extension.org.

/by

National Registry of Cooperative Extension Programs & Assets February 2022 Update

,

The National Registry of Cooperative Extension Programs & Assets (NRCEPA) provides ready-access to a living database of efforts across the system in order to rapidly respond to system-wide funding opportunities. Over 200 Cooperative Extension Programs and Projects have been registered in the NRCEPA since its inception. 

In February 2022, several improvements were made to the NRCEPA based upon feedback received from individuals and organizations across Cooperative Extension:

  • Improved design to show multiple questions per screen rather than a single question per screen. 
  • Reduced redundancy on question condition logic. 
  • Enabled and improved form accessibility for ADA compliance. 

The Extension Foundation would like to thank numerous individuals and organizations across Cooperative Extension that have provided feedback on the NRCEPA for the past year to help us improve this technology. This includes the National Extension Tourism Network, National Extension Climate Initiative, Southern Rural Development Center, National Extension Association of Family & Consumer Sciences, National Urban Extension Leaders, Extension Collaborative on Immunization Teaching & Engagement, and individual users across the Cooperative Extension system. 

To register your program, project, curriculum, or resource, please visit extension.org/registry. 

This tool is supported in part by New Technologies for Ag Extension grant no. 2020-41595-30123 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this content are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

/by

EXCITE Gets Recognition from the CDC

,

The Extension Collaborative on Immunization Teaching and Engagement, (EXCITE) program received a letter of gratitude from CDC director Samuel F. Posner, and a spotlight on the CDC’s Health Equity in Action page for their work.

In the letter, Samuel Posner recognizes the value of a partnership with Cooperative Extension, stating “..we’re looking forward to learning from CES and understanding community concerns to develop and deliver effective tailored messaging to increase vaccination in hard-to-reach communities, in both rural and urban settings. I know how hard field agents work, the long hours and distances traveled especially in rural and frontier areas, and how much you all care about the community members you serve.

He highlights how this strength of CES has led to great success in vaccine uptake, “because Extension field agents are known trusted messengers working in every county across the nation,….Tailored messaging in rural areas works… In rural areas, 71.4% of people ages 18 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Thank you to those who helped realize these achievements by getting vaccinated and helping others do the same.”

A great shout out to our EXCITE team members doing work in their communities! To view the impactful work EXCITE is doing including the full CDC letter, project success stories, and breakdown of projects by state head to the new EXCITE website hosted by Extension.org — https://extension.org/excite/

/by

Mass Media: Sustaining Pollinators Publication Reissued

,

The Mass Media: Sustaining Pollinators fieldbook published by Extension Foundation in 2020 is now available in a flipping book format to be consistent with other publications on the Extension Foundation’s new Publication Bookshelf on Connect Extension. The publication is a result of a three-year collaboration between the National Pesticide Safety Education Center (NPSEC) and a team from Prairie View A&M University in Texas.

NPSEC has been supporting pollinator health since 2017, primarily via providing education and training materials to Extension programs that teach pesticide applicators how to minimize the risk that pesticides pose to pollinators. The Cooperative Extension Program at Prairie View A&M University partnered with NPSEC to share its pollinator stewardship research and best practices with a consumer audience in a mass media campaign in Texas.

This publication explores the process the team followed to create an effective mass media campaign. Mass media isn’t always an option for Extension programs for many reasons, including cost. The Pollinator Stewardship Pilot, NPSEC, and its media partners demonstrated that market research and mass media campaigns can be within reach for Extension programs.

This publication will be of value to Cooperative Extension professionals who are considering how to use mass/social media campaigns in their work and those who want to learn more about market research resources and audience segmentation. It takes a deep dive into analyzing millennials. In addition, the resource section includes sample blogs and social media posts. Also discussed is the collaboration framework utilized by project members.

The authors are Kara Maddox, Tom Smith, and Courtney Weatherbee from NPSEC, with contributions from Nathan Hermond, Dr. Carolyn Williams, and Dr. Clarence Bunch of Prairie View A&M. A team from several private media companies collaborated on the project, and additional support was provided by two University of Missouri Adzou graduates.

Additional titles have recently become available in the Extension Foundation library on topics such as game-based education, wellness in “tough times,” innovating curriculum, prescribed fire, emergency preparation and response, understanding food labels, and building farm and farm family resilience. You can find the entire library of publications here

A note about our Publications:

After listening to the feedback of our Cooperative Extension partners, the new Publication bookshelf serves as a replacement for our old eFieldbook library. We greatly value and appreciate the feedback we received, including eliminating a LinkedIn login to access titles on the bookshelf. All titles are publicly available on our Connect Extension platform. Titles that were on our former eFieldbook bookshelf are in the process of being migrated.

/by

Request for Proposals: Marketing Firm Services for Extension Engagement Hub Program

,

Extension Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization, requests services from a marketing firm experienced in providing marketing services to U.S. colleges and university programs with an emphasis in community engagement and educational outreach. Services are funded through a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute for Food and Agriculture in partnership with Oklahoma State University. 

  1. Extension Foundation Background
    1. The Extension Foundation, founded in 2006, is a non-profit organization that serves and partners with the U.S. Cooperative Extension service to enhance growth, leadership, competencies, entrepreneurship, and stewardship for innovation and technology supporting Cooperative Education professionals. Cooperative Extension is a national system of educational outreach from land-grant universities/colleges located in every U.S. state and the territories. 
  1. Assigned duties. Two employees have been assigned communications, marketing, and engagement duties: the Communications & Engagement Manager, who is primarily responsible for providing proactive and strategic communications to our members and to the Land-Grant University System, and the Communications Associate who collaborates with the Communications & Engagement Manager. 
  1. UNH Engagement Hub Program
    1. Background
      1. UNH believes that every child deserves an opportunity to achieve one’s dreams through a multiple educational pathway approach that recognizes the diversity of student interests and abilities. This project seeks to construct a UNH Engagement Hub to dynamically connect multiple partners on a single platform to engage faculty, staff, and all students exponentially and effortlessly about UNH outreach opportunities, including youth programs, educator professional development, youth & family Extension programs, faculty/staff involvement in the community and schools. 
      2. It will utilize our most powerful tool — our website— to guide youth through a pathway from elementary school to higher education and the workforce and become lifelong learners. Similarly, it will guide educators and school administrators through relevant opportunities to expand their own development within learning cohorts and varied methods of instruction.
      3. The Engagement Hub will help students gravitate to programs that are personally relevant and hold the potential to improve, support, and guide them through their education and into a fulfilling career. By supporting the ongoing learning of primary and secondary educators through professional development that meets their needs, UNH can engrain itself deeply into our local communities.
      4. The hub project is in the early stages of development and has a high potential for making a significant local and statewide impact. The Hub also leverages, correlates to, and completes a number of ‘spokes’ that exist with current UNH projects, such as: Future Skilling, Micro-credentialing, and a Lifelong Learner Bridge.
      5. The Hub has the capability to improve the education and the lives of any NH resident in several ways, for example: improved college readiness and access, increased engagement, improved financial stability, and improved mental and physical health. This is our Why – to more intentionally and consistently touch the lives of youth, educators, and citizens throughout our State.
    2. Audience
      1. The initial primary audiences in developing the Hub are K-12 youth & families, and alumni/community. Eventually, the Hub will include learners of all ages and types. We are currently working with the Hub vendor to identify the ‘personas’ to be created immediately and as the project progresses.
    3. Audience Location
      1. The audience is located in the state of New Hampshire. 
  1. Nature of Change for Audience
    1. We want a greater awareness of and involvement in UNH’s engagement opportunities. We want to make it easier and more logical for people to find and utilize the programs/events and create a ‘personal journey’ through their lifetime by providing relevant learning pathways.
    2. We would know if the change was successful if there was more awareness, participation, and tracking of the journeys taken. This is a long-term assessment.
  2. Key Performance Indicator
    1. This project is focused on information gathering about the intended audience and making recommendations for best practices in terms of marketing, communications, and evaluation. The KPI will be a firm’s ability to gather useful information from the diverse target audience in the state of New Hampshire and the development of audience personas and how to best target messaging to those different personas. 
  1.  Overview: Scope of Services, Please address the following required services in your proposal:
    1. Coordinate market research to support the University of New Hampshire Engagement Hub program to test messaging and build audience personas. 
      1. Conduct market research to determine how to create greater awareness of and involvement in UNH’s engagement opportunities, and level of interest in participating in the online UNH Engagement Hub and the value perspectives seen by the target audience. 
        1. Understand different audience perspectives in UNH’s goal to make their Engagement Hub easier and more logical for people to find and utilize the programs/events and create a ‘personal journey’ through their lifetime by providing relevant learning pathways.
      2. Suggest best practice management to promote a high engagement (call to action) and retention based on success of similar institutions that may or may not be educational (e.g. tourism, municipalities, etc.).
      3. Determine best channels, including Cooperative Extension, for reaching the target audience with UNH Programs, Events, and other critical information. 
      4. Identify potential messaging strategies to best engage the target audience to register an account and participate in the Engagement Hub.
  2. Proposal Outline (Please organize your proposal as follows)
    1. Executive summary. Describe your understanding of the work to be performed and your firm’s ability to complete it within the March 2022 through August 2022 timeframe. 
    2. Professional experience. Provide a description of your firm including philosophy, size,structure, and qualifications. Include a list of current engagements in the agricultural sector or Cooperative Extension that you believe are comparable to our organization’s size, mission focus, and complexity.
    3. Team qualifications. Identify the specific individuals – partners, managers, and in-charge staff – who will be assigned to this engagement if your firm’s proposal is selected, including the qualifications and experience of each.
    4. Fees. Provide a firm estimate of the fees for services to be provided.
    5. Additional information. Additional information not specifically requested but nonetheless helpful in evaluating your proposal is welcome.
  3. Proposal Deadline
    1. The deadline for receipt of your proposal is February 25th, 2022. Documents should be emailed to aaronweibe@extension.org. Proposals received after this date will not be considered. For additional information, questions, or clarifications, please contact me via email or phone at (667) 228-4583.
/by

Extension Foundation 2021 End of Year Update

,

Dear Extension Colleagues,

It has been our pleasure to serve the Cooperative Extension System this past year and we are excited for the work ahead in 2022. We wanted to provide an update to all of you about how the Extension Foundation has partnered with Cooperative Extension this past year and our progress towards making a greater impact on local issues. We thank you all for the work you do everyday in your states and communities, and we wish all of you a happy and restful holiday season. We look forward to serving you in the New Year.

Our Best,

Christine Geith
Chief Executive Officer
Extension Foundation

Gregg Hadley
Chair, Extension Foundation Board of Directors
Associate Professor & Director of Extension
Kansas State University

Recent Success Stories

2021 Publications

Upcoming Ways to Engage with the Extension Foundation

/by

Quick Links

Find Extension in Your State
Search Extension
Impact Collaborative
Connect Extension

About
Team & Board
Annual Report
Contact Us

Membership
Campus
Ask Extension
Tools

Privacy Policy
Accessibility Statement
Terms of Use
Careers

Extension Foundation Logo

Our mission is to empower a national network of community-based educators, volunteers, and partners to turn knowledge into real-world solutions for stronger communities and people.

Terms of Use

Cooperative Extension Logo

The Extension Foundation is a nonprofit established in 2006 by Extension Directors and Administrators nationwide. Extension Foundation is embedded in the U.S. Cooperative Extension System and serves on Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP).

USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture

This website is supported in part by New Technologies for Ag Extension (funding opportunity no. USDA-NIFA-OP-010186), grant no. 2023-41595-41325 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Extension Foundation.

Sign up for our Newsletter

Stay up to date with the Extension Foundation.

Subscribe