The Sponsorship Model: Leveraging Extension Program Funds, Building Local Community Collaborations

Garnering alternative Extension programming funds has become a fact of life. A group of University of Minnesota Extension educators use what they call the Sponsorship Model to accomplish this. Selected programs are not marketed to program participants but are marketed to potential local community sponsors. Sponsors pay a flat sponsorship fee and are responsible for participant recruitment and selecting the meeting date, location, start time, and any costs such as meeting facility, refreshments, and meals. This process has resulted in greater participant attendance, less management work for the Extension educators, and the ability to generate revenue to sustain and grow programming

Long-Term Health Care Planning: A Subset of Farm Transition Programming

Farm transition programming has been a valuable addition to Extension programming efforts. An often overlooked subset of farm transition programming is a discussion regarding long-term health care planning. Research supports the need for long-term health care planning. The probability of having some sort of long-term health care issue in one\u27s lifetime is high. This includes a large percentage of people under the age of 65. Health care costs, including long-term care, are increasing at alarming rates. These costs can potentially cripple a farm business financially as well as impede the transition of the business to the next generation

Unique Multiorganizational Collaborative Proves Effective in Delivering 2014 Farm Bill Education

The Agricultural Act of 2014 is critical to the economic safety net for U.S. producers. This act represented a major change in philosophy, requiring producers to make key decisions about their options on the basis of risk management. To add to the complexity of the issue, the time period for delivering applicable education to landowners before sign-up deadlines was relatively short. This article highlights a unique multiorganizational statewide approach to delivering the applicable education. It involved University of Minnesota Extension, the Center for Farm Financial Management, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and banks and resulted in substantive evaluative outcomes

Farm Transition and Estate Planning: Farmers\u27 Evaluations and Behavioral Changes Due to Attending Workshops

A majority of Minnesota farm families have not named a farm business successor or developed an up-to-date farm business transition and personal estate plan. The collaborative Extension program effort described here focuses on introducing farm families to business transfer and estate planning processes, enabling them to develop and implement such plans. Findings suggest that farm family participants gained increased understanding of farm business transfer and estate planning. Furthermore, a substantive percentage of participants reported completing and implementing a business transfer and personal estate plan as a result of attending a program seminar

Multiple Year Extension Program Outcomes & Impacts Through Evaluation

Dwindling public funding as well as greater competition for grant dollars create a challenge for Extension. For Extension to remain a financially viable organization, educators have to be able to produce substantive, measurable program outcomes and impacts. Evaluative data can inform program development and delivery, and helps administrators report how funding is being allocated and the result of that allocation. Evaluative data can be shared with the public and other stakeholders as a means of garnering organizational support. The objective of this article is to highlight a multi-phase, multiple program year evaluation process resulting in substantive program outcomes and impacts

Managing our farm family future: a reference manual to assist farm families in making management decisions.

This archival publication may not reflect current scientific knowledge or recommendations. Current information available from the University of Minnesota Extension: https://www.extension.umn.edu.This program is designed to help farm families make informed decisions about the future of their family and farm businesses