Northeast SARE

Webinar for Invited Professional Development Program

Grant Applicants

August 18, 2015

www.nesare.org

Purpose

Increase your understanding of the application process, so you can write a strong proposal.

Ask questions in the ‘question box’ as we go, or at the end.

Webinar will be recorded for future viewing

• Adopted by Northeast SARE’s Administrative Council in 2000.

• Views funded projects as ‘investments’

• Project framework designed to help ensure outcomes from investments.

• Outcomes: Measurable, positive changes in learning, action and condition

Achieving outcomes benefits both the grantor and grantee!

Outcome Funding

1. Beneficiaries

2. Performance target

3. Milestones

4. Engagement

5. Verification

6. Key individuals

Key Components

1. Beneficiaries

The people (agricultural service providers)

that your project will engage and educate

2. Performance Target

The specific, verifiable action(s)

beneficiaries take as a result of

participating in your project

(and sometimes also)

the benefit that results from the action.

In other words: Exactly what do you expect to happen with your target audience if your project succeeds?

Recipe for Professional Development Performance Target

3 Ingredients:

1. Number of agricultural service providers who take action to teach farmers

2. Specific actions they take, i.e. educational activities and services with farmers.

3. Scale or extent of action: How many farmers they teach; How much production the farmers manage

Recipe for Professional Development Performance Target:

Optional ingredient:

4. Measurable on-farm change: Number of farmers who adopt the project’s recommended solution

Optional means Optional. This is not required. Some projects where agricultural service providers work closely with farmers throughout the project choose to verify and report this data.

Include on-farm change in the target only if you will be able to verify it.

Example Performance Targets

20 agricultural service providers conduct educational

activities and consultations about techniques, benefits,

and challenges of planting cover crops in fields

harvested for corn silage with 250 dairy farmers who

cultivate 18,000 acres of corn for silage.

Can you identify the 3 ingredients of the performance target?

Example Performance Targets20 agricultural service providers develop and conduct

education activities about techniques, benefits, and

challenges of planting cover crops in fields harvested

for corn silage with 250 dairy farmers who cultivate

18,000 acres of corn for silage.

1: Number of agricultural service providers

2: Specific actions

3: Scale or extent of action

8 agricultural service providers deliver education

programs about the FAMACHA system of barber

pole parasite management to 320 sheep farmers

who raise 6,000 sheep.

Example Performance Targets

1: Number of agricultural service providers

2: Specific actions

3: Scale or extent of action

This target also contains Optional ingredient

4: Measureable on-farm change

Example Performance Targets

20 agricultural service providers consult intensively about

value-added business planning with 35 dairy, beef, small

ruminant, and/or fruit and vegetable farmers; 25 of these

producers complete business plans for a value-added

product; 12 educators conduct educational activities and

services about value-added business planning with 100

additional farmers who manage 8,000 acres.

Considerations for Writing a Strong Performance Target

a. How great is farmer need/interest in the problem/opportunity you will address?

b. How great is agricultural service provider interest/ motivation to learn and to teach farmers?

c. How many service provider beneficiaries will you engage?

d. What time commitment are they able/willing to dedicate to the project and follow-up farmer education?

Obtain information from agricultural service providers (and farmers if necessary) during proposal planning to helps answer these questions.

Considerations for Writing a Strong Performance Target

d. What farm audience will beneficiaries work with? Is it large? Diverse? Geographically concentrated or dispersed?

e. How complex is the farm problem your project is addressing?

f. How complex, intensive or time consuming will educational work with farmers be for the beneficiaries?

The number of beneficiaries who participate and take action will vary based on project content and design.

All beneficiaries may not conduct the same follow-up educational actions.

The performance target may contain different actions or amounts of action for subsets of service providers.

Considerations for Writing a Strong Performance Target

Strive for an ambitious, but realistic performance target.

The more information you have about:

• your beneficiary audience

• the farmers they serve

• the benefits for farmers from addressing the problem or opportunity in your project

• the risks and barriers to change that must be addressed

The easier it will be to establish an ambitious and realistic performance target.

Questions about Performance Targets?

Please type into ‘question box’ on your screen.

3. Milestones

Logical, sequential learning steps beneficiaries take as they participate in project activities.

Milestones prepare beneficiaries for the performance target (i.e. for taking action to teach farmers).

MILESTONE 230 enroll in project, attend

workshops; learn concepts A, B, C

TARGET 20 teach 250 farmers about

A, B, C

MILESTONE 3

25 attend field demo; learn and practice A, B, C

MILESTONE 1

MILESTONE 3

PERFORMANCE TARGET

MILESTONE 150 complete baseline survey about

current knowledge and learning needs

MILESTONE 2

MILESTONE 4MILESTONE 4

23 consult with PIs about farmer education plans

20

A Simplified OUTCOME FRAMEWORK

Not everyone who begins a project will complete all the milestones.

Projects designed to recruit, engage and support a committed cohort of beneficiaries are often most successful.

Think about Milestones as describing the

life of your project from the perspective of

the beneficiaries who participate.

How to Write Milestones

Milestones should describe what THEY do -- Not what YOU do

4 Ingredients:

1. The number of agricultural service providers who participate

2. The project activity they participate in to learn and build skills

3. The knowledge and skills they learn

4. The timeframe when the participation and learning occur

Recipe for a Milestone

Example Milestones100 agricultural service providers attend 4-part webinar

series and learn about market analysis and

assessment, product development, market competition

and positioning, and financial analysis and projections.

June-September 2015

Can you identify the 4 ingredients of the

milestone?

Example Milestones100 agricultural service providers attend 4-part webinar

series and learn about market analysis and

assessment, product development, market competition

and positioning, and financial analysis and projections.

June-September 2015

1. Number of service providers2. Activity they participate in3. What they learn4. Timeline – when they participate

and learn

a. Articulate essential beneficiary learning and interim action steps

b. Inform beneficiaries you have a clear plan to engage them

c. Provide a timeline for activities and learning that helps you implement project

d. Serve as monitoring tool to let you know if course corrections are needed and assure target is reached

How do milestones help you?

You will report against Milestones in annual progress reports.

Questions about Milestones?

Please type into ‘question box’ on your screen.

4. Engagement• Is what you do when you involve, teach, motivate, listen to and support beneficiaries.

• Is a key to success for Outcome Funded projects.

Getting people to come to events is relatively easy.

Obtaining commitment & Motivating action requires strong and consistent engagement.

Ways to Increase Engagementa. Involve beneficiaries in project planning

b. Inform them of the performance target and information you need from them over time

c. Provide learning opportunities through milestones that meet their needs

d. Collect ongoing feedback about their learning, skill development and confidence to teach farmers

e. Provide support – not just information… consulting, mentoring, assistance with planning and monitoring progress

Asking questions and collecting data to find out the extent to which beneficiaries:

• Achieved learning milestones

• Performed actions described in the performance target.

5. Verification

Describes:

Tools and methods for collecting data about beneficiary learning and follow-up action

The ingredients in milestones and performance targets are the items you need to ask questions and collect data about.

Verification Plan

Use the recipes as your guide.

Planned from the beginning

Done throughout project: for milestones

Target is verified after project activities (allow time for action to occur)

Requires tracking beneficiaries – who they are and what they do as result of project

Success with Verification

Tell the beneficiaries about the target andverification process -- at start of project

Collect any information needed as you go

Develop effective verification tools; share tools with beneficiaries ahead of time

Be persistent in engaging beneficiaries

Success with Verification

Questions about Verification?

Please type into ‘question box’ on your screen.

The ‘leadership team’

Serve a key role in the project

Provide letters of commitment

6. Key Individuals

Northeast SARE’SReview Process

it is interactive…

nesare.org

Preproposal feedback; this webinar

Online materials (Guide for Applicants)

Clarity questions (if needed) from first tier review panel

Second tier panel ranks all proposals

Administrative Council decides on funding

‘Pre-award’ conf. call with approved projects

Timeline

Full proposals due October 15, 2015

Clarity questions answered by email early Dec.

AC meeting in mid February

Funding decisions announced late Feb. 2016

Pre-award conference calls in March or April

Contracts issued late summer

Questions?

Find Guidance at http://www.nesare.org/Grants/Get-a-Grant/Professional-Development-Grant

Contact NESARE PDP Staff:Thomas.morris@uconn.eduJanet.mcallister@uconn.edu