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
Outcome Funding
• 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!
Key Components
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Beneficiaries
Performance target
Milestones
Engagement
Verification
Key individuals
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 Targets
20 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
Example Performance Targets
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.
1: Number of agricultural service
providers
2: Specific actions
3: Scale or extent of action
Example Performance Targets
This target also contains Optional ingredient
4: Measureable on-farm change
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).
A Simplified OUTCOME FRAMEWORK
MILESTONE 1
50 complete baseline survey about
current knowledge and learning needs
MILESTONE 2
30 enroll in project, attend
workshops; learn concepts A, B, C
MILESTONE 3
25 attend field demo; learn and
practice A, B, C
MILESTONE 4
23 consult with PIs about farmer
education plans
TARGET
20 teach 250
farmers about
A, B, C
MILESTONE 1
MILESTONE 2
MILESTONE 3
MILESTONE 4
PERFORMANCE TARGET
20
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.
How to Write
Milestones
Think about Milestones as describing the
life of your project from the perspective of
the beneficiaries who participate.
Milestones should describe
what THEY do -- Not what YOU do
Recipe for a Milestone
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
Example Milestones
100 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 Milestones
100 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.
2.
3.
4.
Number of service providers
Activity they participate in
What they learn
Timeline – when they participate
and learn
How do milestones help you?
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
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 Engagement
a. 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
5. Verification
Asking questions and collecting
data to find out the extent to
which beneficiaries:
• Achieved learning milestones
• Performed actions described in
the performance target.
Verification Plan
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.
Use the recipes as your guide.
Success with
Verification
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 and
verification 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
Questions about Verification?
Please type into ‘question box’ on your screen.
6. Key Individuals
The ‘leadership team’
Serve a key role in the project
Provide letters of commitment
Northeast SARE’S
Review 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-aGrant/Professional-Development-Grant
Contact NESARE PDP Staff:
[email protected]
[email protected]