Growing with education in mind: 6 tips to creating an education based farm

More than ever we are seeing farms and nonprofit organizations use land and food as connecting, teaching, and gathering points. As part of this farm-based education trend, there is a growing need for farmers and gardeners who can manage with an educator’s perspective. While production and general operations remain important, new goals require shifts to your way of doing things.

Mini-consults get results on a shoestring

As someone who worked for small and medium nonprofits (and farms for that matter), I know how far you have to stretch your resources. The idea of paying a consultant to support your visioning process, your new project, staff training, or sticky operations problem seems like a luxury for the big guys. In fact, the only time we spent money for outside help was on highly specialized trainings or executive-level problems….usually worth it, but thousands of dollars!

A coworker drew this for me during an 

appreciation exercise. If you feel this way

at your work, raise your hand(s).

Dreams of a Farmer-Educator "Go-To" Book

After reading this article, check out the list of ways you can help!

Good Farmer-Educators are a rare breed, partly because the role requires a willingness to live and thrive within the dynamic tension of, you guessed it, being a farmer AND educator. If you are reading this you probably already understand how powerful the land can be as a learning space, yet converting that vision into real-life productive and engaging programs takes a new breed of farmer and teacher (the same applies to hands-on science and environmental programs). 

Sometimes you have to handle complicated projects after the student day is over, although gathering a group to tackle a big project with simple tools can be a powerful experience. 

Choosing your CRM database is only the first step…

It takes a lot of work and research to decide on the right database for your organization, especially now that companies offer Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) systems that can integrate fundraising, online donation and store activities, communications, volunteers, program management, and more.  As hard as it is to wade through database options, the real work is truly making good use of them.  Once you take the plunge, it is vital to keep in mind that you not only are moving data from your old system, you are figuring out how to use the CRM capabilities to create new administrative and potentially programmatic SYSTEMS and functionality. The power of good CRMs is that they can simplify time-consuming activities while providing easy and accessible analysis and reporting…putting your staff in the position to make data-supported decisions and to focus on relationship-building. 

11 Tips for Your Next Evolution: Building an Engaging and Effective Strategic Plan Process

I recently sat down with Stephanie Seliga of the Just Garden Project, a program that was adopted by Seattle Tilth this year. Over a couple hours we talked about their efforts to build a new vision and strategic plan for the organization now that it is part of the Seattle Tilth family. It felt good to be able to share the insights and lessons from my own experience co-leading GRuB’s evaluation and evolution of its vision, mission, values, and strategic goals. Our conversation also reminded me how important it is to create a strong process and to involve the right people. Here are a few tips for those of you who might be starting your own evolutions.

Why “Soft-Skills” Belong in Sustainability Education: A Visit to The Evergreen State College Organic Farm

When I first started on the path toward Sustainability Education and The Good Food Movement, I focused on building tangible skills and knowledge -apprenticing to learn to farm and taking classes in agroecology, soil science, nonprofit management and other academic content. During my second year of undergrad at The Evergreen State College , one of my favorite professors, an ecologist and farmer named Pat Labine, pulled our class together to teach us group dynamics and facilitation skills. She rightly demanded that we improve our communication and collaboration as integral parts of our learning and future work.

Strong roots bear sweeter fruit: matching your land with your mission and values

When you start your farm business, community garden, school garden, or educational farm, you’ll spend the first couple of years trying on and refining the values and goals that led you to create it in the first place. Maybe that means adapting different farming practices, perhaps starting a new apprenticeship program, or shifting the curriculum of your education program. At some point you will need to decide what is most important to you and how you want to evolve (usually more than once!).  If you are anything like me, problem-solving sounds a lot better than processing.  However, when it comes to the success of your organization or business, taking a little well organized time to process and vision together will lead you to surprising discoveries that yield sweeter fruit.

Food Banks in the Good Food Movement

When you hear “food bank,” how many of you think of the Good Food Movement?  We know food banks are an increasingly important safety net, but they give away low quality, low nutrient food right? 

While that is sadly the case in some instances, some food banks are creating innovative programs to improve their clients’ access to fresh, healthy foods. More than that, people like Cori Walters, the Director of the Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank, have helped to create “Nourishing Networks” made up of community, nonprofit, school, and government representatives who combine their resources to take strategic actions to end hunger in their communities.

Re-Framing your Membership Program

Membership programs can be tempting income streams.  Why not invite people who believe in your work to join your organization through a paid membership? However, there are some common challenges that might make you regret you ever started one.

• Administrative workload:  Building and maintaining memberships requires dedicated staff and resources.  Even after inspiring someone to join, you still need a solid system to process payments, renewals, and to troubleshoot the common snafus that will occur.  Depending on your database and payment systems, you may be required to do significant and ongoing data entry just to keep people’s information up-to-date. 

• Bang for the buck:  I’ve heard from more than one colleague that the effort doesn’t always feel worth the income generated.  Memberships as a fundraising strategy require a lot of admin for a fraction of the operating budget.  Even membership driven organizations are depending more on corporate sponsorships and major giving.

• Donation killer:  Sometimes members have a sense of “I’ve paid my dues,” once they’ve joined.  That can work if you really are a membership based organization, but for many, the membership is only one part of a bigger fundraising strategy.  If people only give once, you’d better hope they choose your highest membership level.

• Service provider mentality:  Memberships usually include some sort of exchange.  I like to think most members join because they believe in your mission and want to support the work financially. However, once you shift from donation to membership, you are shifting the expectation.  It’s easy to get sidetracked trying to create enriching membership experiences that don’t necessarily serve your mission.  Or, you may find that you are attracting temporary members who only join to get a discount on a class or other cheap service.