Project Title:  Educational and Organizational Support for “Badger AgVest, LLC”  Round 2 (2004)  

Project Leader (s):  Greg Lawless, Liz Henry, Greg Wise

Project Collaborators:  Will Hughes, DATCP and the BAV board of directors

Project Category:  Outreach/Education

Situation:  (Project Description from Grant Application).  The early background on Badger AgVest (BAV) was provided in the 2003 Kohl report on this project.  When this 2nd project proposal was written in the summer of 2004, there was on-going need to build BAV membership.  At that time they had reached about 30 paid members, at $300 apiece.  They requested continuing help from UW Extension to develop educational programs on value added agriculture and off-farm investment strategies. 

Response:  Because a 1-year no-cost extension was received on the 1st Kohl grant to support Badger AgVest, this second round of funded activity did not officially begin until September 2005.  The original plan was to use the money to hold six educational events over the winter of 2004-05.  As it happened, we were able to utilize the previous round of funding to support a 2nd annual Ag Venture Fair, and a conference on adding value to commodities in Platteville that winter.  By the summer of 2005, with all of the 2nd round of funding still remaining, it was clear that a new Work Plan was needed.  A revised plan was approved by Associate Dean Rick Klemme, which included support for organizational strategic planning, advanced board member education, and a major public educational event on the topic of off-farm investment.

Results:  By early December 2005, most of the BAV board had attended an advanced training on “The Power of Angel Investing,” organized by the Wisconsin Angel Network.  They came away realizing that BAV was essentially an “angel-investing network for agriculture.” They also concluded that, based on the experiences of other angel networks, they were doing a lot of things right, particularly in light of the 4 major “deals” they examined, two of which they passed on to BAV members who qualified as “accredited investors.”  However, the organization was running low on funds, and some key partners felt the organization had gone somewhat adrift.  To address the latter issue, the EAM Team funding was used to bring in a top-level facilitator with an angel investing background to lead a strategic planning process in the fall of 2005.  With that process nearly completed, they have set a number of new goals, including but not limited to:  (a) to form a non-profit arm to focus on member and public education, (b) to increase the board from eight to fifteen directors, targeting individuals with skills and background they are currently lacking, (c) to join the Wisconsin Angel Network, and (d) to widely publicize an annual meeting set for December 2005, with the Secretaries of the Dept of Financial Institutions and DATCP as keynotes.  In 2006, BAV expects to receive a 2nd DATCP grant of roughly $25,000.  Through additional fundraising, membership dues, and various fees for service, their long-term goal is to hire a full-time executive director.  Finally, the remaining 2nd round of Kohl funds are intended to be used to develop a pilot educational program on off-farm investing.  It is tentatively scheduled for the summer of 2006.

Evidence:  The main instrument of evaluation that we committed to using was a measure of attendance at the aforementioned program on off-farm investing, with a post-event evaluation form.  That conference has not yet been held.