Need help finding information on creating videos, building a website or information on how to use different social media platforms? Look no further than the Marketing Toolkit, filled with resources from the Marketing Committee to help districts build engagement & brand awareness. Consider ways your office may engage new and existing groups by implementing a new marketing method like ways as outlined here in this one concise document.

It’s a good time for small farms. Operations with 20-49 head of cattle can now receive exclusive benefits through the new Small Herd Initiative. Under this program, smaller operations can receive 100% — up to $50,000 — starting July 1 for:   

• Stream exclusion with buffer and land management  
• Stream protection fencing with buffer  
• Portable fencing

Small Herd Initiative projects are funded from a separate pool of resources managed by DCR, so smaller operations don’t have to compete with larger ones. See Section VII of the VACS Manual for all the details. And there’s a nifty new flyer in the DCR Agricultural Cost-Share Marketing Toolkit to help you spread the word. Just add your SWCD contact information in the bottom right corner.

Fear of missing out – FOMO — is that nagging worry that we’ll be left out of something good that others are experiencing. It can make us RSVP “yes” to a party that we know we’ll be too tired to attend, for example. But FOMO can also prompt our audience to act on something we are offering. Which of the following messages do you think will inspire action? 

1. You have access to more cost-share funding than ever before, so don't hesitate to reach out to your district today.  
2. If you fail to reach out to your district, you’ll miss out on the biggest pot of agricultural cost-share funding Virginia history. 

Marketing research suggests that messages that emphasize the consequences of not acting (such as message 2) get 20% more responses than those that don't.