Many Extension programs receive sponsorships from third parties: individuals, businesses, or organizations that wish to ensure that a program takes place. The program’s sustainability sometimes hinges on the sponsor’s financial support, and sponsors have an interest in the program’s outcomes. University of Minnesota Extension’s Farm Transfer and Estate Planning program is an example. According to Agricultural Business Management Extension Educator Gary Hachfeld, sponsors for the program include attorneys, accountants, and bankers who support the program so that their clients (and others) may attend.
When assembling a public value message, we consider the private benefits to the program participants and the public value that accrues to the greater community. But, is it legitimate for a program to also create benefits for the third-party sponsors? In my view, when the sponsor’s financial support is crucial to the program, and the program persists in creating substantial public value, creating benefits for the sponsor is warranted.
Consider the schematic below, based on the diagram we typically use to illustrate the elements of a public value message:
Note that the program’s outcomes may result in private benefits, public value, and sponsor benefits. Moreover, the sponsor’s interests may overlap with those of the program participant (private benefits) and the greater community (public value). In the case of the farm transfer program, a sponsoring attorney may value improved business outcomes for her clients, as well as an increase in demand for her own estate planning services. Being a member of the same community as her clients, she may also value the economic vitality and social capital improvements that arise from the program.
So, generally, where the interests of a third-party sponsor coincide with–or at least do not compete with–a program’s public value, a sponsorship can create a win-win-win-win for Extension, program participants, the sponsor, and the community.