Partnering Organization: Agriculture and Forestry Education Foundation (AgForestry)

Project Goals:

• Help inform AgForestry’s leadership regarding characteristics and expectations of future generations 
• Provide analysis of what could prevent AgForestry from providing a first-class leadership program in the future.
• Help AgForestry understand future generations’ ‘Rules of Engagement’ for gathering and for learning  
• Capture valuable insights that emerge in the research process that could inform evaluation of AgForestry’s current methods and/or strategies 

Among many different types of research resources, this project is going to require finding data pertaining to how similar organizations, especially non-profit organizations, operate, grow, and fulfill their missions. It will also require a current understanding of demographics and attitudes as they relate to environmental education and action.

Listed below are resources that might assist you with this project. This list is by no means meant to be an exhaustive. Rather it is meant to get you thinking about what sort of resources you might need and where they may come from.

If you have any question, please email me.

Below are some resources regarding finding information created by AgForestry

Finding Resources Created by AgForestry 

• Don't forget to read AgForestry's mission and vision from their website.
• You may also want to look at their Annual Reports & Corporate Sponsors via the AgForestry website.
• AgForestry also produces a newsletter: News & The Monthly Dirt 

For this project you will need to find resources about how organizations like Agforestry operate, grow, and are viewed. 

Helpful Industry Resources, newspapers, and trade publications.

• Nexis Uni - Provides information on U.S. and international private and public companies. Info includes company/non-profits organization descriptions, size, locations, history, and more. You can also search across newspapers and trade publications. 
• Business Source Complete - Allows you to search company and industry information across popular press, trade journals, product reviews, and much more. Also provides information regarding company and industry profiles. This may be helpful when for searching for information regarding other non-profit organizations.
• Newspaper Source - This database provides selected full text coverage for 245 newspapers, newswires and other sources. 
• Seattle Times (1896-1984) (Readex) - Provides full text coverage of the Seattle Times, a major Northwest newspaper, from 1896 to 1984. Currently contains material back to 1900, including articles and advertisements.

For more in-depth information regarding corporate research, take a look at the Company Research Library Guide. 

See also WSU News and Newspaper Research Guide. 

Much of this project is going to involve finding scholarly research regarding a myriad of topics. Although you may find this research across many different resources, 

Useful Scholarly Databases:

• Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics)

  Includes Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences and Science Citation indexes, Journal Citation Reports, BIOSIS Previews, BIOSIS Citation Index, Derwent Innovations patent searching, MEDLINE, and Zoological Record. Updated weekly.

• Washington State University Library Catalog (Search It)

  Search It is the WSU library catalog. You can search among many different types of resources and order materials from other institutions if they are not immediately available through WSU. You will find the most results using Search It.

• AGRICOLA (EBSCO)

  AGRICOLA contains bibliographic records from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library.

• PubMed
  This link to PubMed is for those affiliated with WSU. PubMed comprises more than 30 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

There have been many useful books published on 21st Century non-profit strategies, growth, marketing, etc.

The following books may helpful:

Gordon, J.K. (2006). Environmental leadership equals essential leadership redefining who leads and how

Ahmed, S. (2013). Effective non-profit management

Ahmed, S. (2017). Effective non-profit management: Context, concepts, and competencies 

Macdonald, D. (2017). 21st Century skills for non-profit managers

Galan-Ladero, M.M. & Alves, H.M. (2019). Case studies on social marketing A global perspective

It may be useful to understand generational attitudes and trends regarding environmental issues and non-profits. Below are a few places to get such data.

The Pew Research Center is a polling and research center that has conducted research regarding generation attitudes and environmental issues.

• The report "Gen Z, Millennials Stand Out for Climate Change Activism, Social Media Engagement With Issue" may be useful.
• You may also want to look at Pew's "Climate, Energy & Environment" report section on their website. 

The journal, Nature, has also provided research regarding generational attitudes and actions. For example, the study "Ten-year panel data confirm generation gap but climate beliefs increase at similar rates across ages" may be of use,

The National Center for Charitable Statistics Data provides data regarding the general nonprofit sector in the United States.