Welcome to the Nebraska FFA Foundation website!
The Nebraska FFA Foundation exists to enhance quality education/FFA programs in order to achieve excellence in leadership development, curriculum innovation and scholastic advancement of students. With your help we can make a difference. Our full website furthers our mission by providing ways for you to learn more and get involved. Thanks for visiting. For more information, contact us or visit our full website.
Looking Back on I Believe in the Future of Ag
Posted by Victoria Broders on 02/08/2021
Several years ago the Nebraska FFA Foundation I Believe in the Future of Ag campaign began to serve as an outlet for local FFA chapters to receive donations for innovative projects in their classrooms, leadership programming, community service projects and field trips to advance agriculture education in their schools.
I Believe in the Future of Ag started in the Northeast part of the state with a couple of corporate partners that wanted a way to support local chapters in their territory and state programming. The program turned into so much more with the addition of an educational advertising campaign and statewide presence in fall of 2011.
The campaign has grown tremendously throughout the years. The 2010-11 campaign received $26,395 in local chapter donations with 34 chapters participating. These local chapter donations were received by chapters sending out letters with the I Believe donation cards, receiving donations online and other fundraising ways. By the 2015-16 year, the chapters received over $300,700 in local donations to their chapters with 74 chapters participating. Now for the 2019-20 year, nearly $370,000 was donated to local chapters with 144 chapters participating in the campaign.
The I Believe in the Future of Ag campaign wouldn’t have been possible without the wonderful sponsors of this program. AuctionTime.com, Aurora Cooperative, BigIron Auctions, Central Valley Ag and CoBank committed $20,000 each to the 2020-21 campaign. Other sponsors, contributing $10,000 each include Bayer CropScience, Country Partners Cooperative, CPI, Farm Credit Services of America, Farmers Cooperative, Frontier Cooperative, GrainBridge, Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation, Pinnacle Bank, Producers Livestock and Valley Irrigation.
These corporate partners provide support for an educational campaign for FFA and agricultural education in Nebraska and support fundraising efforts at the local level. “Local FFA chapters and agricultural education programs play an integral role in growing and developing future leaders in agriculture and in our communities. I see this campaign as a very important tool to help those chapters have the resources they need to grow leaders and build communities,” says Stacey Agnew, Nebraska FFA Foundation Executive Director.
Donors to the I Believe in the Future of Ag campaign choose which chapter they support. One hundred percent of each local donation is sent back to the designated chapter at the end of the campaign and a portion of the $35,000 challenge matching pool will be distributed to participating chapters. To donate to a local FFA chapter, contact your local FFA advisor or go online. The I Believe in the Future of Ag campaign ends February 28, 2021.