Why we Unified
With 4,000 volunteers across every county in Washington, the Master Gardener Program is the most impactful Horticulture & Environmental Stewardship organization in the state.
But, our on-line presence evolved county-by-county and we lacked a unifying ‘look and feel’. We unified so the public could more easily understand what we stand for and the contributions we make across the state.
Participating Foundations
Alignment with WSU sites
- Similar look across Foundation sites
- & between Extension and Foundation
- Foundation website template refreshed to align with new Extension design
Common Technology
The technology deployed in our multi-site environment, closely aligns with that used by WSU:
- To achieve similar ‘look and feel’
- Minimizes training for volunteers authorized to support Extension sites
Volunteer Supported
Each county has their own team of volunteers responsible for their website. So, while our sites have a similar structure and approach to describing our function:
- Each county foundation retains control over the content in their site
- Staffing of the sites is the responsibility of the county foundation
We have adopted a community support model called ‘Open Lab’:
- We meet monthly to tackle issues and share learnings
- We share better practices so counties can keep their sites sharp
- And we get to know each other so that counties with common issues can team up and tackle them together.
Low cost
Because we share common domains and technology in a volunteer staffed multi-site environment, we can deliver professional quality sites at a very low cost. This ensures that program donations are optimized for educational outreach on Horticulture & Environmental Stewardship and not on maintaining expensive websites and staffs.