A newsletter from Biodiversity Project Summer 2013
PUBLIC OPINION & COMMUNICATIONS NEWS
Where Coalitions and Communications Meet
iodiversity Project proudly offers two primary services: strategic communications and coalition building. Therefore, we have staff who are experts in each field. We work on our assigned projects and we inevitably develop busy schedules. In this environment, it’s easy to get tunnel vision, where the communications people only focus on the communications work and the coalitions people only focus on the coalitions work. This scenario probably sounds familiar.
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Collective Impact In a 2011 essay from the Stanford Social Innovation Review, FSG Managing Directors John Kania and Mark Kramer explored the idea that large-scale social change is best tackled by cross-sector coordination between groups and individuals, like local government officials, nonprofit organizations, businesses and private foundations, that can bond over a common goal. The collective impact of such organizations can change what Kania and Kramer call “adaptive problems” or problems that are complex with no easy answer. They explained how a coalition’s strength lies in the fact that they can attack a multi-faceted issue from several different angles with the same end What’s New at goal. Problems at this scale rarely have Biodiversity Project? one cause, so it’s no surprise that they We’re excited to start two new don’t have one solution. projects this summer. We will work At times, however, coalitions fall with Partners for Clean Streams, short of their goals because they lack a Toledo, Ohio-based organization the proper infrastructure. The resources dedicated to improving the health of the supporting organizations are of local rivers and streams, to stretched too thin to give the needed develop a communications strategy amount of time toward coordinating the and implement a campaign to entire operation. inspire their active volunteers to As Kania and Kramer put it, “Creating also become organizational donors. and managing collective impact requires Closer to home, Biodiversity a separate organization and staff with a Project will work with Long Run very specific set of skills to serve as the Creek and the Lower Des Plaines backbone for the entire initiative.” Ecosystem Partnership in Will And that’s where Biodiversity Project and Cook Counties, Illinois, to comes in. We facilitate conversations develop the education component with coalitions and the public in order of a watershed plan. In addition, to help develop the trust and awareness we will help them plan and needed for successful social change. We implement a pilot project to build the capacity of organizations and engage local residents in adopting healthy behaviors and attitudes coalitions to reach large goals.
Combining strong communications and coalition support can lead to collective impact on the most pressing environmental issues. Organizational tunnel vision plagues nonprofits and coalitions, engineering firms and government agencies and everything in-between. It is a product of our world that rewards specialists and niche organizations. To truly reach broad-scale environmental goals, though, we must continually remember that our specialties do not exist in a vacuum. Progress happens when the silos break down and we share efforts. Biodiversity Project helps organizations and coalitions break down those silos to reach shared goals. Ultimately, we believe that combining strong communications and coalition support can lead to collective impact.
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toward their local creek.
The Not-So-New Frontier What we’ve learned about social media over the last year
n today’s wifi-driven world, it often feels like you can’t be successful without being on social media. As more and more nonprofits move onto Twitter and Facebook, Biodiversity Project has been paying close attention to results. Ultimately we want to help partners determine if social media outlets are a good pathway for target audiences. If it is a good pathway, then we help figure out the best ways to reach followers. To make these recommendations, we depend on evaluation reports. Over this past year, the eNonprofit Benchmarks Study conducted by M+R Strategic Services and Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) found that nonprofits on Facebook and Twitter had big boosts in their social media followings. On average, for every 1,000 email subscribers, organizations had 149 Facebook fans and 53 Twitter followers, up from the 100 Facebook fans and 29 Twitter followers per 1,000 email subscribers the year before. According to this research and our own experience with social media, users respond to photo posts the most by liking and sharing them, but photo posts seemed to be less effective at getting followers to click through to websites. To spur traffic onto other nonFacebook sites, organizations had more success with links and shared posts. While still not overall very popular, mobile programs that contacted organizational supports through text messages grew in use by over 32% in the past year.
I What’s New at Biodiversity Project? Biodiversity Project is taking to the road! Staff will be presenting at several conferences in the coming months. At the end of July, Jennifer Browning will chair a session focusing on the role of communication in restoration goals at the National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration. Rebeca Bell will kick off the session with a presentation on communication tips and best practices. Later in the summer, Rebeca will head to the Kentucky Stormwater Conference to give a follow-up presentation on implementing a stormwater information and education campaign.
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Biodiversity Project Connections
However, numbers can be a bit deceiving. Even though the number of nonprofit Twitter followers grew by 264% over the last year, 40% of the nearly 500 million registered Twitter accounts have never sent a single Tweet. This means that while it is part of the social media world, 4 of every 10 users are passive readers, not active socializers. When creating metrics to understand your social media success, remember that not every user will spread the word. Therefore, you may be reaching your followers, but you may not be spreading your message as widely as you think. Many nonprofits have found that less is more when it comes to social media. For instance, 5-7 Facebook posts a week will garner more interest than 10-12, which can seem overwhelming to a follower. That’s why it’s important to carefully set and track social media implementation plans and goals. These pre-existing goals will help you see what is and isn’t working. It can also be helpful to compare your metrics with national statistics, like these: • More Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn users were female than male. Google+ had more male users than female. • The 45-54 year old age bracket is the fastest growing demographic on both Facebook with a 46% growth rate and Google+ with a 56% growth rate. • 58% of Facebook users return to the site daily. • Facebook users “like” more than 500 million items each day. • 92% of re-Tweets are based on “interesting content”, while only 26% are because the author included “please RT” in the Tweet. • 21% of the world’s internet population use Twitter every month • The number of people accessing the internet via a mobile phone increased by 60.3% to 818.4 million in the last 2 years.
As with any new medium, mastering social media is a process of trial and error. But setting clear goals at the beginning can protect you from wasting valuable resources (think: staff time!) and help you rebound from errors to build strong social media communications.
Adding a Little Heart to Science Blending values-based messages with scientific finds hen science challenges established ideas (like the earth is the center of the universe) or religious beliefs (like creationism), the scientists themselves can be made into villains. The scientific process can be hard for the public to understand and often makes it even harder for some scientists to clearly communicate about their research, findings and theories. They often also struggle to overturn their own negative publicity. We’ve seen it happen often enough with environmental and climate scientists. At Biodiversity Project, we often stress the great need for environmental communicators to carefully consider the needs and values of their audiences before diving into activities like writing a website, developing Facebook content or printing a brochure. This is especially important when communicating about scientific or technical issues.
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“We’re starting from the identities that people already have instead of making green tree huggers out of the world.” — Katharine Hayhoe, Texas Tech University
And while we guide our clients as best as we can on how to make facts and figures manageable, sometimes other examples get the point across better.
Climate Warriors Some climate scientists proudly consider themselves climate warriors—people whose job is to defend science and their research for the greater good. Some climate warriors are incorporating values-based messages into their public
speaking engagements and television interviews. Instead of providing “just the facts,” they are connecting those facts to real-world consequences and actions that we can all take. During an interview with Climate One, Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist and professor at Texas Tech University, explained that she doesn’t believe facts are enough when it comes to persuading people to act on climate change. “It challenges things that are dear and near to our hearts, not our brains,” Hayhoe said. “So that’s why it’s so important to start with the values that we share.” Hayhoe, like other climate warriors, said she hopes people recognize that everyone shares certain values; we are all on one planet, we all want a better life for our children and we all hope for a better economy. “We’re starting from the identities that people already have instead of making green tree huggers out of the world,” Hayhoe said.
The People’s Science Sometimes, it takes the help of another nonprofit to get scientists and the public on the same page, and The People’s Science is on the case. As described in their mission, The People’s Science is “a centralized, interactive space where scientists and the public can meet and converse.” They have invited scientists to post “pop” versions of their work on their site. The posts become interactive forums where readers can ask questions, give thoughts, and discuss the meaning of the work. This site helps bring potentially complicated scientific issues into the real-world, not by talking down to non-scientists, but by engaging them in the conversation. Conversations like these can lead to scientists who are better communicators and a more informed and engaged public. Current forum topics range from “Why Music Moves Us” to monkeys What’s New at that conform to other primate cultures; Biodiversity Project? this range, in our opinion, is one of the We’re happy to welcome great strengths of the site. At any time, two interns for the summer. there is bound to be a topic that grabs Human services major Kasey your attention. Hoogervorst will be a senior Biodiversity Project celebrates any in the fall at Millikin University move toward values-based messages in Decatur, Illinois. Liz Greiwe from the science community. The is a rising junior and journalism more science becomes personal, the major at Loyola University more potential there is for change. Chicago. Biodiversity Project Connections
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PUBLIC OPINION continued from page 1
And indeed, we have seen change. For the last six years, Biodiversity Project has managed a ten-state public education campaign called 1 Mississippi, established by the Mississippi River Network (MRN), a coalition of 46 nonprofit organizations and businesses focused on protecting the Mississippi River. MRN members implement the campaign at the local level, but Biodiversity Project crafted the consistent national message. We provide behind-the-scenes services that allow local efforts to shine. While the power behind this campaign may seem like it comes from its size, it actually comes from the way the organizations work together toward their common goal.
MRN and 1 Mississippi show how different organizations with their own individual agendas can use their unique expertise to tear into an adaptive problem. The coalition has all the marks of “collective impact” success, as identified by Kania and Kramer; it has a well-defined goal, continuous communication between its members and public, a shared way to measure data between the organizations and the support of their “backbone” organization, Biodiversity Project. With over 8,000 River Citizens and counting, 1 Mississippi and MRN have the opportunity to make a collective impact on laws, the public and North America’s mightiest river.
Both majestic flocks and beautiful vistas along the Mississippi River benefit when almost 50 organizations and 8,000 River Citizens come together under the mantle of the Mississippi River Network and the 1 Mississippi campaign.
Biodiversity Project Communications to INSPIRE Environmental ACTION
Board 4507 N. Ravenswood, Suite 106 Chicago, IL 60640 773-754-8900 www.biodiversityproject.org
Biodiversity Project Staff Connections is published Jennifer Browning by Biodiversity Project. Executive Director Send inquiries to jbrowning@biodiverse.org project@biodiverse.org.
Rebeca Bell Communications Director rbell@biodiverse.org Laura Brown Communications Coordinator lbrown@biodiverse.org
Megan Kelly Program Manager mkelly@biodiverse.org Amy Sauer Mississippi River Program Manager asauer@biodiverse.org Annette Gomberg 1 Mississippi Outreach Coordinator agomberg@biodiverse.org
Chair: Sara Race Commonwealth Edison Evanston, IL Todd Cywinski Imagination Publishing Chicago, IL Dennis Dreher Geosyntec Oak Brook, IL Rey Phillips Santos City of Chicago, Department of Law Chicago, IL John Sentell Lake Forest Open Lands Association Lake County, IL Gary Wilson Grimard Wilson Consulting, Inc. Oak Park, IL
1 Mississippi is a public campaign of the Mississippi River Network, a coalition working together to protect the land, water and people of the Mississippi River region. Biodiversity Project manages the coalition and coordinates the campaign.