The Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Initiative (AFSI) Business Plan was last updated in 2015. While the business plan created the roadmap for many successes over the past 6 years, much has changed since then. The increasing prevalence of climate change-related threats and impacts are motivating many organizations to re-prioritize their strategies. Conservation organizations are also reassessing the place that human well-being has in conservation programs.

Particularly in coastal areas, sea level rise, flooding, and increased intensity of storms are threatening habitat and human communities. Shared solutions are needed that benefit ecological systems and human well-being.

The global pandemic also has had unexpected impacts on conservation nonprofits, though we are only beginning to see the full repercussions. The pandemic has already led to changes in consumer behaviors, which could have a range of impacts on conservation nonprofits operationally, programmatically, and with respect to philanthropic donations. The changing trends in consumer behaviors and philanthropy point to another reason to update the strategic plan.

Sustainable Economies Consulting partnered with AFSI and Manomet to update the AFSI business plan in fall 2021. AFSI uses an evidence-based decision-making process in their work. Thus, every addition to the plan was backed up by recent publications. While the previous plan did include strategies to support sustainable livelihoods, the updated plan has more detailed strategies around how to partner with communities around ecotourism, nature-resource based industries, and workforce development. The updated plan also focused more heavily on nature-based solutions for flood resilience and broadly on climate change threats.