West Creek Conservancy and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Natural Areas program have protected tens of thousands of acres of sensitive habitats across Northern Ohio. Yet both organizations face challenges such as increasing competition for land, shrinking funding, and frequent policy changes. The teams wisely decided to combine talents and resources in a collaborative approach to land conservation, and looked to Sustainable Economies to help them identify shared priorities and craft shared messaging.

“Whether it’s strategic planning, mapping out partnerships, or simply calibrating direction, it’s often easy to get lost in the weeds. Having Elizabeth and Marissa engaged, not only as a highly talented pair of guardrails, but an empathetic sounding board, helped us lead a rather complex conversation.” Derek Schafer, Executive Director, West Creek Conservancy

The project had five components:

• Organizational assessment
• Develop shared conservation outcomes and priorities
• Define roles and develop action plan
• Stakeholder engagement
• Messaging platform

Sustainable Economies engaged the West Creek Conservancy and Natural Areas program teams in a brief series of deep-dive workshops. The approach to these workshops – a limited number of longer, richer discussions – allowed the two teams to compare and contrast organizational history and culture, anticipate stumbling blocks, define roles and responsibilities, and clearly articulate desired outcomes and prioritized strategies.

In addition, Sustainable Economies prepared the teams to announce this collaborative approach to funders, partners, and stakeholders through a data-driven approach to crafting key messages. A series of one-on-one interviews illuminated how important stakeholders perceive each organization’s strengths and the potential value of the partnership. Sustainable Economies translated those insights into crisp, compelling messaging that both organizations can use to educate and inspire the audiences who make their work possible.