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Curtis & Edith Munson Foundation Scholarship/Internship Program Summer 2016 Freshwater Land Trust – Birmingham, Alabama

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Curtis & Edith Munson Foundation Scholarship/Internship ProgramSummer 2016

Freshwater Land Trust – Birmingham, Alabama

Table of Contents

About the Freshwater Land Trust

FWLT StaffWendy JacksonExecutive Director

Memorie EnglishDevelopment & Communications Coordinator

Elizabeth SimsStewardship Coordinator

Tina SimontonOffice Manager

Adam GreeneAmericorps VISTA Volunteer

Evan Sznajderman Americorps VISTA Volunteer

Connor SteinLand Steward Intern

Based in Birmingham, Alabama, the Freshwater Land Trust is a nonprofit organization that strives to preserve open space and increase the water quality. Led by a staff passionate about land conservation, the Land Trust works with landowners and its corporate partners to preserve lands and protect Alabama’s diverse and vibrant biological population.

Since its founding in 1996, the Land Trust has played a crucial role in various projects across several counties in central Alabama. Its projects include Rotary Trail in downtown Birmingham, Red Mountain Park, Turkey Creek Nature Preserve, and the Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System.

Homewood Forest Preserve

July Red Rock Tuesday, Gardendale

Introduction, Staff and Experience........................3

20th Anniversary Campaign....................................4

Digital and Web.......................................................11

Graphic Design.......................................................15

Conclusion..............................................................28

Little Shades Creek at McCallum Park, Vestavia Hills

An Introductory Overview

Courses

My name is Andrew (Drew) Pendleton. I am a rising senior at The University of Alabama majoring in public relations and Spanish with a minor in creative writing.

In March 2016, I met with Memorie English, the development and communications coordi-nator for the Freshwater Land Trust (FWLT) in Birmingham, Alabama. I learned that it was an exciting time at the Land Trust: its website had just been redesigned, several of its field projects were in full swing, and the organization was in the midst of celebrating its 20th anniversary. All of these would play a major factor in my duties at the Land Trust, including social media, writing and posting blogs, website maintenance, live event coverage and co-ordination, and designing print materials. With a newfound interest in the nonprofit sector of public relations after working with a nonprofit for a class during the school year, I was excited to participate in the Munson Foundation Scholarship/Internship Program during the summer of 2016 and use my strategic communication, design and writing skills to help the FWLT move forward into this new chapter.

From my first day at the Land Trust, I knew that this was not going to be a typical public relations internship. I was immediately immersed and onboarded into the FWLT’s daily operations and practices, inside and outside the realm of communication. From social media scheduling to newsletter design to writing feature- and blog-style posts for the FWLT web-site, the internship gave me the opportunity to put the skills I had learned inside and outside the classroom to the test.

The following courses prepared me for my internship with the Freshwater Land Trust:

• APR 231 (Introduction to PR)• APR 260 (Adobe Creative Suite)• APR 300 (Visual Communication)• APR 332 (PR Writing)

• APR 415 (Platform Magazine)• COM 123 (Public Speaking)• COM 220 (Interpersonal Communication)• JN 311(Intro to Reporting)

Professional ExperienceCapstone AgencySeptember 2015 – present• Media Relations Strategist for the Alabama Power and

Plank Center accounts, Spring 2015• Media Relations Strategist for the SunTrust Bank

account, Fall 2015

Platform Online MagazineJanuary 2016 – present• Student Writer/Editor, Spring 2016• Wrote four blogs and three articles over the course

of the Spring 2016 semester• Assisted in the planning and execution of events for

promotion and fundraising• Participated in peer editing and discussion

Mosaic MagazineAugust 2014 – present• Managed in-house and freelance staff on Honors

College community members to facilitate productionand editing of content for print and web

• Wrote mutliple articles on community issues

The Crimson WhiteSeptember 2013 – November 2015• Wrote multiple articles about community events, as

well as a weekly film column

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20th Anniversary Campaign“Celebrating 20 Years of Conservation”

20th Anniversary CampaignOutside of planning for LandAid 2016, the primary focus of the FWLT’s communications during the summer was a campaign that celebrated its 20th anniversary. This campaign would last the entire year; at the start of my internship, however, it had not yet fully taken off. In my first meetings with Memorie at the beginning of the internship, we brainstormed better ways to execute the campaign. There were already several “series” underway, such as the “20 Species” and “20 Donors” series, but the production of blog content had recently fallen by the wayside and a proposed “20 Years Ago” series had not yet begun.

In one of my first assignments for the FWLT, I overhauled the social media and blog plan for the rest of 2016, establishing concrete timeline for blog post production and publication, as well as a brief outline of the social media posts for each week. Each week, I used that calendar as a basis for a week-specific social media schedule, which I completed on Monday and send to Memorie for edits and approval.

Upon further discussion of the extended schedule, I proposed a blog schedule consisting of three series: “20 Species,” “20 Donors,” and “20 Years Ago.” The series would be published on a flexible yet consistent schedule throughout the summer, falling on the same weekday on a consistent basis. This schedule gave the FWLT an outline of which pieces should be published when, while remaining open to change if needed.

However, after completing a communication audit and digital SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of the FWLT’s digital communications, I noticed that posts about FWLT projects and staff members best engaged the audience in terms of “likes.” Therefore, following the audit and with these insights in mind, we revised the schedule to create four series: the blog series “20 Species,” “20 Champions” (initially “20 Years Ago”) and “20 Projects,” and the social media-exclusive “Staff Throwback Thursday,” otherwise known as “Staff TBT.” This new schedule engaged and informed the audience by producing organic and localized content that remained scientifically accurate in narrative-style language that appealed to a wider audience.

20 Champions 20 Projects 20 Species Staff Throwback

• Features members of the FWLTleadership and major donors

• Feature-style approach• Conduct and record interviews• Longer in length• Published twice a month on

Thursdays

• Features FWLT projects acrosscentral Alabama

• Details importance of featuredsites to Alabama’s biology and itscitizens

• Shorter in length• Published weekly on Fridays

• Features endangered and/orthreatened species endemic tothe state of Alabama

• Shorter, narrative-style approachto each species

• Published two to three times amonth on Wednesdays

• Exclusive to social media• Staff members share a photo of

themselves 20 years ago and talkabout how working with theFWLT has impacted them

• Posted two Thursdays per month,alternating with “20 Champions”

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20th Anniversary Campaign – SWOT and Social Media

In the original plans for the 20th Anniversary campaign, there were two series focused on FWLT leaders and partners: “20 Donors” and “20 Years Ago.” After the first round of social media revisions, the two series were combined under the “20 Years Ago” moniker. However, after proposing the “TBT” series, “20 Years Ago” was renamed, and “20 Champions” was born.

"20 Years Ago” and “20 Donors” were proposed as longer-form feature pieces that would feature in-depth, personalized stories from FWLT partners and leaders.“20 Champions” followed a similar approach. After determining a person to feature, I conducted an in-person interview with that person, recording the interview on my phone with their consent. These interviews asked about the person’s backstory, the history of their relationship with the outdoors and the Land Trust, and what has changed the most for them in the past twenty years. I then transcribed each interview and wrote a long-form, feature-style piece, which I then sent to Memorie for edits. Live interviews would also provide an opportunity to use WordPress’s video and audio capabilities.

Through these pieces, I aimed to show the people leading the FWLT through a personal lens. I wanted to tell their stories and show how they have used their life experiences to make the FWLT succeed. These stories took on a narrative structure, beginning in a flashback before transition-ing into a reflection on the last 20 years. I wanted to show the heartbeat of the FWLT and the passionate leaders who drive its efforts.

After the series was added to the schedule, we arranged an interview with FWLT executive director Wendy Jackson, who wholeheartedly agreed to be the first "champion." Following the 20-plus-minute interview that followed, Wendy provided a list of future participants who she wanted to see featured. Wendy’s piece, published the following week, kicked off the “20 Champions” series, which was followed by Holli Watts’ story two weeks later.

20th Anniversary Campaign – 20 Species 20th Anniversary Campaign – 20 Champions/20 Years Ago

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20th Anniversary Campaign – 20 Projects

The last addition to the 20th anniversary campaign blog series, “20 Projects” gives a weekly look into an FWLT project in central Alabama. While these pieces are shorter in length, I built a narrative for each location without diving into scientific jargon, telling the story of each place while leaving plenty of information for readers to find out themselves.

20th Anniversary Campaign – 20 Species

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The first series I began working on was the “20 Species” series, which zones in on a specific series of animal, fish or plant that is endemic to the state of Alabama. I specifically looked for species that resided on FWLT properties and projects in order to emphasize the impact that these projects are having on an ecological level, on a level that the human population may not necessarily see on first glance.

With each species, I created a narrative that was not only relatable to the audience, but also put the struggles of each species on display. These pieces were shorter in length and required a delicate balance between scientific and everyday language. In this way, “20 Species” was at times a challenge, but also allowed me to get to know the unique species that populate Alabama.

20th Anniversary Campaign – Staff ThrowbackDuring the SWOT analysis, I discovered that several of the best-performing social media posts – especially Facebook – revolved around people rather than causes or places. Reposts did not perform as well as posts that focused on FWLT staff or partnerships.

With the new influx of staff at the FWLT, an opportunity presented itself to show the FWLT’s audience the people working behind the scenes in its daily operations. If the Land Trust focused on people as much as it did places, it would provide an engaging, relatable window into FWLT operations and show the audience the people who help make the Land Trust’s projects come to fruition. In a meeting with Memorie to examine and discuss the SWOT analysis, we created a series that would complement the “20 Champions” series: a “Throwback Thursday,” or “TBT,” series that focused on the staff of the FWLT. This series would be exclusive to social media in order to capitalize on the #TBT trend. In each post, the staff member for that week would submit a picture of themselves from 20 years earlier, accompanied by a quote about how their world has changed in the last 20 years and the FWLT’s role in that. This would not only give the audience a view behind-the-scenes of the FWLT, but it would also gives the audience firsthand accounts of the FWLT’s impact on the people who manage its daily operations.

Memorie even volunteered to be its first participant, with office manager Tina Simonton following two weeks later. Through further discussion, “TBT” was inserted into the social media schedule, alternating weeks with the “20 Champions” series in order to give the audience a view from both FWLT staff and its leadership.

Digital and Web

Social Media and Web MaintenanceDuring my internship, I was put in charge of the Land Trust’s social media accounts and website. The Land Trust has a presence on three social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. However, it struggled with creating organic content when there were no events or activities occurring.

After performing a SWOT analysis and adjusting the social media schedule, I established a weekly routine for social media coverage. Every day, each platform would receive at least one post, with exceptions. Facebook and Instagram became the primary sources for organic content, while Twitter served as a repurposing tool for Instagram. This schedule included blog promotion, donation posts, live event coverage, supporting partner organiza-tions (such as Americorps VISTA and the Vulcan Awards), reposting media coverage, and the “Throwback Thursday” portion of the 20th anniversary campaign.I was also in charge of posting articles, inserting photos and changing the sliders on the FWLT homepage.

Social media was my primary role during workdays and “Red Rock Tuesdays,” in which the Land Trust partners with Jeh Jeh Pruitt of WBRC FOX6’s “Good Day Alabama” to feature outdoor locations on television. These events take place on the first Tuesday of each month at locations across Jefferson County. During Red Rock Tuesdays, my role was to take photos of the action and the location, then post them on social media to update followers and encourage them to tune in. I performed a similar role during workdays and live events, such as “Party on the Porch” at Alabama Outdoors and the work days at McCallum Park and Homewood Forest Preserve. These events not only allowed me to see the FWLT’s efforts in action, but also allowed me to use that understanding to produce live social media content for various platforms.

Social Media

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Live Event Coverage

Red Rock Tuesday Party on the Porch

Brasfield & Gorrie Work Day Vulcan Materials Work Day

Graphic Design

E-NewslettersEvery month, the Freshwater Land Trust sends out two e-newsletters to its mailing list through the online e-newsletter service Constant Contact. One newsletter is specifically sent to the board of directors, while the other is sent to a general interest mailing list. My task regarding these newsletters was to construct a new, mobile-friendly general interest newsletter that would balance text and images while remaining informative and visually appealing.

Objectives

• Using the Constant Contact template,create a new, mobile-friendly designfor the e-newsletter that balances textand images.

• Determine new content for thee-newsletter that portrays current andrelevant information about the FWLT’srecent and upcoming activities.

• Rename the newsletter.• Create the June 2016 issue of the

e-newsletter and distribute it to themailing list.

E-Newsletters

I began by researching the designs of other popular e-newsletters from other people and organizations – such as writer Justin Kleon, theSkimm and the Public Relations Student Society of America’s “Issues and Trends” series – in order to gain insight into which types of designs appealed best to their readership. Based on these insights, I drafted a newsletter with a tier-style design, which broke up the newsletter into sections and helped improve the newsletter’s overall flow. While the previous design included a huge amount of information by placing multiple vertical sidebars alongside horizontal body content, the new design flows from left to right. Each tier covers information specific to one aspect of the FWLT’s daily operations, such as events, field work and office work.

While the newer design maintains the same color scheme as the original design (to align with the FWLT’s logo colors), it opts for larger images and shorter, teaser-style text rather than paragraphs. The textual content used gives enough information to pique the reader’s interest, but needed to be engaging enough to make them click through to the FWLT website.

Backwaters, July 2016 – Sections 2-3

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E-Newsletters

I added links to articles, social media and different sections of the FWLT web site in order to not only encourage click-throughs to the FWLT website, but also to increase both audience engagement with the newsletter and web traffic. I also used Constant Contact’s options to link buttons and photos to articles to encourage this traffic.

Following the creation of the newsletter online, one step still remained: renaming it. After discussion with Memorie and members of the FWLT staff and board, “Backwaters” was chosen to be the new name of the e-newsletter. After making final edits, the first edition of “Backwaters” was sent out on June 30, and the second edition was sent in August.

Backwaters , July 2016 – Sections 3-4

Print Newsletters

My largest design-based assignment for the internship was the redesign of the Land Trust’s two print newsletters: the corporate-oriented The Flow Chart and the general interest newsletter Meanderings. The Flow Chart is geared primarily towards donors and board members, while Meanderings targets general interest readers, donors and potential partners and landowners. With these different messages and audiences in mind, both newsletters had different designs: The Flow Chart had a more sleek, corporate design, whereas Meanderings had a warmer, more casual design. However, both of the newsletters emphasized text over imagery, creating an im-balance between visual appeal and text-based information.

My assignment was to redesign both newsletters to better balance text and images while still remaining flexible to article length and maintaining specific aspects, such as listing the Board of Directors in both magazines and the corporate sponsorship section in The Flow Chart.

I approached both of the newsletters with the same goals in mind: to maintain the informative nature of both publications while encouraging flexible article length, integrating visuals into and around text, and creating a more pronounced visual style to make each article stand out. My goal was to make both newsletters as balanced as possible, while allotting space for pieces of various lengths and more space for visuals.

The Flow Chart

Meanderings

Objectives The Flow Chart Meanderings

• Redesign the layouts of The Flow Chart andMeanderings in order to increase readabilityand balance text and imagery.

• Create more space for visual content whilealso promoting articles of varying lengths.

• Create a distinctive visual style for eachissue.

• Maintain a corporate, professional stylewhile promoting visual content.

• Establish a clean, sleek and easy-to-navigatelayout that remains flexible to differenttypes of content.

• Integrate visuals into article layouts.

• Maintain a casual, more relaxed style whilepromoting visual content.

• Rework preexisting sections to allow formore visual content.

• Establish a clean, sleek and easy-to-navigatelayout that remains flexible to differenttypes of content.

• Released in November• Sent to corporate and donor partners• Includes partner spotlights and donor

“Thank You” section

• Released in October• Sent to general interest mailing list and

landowners• Focuses on current events; more casual

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Newsletter Front Pages

The Flow Chart Interior Spread

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Meanderings Interior Spread

ParksRx and REACH BirminghamIn the second week of my internship, I accompanied Memorie, Adam and Evan to a meeting of REACH for Better Health Birmingham, a coalition of various organizations across the Birmingham metro area, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. This coalition, which includes organizations such as the FWLT, the UAB Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Center, United Way and the Jefferson County Department of Health (among others) and is funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, works to offer healthier food choices and more fitness opportunities in order to combat health disparities encountered by minorities.

A particular aspect of REACH is the ParksRx program, a partnership with Birmingham Parks and Recreation that works with local doctors to prescribe physical exercise. These doctors can direct their patients to the ParksRx site, which lists the parks in the ZIP codes around Birmingham and Jefferson County that patients can use. Online, each park has a flier (in English and Spanish) attached to it that details the park’s amenities, location, hours and other information about its operations and features.

In my first meeting with Memorie at the beginning of the internship, I learned that the FWLT had taken the lead on these fliers. However, ParksRx was planning a launch in September, which meant that over 100 more parks (at the time) still needed fliers. At the time of the meeting, ten parks had already been completed. My role was to act as a designer and translator in order to complete the fliers for the next rounds of approved parks, with a deadline set for the end of August.

Using PDF Editor and a template, copy and visuals provided by Birmingham Parks and Recreation, I worked to create smooth layouts for each park, revising the copy as needed. Once the English version of each park was completed, I directly translated each flier into Spanish, adjusting the layout as necessary. I completed park fliers as the parks themselves were approved, filling out fliers in sets of ten and using the original ten as templates. After completing each set of parks, I sent them to Memorie, who sent them on to the REACH and ParksRx leadership for final approval and edits, which included a UAB Spanish professor who would ensure my translations were accurate.

This project not only allowed me to become proficient in PDF Editor and produce mass amounts of content, but also allowed me to better understand the greenspaces that pepper Birmingham and Jefferson County.

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ParksRx and REACH Birmingham

Birmingham Botanical Gardens – English Birmingham Botanical Gardens – Spanish

Brochure

The FWLT’s print materials included a brochure that folded out into a map of the FWLT’s projects. However, while the brochures were user-friendly and minimalist in nature, did not fully describe the FWLT’s mission and the reasons behind it. To solve this, Memorie asked me to design a new bro-chure that was informative, stylish, somewhat interactive, and inexpensive enough to produce in-house.

After several days of drafting and designing, I designed a brochure that would fold into quarters. On the front, panels would introduce the FWLT, out-line its mission, explain its support and stance on conservation, and share contact information. On the back, a map of central Alabama would highlight major FWLT projects with enough room to detail each project and add a visual component from each site.

These brochures would be distributed to visitors, board members and prospective donors. By creating a clean, colorful design, I made a brochure that was interactive and visually engaging without sacrificing factual substance.

Similarly, I used the tier design for the e-newsletter as the inspiration to create a one-pager, creating a tiered layout broken up into sections explaining the FWLT mission, its views on the importance of conservation, its major projects, and its contact information. This design maintains the same col-or scheme as the brochure, with colors taken from the FWLT logo. Similar to the brochure, the text is as brief and specific as possible, giving plenty of detail without diving into scientific jargon. This language choice, combined with the color scheme as the tiered and structured design, makes the one-pager not only an attractive source of information to FWLT insiders, but also to visitors.

The one-pager design could also be easily manipulated depending on visuals; the layout was not restricted to a particular visual size, and therefore could be eaisly shifted to suit larger or smaller pictures and content.

One-Pager

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Brochure

One-Pager

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Working for the Freshwater Land Trust has been an eye-opening experience, in more ways than one. In these nine short weeks, I have not only honed my skills in public relations practice, but also have seen my views of the nonprofit sector and the profession change with them. The FWLT’s staff and leadership have taught me a major lesson not only in the value of conservation and the inner workings of nonprofits, but also in having a sheer passion for the work you do in whichever field your job lies. The passion that the staff and leadership at the Land Trust exemplify from day to day has inspired me to think outside the box, take on new challenges, hold tight to ambition and turn ideas into reality. The staff at the FWLT is a group of truly incredible people with a drive to make a difference on their environment, and that drive is utterly inspiring.

As the communications intern, I was able to see how different sectors of the Land Trust worked and then tasked with telling the world about them. Being able to see the resources available to the Land Trust and watch how projects take shape, blossom and come to fruition was an incredible experience, even if the road became rocky. From the perspective of a public relations major, it was incredible to see how their efforts in the field make an impact on the surrounding communities and how vital well-executed, well-planned and strategic communication is to an organization, especially in terms of a nonprofit that primarily works behind the scenes. The FWLT staff allowed me to take the reins on planning communication strategies, allowed me to be creative and test ideas, and trusted me to implement the plans we set in place, but were never far away if I needed help or ran into any kind of difficulty. Without their support, I would not have been able to grow as much as I have during this internship.

I would like to thank the Land Trust staff for both a fantastic summer and for welcoming me into the Freshwater family with open arms. I would like to also thank the Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation for allowing me the opportunity to work with and become a part of this wonderful organization. It has truly been an experience I will never forget.

Exploring the new trail for Red Rock Tuesday in Gardendale

Conclusion