Today, we’re thrilled to announce a special collaboration with our longtime partner, the David Brower Center. The partnership is dedicated to helping environmental organizations adapt in the midst of this pandemic, creating more resilient communities for the future.

We are assembling a cohort of environmental organizations to participate in a virtual communications strategy coaching program that will help organizations adapt to better serve their communities in the face of the pandemic.

This is a pivotal moment for nonprofits, as the landscape is shifting constantly. Now more than ever, having clear communications, messaging and a delivery strategy is critical to be seen as relevant.

With this program, you’ll work side-by-side (virtually) with Rootid and other environmental organizations to design actionable strategies you can implement during, and immediately following, the program.

The 5-week training will focus on 4 key areas:

1. Adapting your communications strategy to our present reality, inspiring supporters, funders, and partners to take action

2. Identifying effective, results-driven methods for delivering your message 

3. Developing segmented messaging that resonates with key audiences, motivating your existing community and expanding your support network

4. Validating your messaging and approach through a series of stakeholder interviews

While we would love to work with each and every one of you, space in this cohort is limited. If you are interested in participating, you can sign up below for alerts when the application window opens in early June, 2020.

The Importance of Environmental Justice during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The current pandemic is as much an environmental justice and economic issue as anything. Vulnerable communities across the world are being disproportionately affected by the virus. 

The inequities that existed before the pandemic have been magnified and accelerated.

Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, was recently quoted as saying, “Low-income and poor people face far higher risks from the coronavirus due to chronic neglect and discrimination, and a muddled, corporate-driven, federal response [that] has failed them.”

Unfortunately, you needn’t search far to find an example of that neglect. A Harvard analysis suggests that if Manhattan had lowered its average particulate matter level by just a single unit, or one microgram per cubic meter, over the past 20 years, the borough would most likely have seen 248 fewer COVID-19 deaths by this point in the outbreak.

Environmental justice is a woefully underestimated issue right now, making the visibility of your hard work all the more important. 

Building on a Long-Term Partnership

The David Brower Center has partnered with Rootid since 2015, when we helped redesign and develop their website. 

A year later, Executive Director Laurie Rich played a critical role in helping us design and expand our communications training by serving on our advisory board to help select cohort participants.

How to Participate in the Virtual Communications Coaching Program

We know you’re busy, and the last thing we want to do is distract from your work. That’s why we’ve streamlined the application process—3 short questions, followed by a 20-minute call to answer any questions you may have about the experience.

Here’s a peek at the timeline:

• MAY 27TH - JUNE 5TH
  Applications open

• JUNE 10TH
  Invitations sent to select applicants 

• JUNE 22ND - JULY 24TH
  Coaching Program

• END OF JULY & EARLY AUGUST
  One-on-one consultations with Rootid for implementation support

Goal 2020: Serve 100 Nonprofits to Meet the Moment

Over the last 10 years, Rootid has partnered with over 150 nonprofits through training, group coaching and customized communications services. 

However, in this moment of monumental change, we need to do more to help nonprofits adapt and come out of this moment stronger than ever before.

Rootid is committed to scaling our impact to partner with over 100 organizations this year!

This communications training program will play a major role in helping build resilience and helping organization’s missions stand out in this moment of need.

Read about our project with 2015 BrandUP Awardee, Root & Rebound.

Evolution of the Communication Training Program

Before we built this cohort model, Rootid had provided one-on-one pro bono services for small and growing nonprofits, but we were only able to serve one organization at a time—a bittersweet victory, considering we received 80+ applications for pro bono services in 2016.

As we asked interested nonprofits what they needed, many had the same response: they needed clarity around how to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. In response, Rootid developed a curriculum, called brandUP.

After a series of conversations with a client and partner, Full Circle Fund, we began and soon evolved brandUP into a series of 3-hour seminars/workshops that leveraged Full Circle Fund’s membership base as volunteers to guide nonprofits through the curriculum.

The new workshop series met three important needs:

1. They provided Full Circle Fund members meaningful, yet flexible, engagements with nonprofits.

2. They served more nonprofits and provided access to Full Circle Fund’s amazing membership pool.

3. They provided nonprofits an opportunity to work with Full Circle Fund outside of the normal grant cycle.

It was a win-win-win!

Read more about our partnership with Full Circle Fund.

Eventually, those workshops grew into the first brandUp collaboration in 2018—a two-day communications boot camp, including fifteen Bay Area nonprofits and over sixty volunteers. Participants were guided through a series of exercises that developed comprehensive communications plans, and Rootid facilitated four workshops, covering: nonprofit logic models, target audience and persona building, messaging, and campaign development.

Nonprofits commented that—in addition to the work accomplished during the event—one of the most valuable aspects of brandUP was the ability to network and leverage relationships to help further their missions. Our hope for the coming cohort is that you’ll walk away feeling similarly enriched and motivated.

Sign up for the cohort today!