Image Credit: Theresa Gulliver
Promoboxx recently partnered with The Conservation Alliance, an organization of like-minded businesses that support and partner with grassroots environmental organizations to protect wild places for their habitat and recreation values. Through this partnership, The Conservation Alliance is using the Promoboxx platform to provide their member companies with stories about land and water conservation opportunities across North America. Collectively, these companies are raising awareness about the importance of protecting wild places for future generations by sharing these stories with millions of social media followers.
Image Credit: Josie Norris
The Conservation Alliance is using the Promoboxx platform in a really unique way to deliver on its mission, so we sat down with Josie Norris, Communications and Grant Manager at The Conservation Alliance, to learn more about the Alliance, how Promoboxx helps them continue to protect public lands, and why Josie considers this position her ‘dream job’.
Josie will be speaking at the 2017 Aligned Conference this month on ‘Taking a Stand: Integrating Advocacy into your Marketing Campaigns’. Check out the full Aligned Agenda
I have worked in the outdoor industry at companies including Patagonia and Nau. It has always been important to me that I work for companies that are environmentally and socially conscious. In 2014, I applied for my dream job at The Conservation Alliance, where I now work managing communications and the grant program. I am over the moon about the work we do here, and I love working in an industry committed to creating positive change.
We work with a group of over 200 businesses that contribute money every year to a central grant fund. Twice a year we award grants from this fund to grassroots conservation organizations working to protect wild places for their habitat and recreation values. Many industries and individuals share our values and want to work to protect wild places, but don’t know where to start or what groups are most effective. When companies give through The Conservation Alliance, their funds are directed to the most effective conservation organizations in North America.
Image Credit: Tyler Roemer
We are looking for projects that are working to secure protection for a very specific wild place. We were founded in 1989 and since then our grantees have protected 50 million acres of land and almost 3,000 miles of rivers, removed or stopped 29 dams, protected 12 climbing areas and designated 5 marine reserves. We can clearly demonstrate the return on investment to our members.
Conservation Alliance member companies must nominate an organization to apply for a grant. The Conservation Alliance staff and our board of directors determines which projects are the best fit for our funding criteria and we places these projects on a ballot. Our member companies cast the final vote to determine which organizations receive funding. Reading about the projects on the ballot is a great way for our members to learn about conservation opportunities and the tools that we use to protect public land.
We provide funding for so many great projects across America, and every cause is important in its own way. Right now everyone should know about Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s review of 27 national monuments over 100,000 acres that were designated after 1996. Everyone in our community is paying attention to this unprecedented review of our national monuments. (At the time of this blog post Zinke had told The Associated Press that he won’t seek to rescind any national monuments created by past presidents, but that he would suggest changes to a “handful” of monuments.)
I’ll give you two! First, it is an honor to work with so many brands that choose to invest their money in the protection of wild places. It is inspiring to see these businesses coming together around a cause and collectively having a huge impact. My other favorite part is working with our grantees on a wide variety of conservation campaigns–no two projects are alike. The people working for these groups are dedicating their lives to protecting and defending these amazing landscapes.. I truly admire the dedication these groups have to conservation, no matter what challenges they face, they are working tirelessly to protect the places they love.
Image Credit: Shannon Millsaps
The need for conservation funding far outweighs the resources available. Unfortunately, we have limited resources and we can not fund all of the great conservation projects that come our way. In addition, in the last eight months we’ve asked our members to speak out in support of public lands more than ever before. We’ve had to shift our approach to communications to ensure we don’t overwhelm our members with information and action alerts, striking the balance between keeping them informed about threats to our public lands and asking them to take action only when it’s most important.
I’m looking forward to making it easier for our brands to share content. Promoboxx is providing a really easy way for our companies to talk about conservation with their consumers, and the easier you make it, the more likely it is that the brands will engage. If all of our brands use Promoboxx, the potential to have an impact on these campaigns is limitless.
All wildness is finer than tameness – John Muir.
You can find me playing outside!
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