Stakeholders & Friends:
The Clean Rivers Coalition (CRC) Steering Committee is pleased to announce that we’re off to the races and are developing a statewide strategic communications plan to inspire Oregonians to take actions for clean water!
After the July and Nov 2017 CRC forums in Keizer, where you provided insights to help inform our process, we released a call for proposals from communications firms to help us develop an informed, effective communications plan and launch year one of a multi-year campaign to encourage behaviors that promote clean water. This work is supported in part by a $100,000 grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust, as well as with help from all of you. Part I includes developing a communication plan. Part II includes developing communication pieces.
We have since hired Portland-based Brink Communications, a women-owned business that specializes in social good. We held a project kick-off meeting with Brink in January, and we’re excited for the progress to come!
Brink’s work on Part I will progress over four phases over the course of the next year, beginning with research, public surveys, and stakeholder interviews to prioritize pollutants of concern and identify communities we hope to reach. This first phase will build upon the feedback we received at community forums, where we narrowed our scope to three general areas of concern: consumer products, metals, and pesticides. We also discussed options like engaging the community in volunteerism to address stream temperature issues, educating portions of the business community, and adapting our campaign work in Spanish and/or Russian, as applicable.
Next, Brink will help us compile what we’ve learned into a multi-year strategic communications plan which identifies concrete strategies to reach Oregonians with clean water messages that stick, spurring audiences to change their behavior.
We’ll report back frequently as Brink’s work progresses, and we plan to host another forum in the coming months for Brink to share their progress and solicit your feedback on the draft plan.
Finally in Part II, Brink will develop communications tools for our coalition (such as calls to action, branding, video, social media pieces, etc.) and help us begin to implement the plan. We plan to use money already contributed by Coalition member groups to support this initial wave of outreach. In future years, we will need the pooled resources of CRC members and possibly more grants to support continued implementation of a shared message that resonates across the state. Maximizing impact from this campaign will require involvement by Coalition partners to spread the message with their local programs and funding. As implementation details are defined, we will let you know how you can help bring this campaign to the public.
If you have thoughts about the campaign or want to know how you can get involved, contact us. We hope you’re as excited as we are to continue this statewide collaboration!
A note on FY20 budgeting:
As your organization begins to craft its fiscal year-end 2020 budgets, please include a line item for the CRC campaign work if you can.
Thank you!
Clean Rivers Coalition 