Productive Partnerships

Connecting with community groups or local businesses can provide surprising benefits to your land trust

When Kevin Gorman, executive director of the Friends of the Columbia Gorge, stood before an audience gathered to hear an Oregon Symphony Orchestra quintet, he pointed out the surprising parallels between the two organizations: “The orchestra embraces us in the warmth of familiarity, but also pushes us to see the beauty in new forms.”

For the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, that means playing both classical works and new music from living composers. For the Friends of the Columbia Gorge, that means encouraging residents of the Portland region to support the conservation of familiar landmarks in the Columbia River Gorge.

Land trusts that partner with community organizations with missions very different from theirs — such as symphony orchestras, restaurants and libraries — can go beyond a simple swap of fundraising opportunities. Land trusts have found that these partnerships feed their success by providing diverse resources, reaching new audiences with new messages and renewing their own excitement about the work ahead.

Trial by Fire

The Friends of the Columbia Gorge’s partnership with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra was part of a cascade of community partnerships and events that flowed from the catastrophic fire that started in the gorge on Labor Day weekend in 2017.

Before the fire was out, Gorman says, the Friends of the Columbia Gorge shut down its own fundraising efforts and directed contributions to Hood River County Search and Rescue. This division of the Hood River County sheriff’s office had rescued more than 150 hikers who were trapped in the gorge during the fire. The Friends’ efforts raised over $46,000 dollars for the squad.

Soon after the fire, the Friends were invited to take part in one concert of an innovative three-part series that the Oregon Symphony had created to celebrate the idea of home. A woodwind quintet played a program that included original works based on the songs of native Oregon birds. The Friends contributed photos of the gorge from previous photo contests to be projected on a screen as the quintet played. Gorman was invited to speak.

The Friends got a few new members and some donations that night, but it hasn’t separated out the gains of that night from the overall surge in membership and donations it received after the fire. “Our membership has increased 40% since the fire,” Gorman says.

The Friends of the Columbia Gorge did not start out as a land trust, he says. Conserving land is one part of a larger mission protecting and enhancing the scenic, natural, cultural and recreational resources of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

“We’ve been doing community conservation for decades,” he says.

In the future that mission will include even more partnerships with arts organizations. The Friends hosted a poetry reading when the nation’s largest writing conference was held in Portland this spring. An art show of plein air painters may be next.

“There’s a lot to be said about incorporating art to fill in the story of the land,” says Gorman.

A Side Order of Conservation

The Oregon-based Wetlands Conservancy (accredited) has been conserving wetlands for 37 years and serving up its mission through the taste buds of Portland residents for nearly a decade. Whether it’s oysters, crabs, salmon, beer, wine or spirits, says Executive Director Esther Lev, “at the end of the day, it’s all about water.”

“The local events we participate in are a great way to interact with people who may not otherwise engage with our mission of conserving and restoring the greatest wetlands in the State of Oregon,” Lev says. When they are out having fun, eating and drinking, water’s connection to that oyster or that glass of beer can go down smoothly.

This February the Wetlands Conservancy participated in Shuck Portland, a citywide event that raises awareness of the importance of oysters to the region, from ecosystem to dinner plate. “All of the Shuck Portland materials mention how the Wetlands Conservancy’s conservation work supports the oyster industry,” Lev says. The money raised is supporting the conservancy’s work with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and Oregon Oyster Farms to improve Poole Slough estuary habitat that supports native oyster reefs and growth.

“This year we are continuing the Shuck experience by taking oyster lovers from the city to the coast to see where and how their favorite briny treats are grown,” Lev says.

At the final Shuck event, Lev found herself sitting next to Brandy Feit, who was once the event’s cocktail manager and is now a representative for Beam Suntory, a distilled beverage producer. One of the company’s brands is Maker’s Mark, an American-made bourbon whisky (that features the Scottish spelling).

The two immediately connected. “Esther said whiskey and water go together,” says Feit. “We have Maker’s Mark plant managers in Kentucky who are focused on water quality.” Feit invited Lev to be a guest of honor at a dinner she was hosting for 75 women in the local beverage industry.

Lev was paired with Kari Graczyk, a bartender who created an original cocktail honoring Lev (see recipe) and her work for the event. Graczyk called the drink Brain Food because so many of its ingredients — including fish sauce and whiskey — are thought to boost brain power. “It’s got a clean taste, with a bit of salinity,” Graczyk says. Lev says, “It’s delicious.”

As a guest of honor, Lev gave a speech during the dinner. “I got to introduce 75 people to the concept of wetlands,” she says. She also sowed the seeds for future partnerships.

Feit says this time she was the one who reached out for a partnership, but land trusts shouldn’t hesitate to make the connection, especially with their local liquor distributor. “If you are in the liquor business, you are in the people business,” she says. You may not always get exactly what you ask for, she says, but the chances are good that the distributor will find some way to work with you.

Lev would like to continue the relationships she’s made from participating with these community partners. She’s already thinking about a promotion that can celebrate American Wetlands Month and give Portlanders another chance to try her signature cocktail.

“You have to meet people where they are,” Lev says, and a roomful of people enjoying fine food and beverages are enjoying the benefits of water conservation.

A Community of Resources

The Florida-based Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast (accredited) is no stranger to community partnerships. Its president, Christine Johnson, considers it part of the way the organization does business.

“I don’t think you can do this work alone,” Johnson says. “It’s too big. It’s too hard. Especially when you are trying to conserve large pieces of land in a quickly developing place like Florida, where a thousand new people move in every day.”

“When you ask yourself, how do I find the dollars, how do I find the volunteers, how do I show our relevance to conserve land, the answer is through relationships in your community,” she says. “All of those relationships feed your mission.”

Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast has 46 partnerships of all sorts. Some of them are formal partnerships, with a memorandum of understanding in place, Johnson says. Others come together casually, like partnering on a community event.

When the foundation approaches another organization about a partnership, it already has an idea of the need it can fill for the other organization. But you won’t know that unless you are involved with other organizations and the community, Johnson says. “I, and others on staff, serve on boards in town, including the tourism board.”

When the foundation reached out to four local youth organizations about providing outdoor experiences for their participants, it already knew that these organizations — the Boys and Girls Club, Girls Inc., Unidos Now and the Laurel Nokomis Civic Association — were all eager for programming for the at-risk youth they serve.

The programming focuses on “Wow! moments,” not dry lessons, Johnson says. The young people, who range from second grade through high school, have outdoor adventures like kayaking and visiting a ropes course. To make sure the seeds of adventure that the program plants can grow, the activities happen in places that can be reached by public transportation for future visits.

But you need to know your own organization’s needs, too, Johnson says. The foundation was thinking of its own future and who its supporters may be in the decades to come when it reached out to the youth organizations.

In a serendipitous moment, coffee with a friend led to a joint event with the Ringling College Library Association. The two organizations brought Andrea Wulf, the author of The Invention of Nature and other books, to the Sarasota Opera House. The event was promoted to each organization’s mailing list in separate mailings.

“It was a successful fundraiser,” Johnson says, bringing in $15,000 for each organization. It also helped the foundation achieve its goal to be seen by the Sarasota community as a thought leader on conservation issues, she says.

Partnerships need to serve the needs of all the organizations involved, she says. “When you have that, everything falls into place.”

The Art of Place

For a decade the McKenzie River Trust, which is based in Eugene, Oregon, has been doing one event each year that shows its work through the lens of the arts and humanities. The tradition began in 2009, with a talk by Barry Lopez, a National Book Award-winning author, whose work often addresses the intersection of people and place.

Joe Moll, the accredited land trust’s executive director, says Lopez was an inspiration for the trust’s insight that conservation is not just about doing the best science and making the most rational decision. “The arts and humanities allow us to invite the community for a discussion about values,” Moll says. “People make decisions not just with their minds, but from the heart.”

An event with the Eugene Symphony was a logical extension of this philosophy, Moll says.

“Eugene is known as a great city for the arts and for the outdoors,” says Scott Freck, executive director of the Eugene Symphony. It made sense to blend the two. Like Gorman, Freck says that symphonies and land trusts have more in common than you might think. Both organizations are trying to preserve and pass on something valuable to future generations.

To turn a musical program that included the classical standard Vivaldi’s Four Seasons into something more specific to the McKenzie River, the music was accompanied by 200 photographs of the river, selected from over 600 submissions. Inviting photo submissions from the public was key to the success of the event, Freck says. “It made it the community’s project.”

A third partner in the event was Travel Lane County, a private, nonprofit that markets the region. The three organizations worked for a year to create the event, which took place in February 2018.

“It was an artistic and financial success,” Freck says. The symphony set a revenue record for one of its subscription concerts. People not only loved the concert, Freck says, they loved that the community organizations were working together for something bigger than each organization’s separate interests.

Moll says that these events are a lot of work, but the result is worth it. It’s not just the impact the events have on the hearts of community members, he says, but the way they boost the spirits of the staff, board members and volunteers of the land trust. “It’s a way to celebrate our work.”

The year that the McKenzie River Trust spent preparing for the Four Seasons of the McKenzie River concert was “absolutely worth the effort,” Moll says. “We came out of it energized to do more, not exhausted like you typically are after your annual fundraising auction.”

Freck agrees. “It was one of my favorite events in my 28 years working with symphonies. I learned a lot working with these two organizations. I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

Madeline Bodin is a writer who frequently covers land conservation.

Photos

People on a hike hosted by the Friends of the Columbia Gorge take in the beauty of Coyote Meadow. “There’s a lot to be said about incorporating art to fill in the story of the land,” says Executive Director Kevin Gorman./Photo by Debbie Asakawa 

From left to right are Brandy Feit, Esther Lev and Kari Graczyk./Photo by Jason Horvath

Brain Food cocktail, created in honor of Esther Lev of the Wetlands Conservancy./Photo by Cheryl Juetten

A youth program hosted by the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast helps create future supporters of conservation./Photo by Sabrina Cummings

The Eugene Symphony, featuring conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong and violinist Rachel Barton Pine, performs the Four Seasons of the McKenzie River accompanied by beautiful photos of the region taken by community members./Photo by Amanda Smith