To: Wood River Land Trust Board of Directors

July 8, 2015

From: Outreach and Development Committee

Re: Findings from interviews on community perceptions of the WRLT

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Background

During our strategic planningretreat last July one of the themes we discussed was “Community Relevance”. From the follow-up report:

“We need to be relevant to the needs of the community beyond the hiking, fishing, and hunting crowds. Our work is relevant but our message does not make clear the value and benefit that conservation offers for other important community priorities, including health, education, community and economic development, community culture, and quality of life. We need to be embraced by the community. When our work and message is relevant – when it is seen as important for a variety of reasons – the community will embrace us.”

Following the retreat the Board suggested that the Outreach and Development Committee engage in research to better understand the “quality of life” concerns of the community and the Land Trust’s “relevancy” in that context to guide our messaging, and perhaps our priorities as well.

We chose the approach of doing in-depth, qualitative interviews of people who are invested in and care about the Wood River Valley but aren’t necessarily donors to the WRLT. We used our informal networks for those we interviewed but ensured that theywere from a range of backgrounds and interests. 11 board members conducted 42 interviews over the first few months of this year.

A profile of those interviewed is at the end of this summary, andthe interview guide is included in board materials. But in brief:

Average age is 60, but the range is 26 to 82.
37 of the 42 are full-time residents.
11 are donors.

The responses to the interviews were consolidated and then analyzed by the O&D Committee in June with further refinement over the last month. Our findings follow, but first a couple of notes/caveats:

These were qualitative interviews and give us insights but not statistically significant results.
The interviewees were in the personal networks of board members, not chosen at random. That said, they represent a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives.
We interviewed few “younger” people– most were in their 50s, 60s, and 70s – so that group is underrepresented (but also is less important from a donor perspective).

Highlights From Interviews

Top conservation issues of concern in the big picture are around water (water shortage and water quality), open space (loss of open space through development), pollution (toxins, chemicals, fertilizers) and global warming.

When asked about the qualities of life in the WRV that are most important, almost all mentioned outdoor qualities like the unspoiled natural environment and access to recreation (public lands, mountains, wild places). Besides healthy living in a clean environment, the small town feel of our community (sense of community / character of our valley) also is very important.

The top local issue of concern is around water (outdated laws and practices/lack of government oversight, overuse, protection of rivers and streams). Concerns relating to growth -- overdevelopment and protecting open space and wild places –also areimportant. There is an underlying worry about the role of government – will it sufficiently regulate and protect the natural resources and qualities of life that are so important (water use, building codes, access, transportation, pollution etc.)?

Those interviewed want organizations in the WRV to be stronger advocates around the politics and policies affecting water and land use. They also want more community education and outreach by and collaboration among NGOs.

The WRLT was mentioned most often as the “local leader” in conservation. However TNC was mentioned fairly often as was ERC and ICL. And a few said they “didn’t know”. When asked how they would allocate $1000 among the organizations supporting the WRV, almost everyone who responded to this question allocated the sum almost equally among several organizations. In our O&D discussion we felt that this recognizes that organizations play different and complementary roles. But it does show that donors don’t have a real (factual or emotional) favorite.
Most of those interviewed understand the work ofthe Land Trustat a high level (“preserving land”, “open space”, “conservation easements”),but few could mention a project outside of the most well known (Draper, Rock Creek, Howard), and very few know of the Land Trust’s work outside the WRV.

There is trust and confidence in the WRLT. Those interviewed across the board felt that we have an important role in protecting and improving the quality of life in the WRV. When asked to rank attributes, they ranked “proactive”, “effective”, “local” and “important” highly. Weaker were “accessible” and “dynamic”. Very weak was “political”.

There is significantly less awareness of what the WRLT does (and some misperceptions) among second home-owners we interviewed or attempted to interview.

There is strong support – and even requests - for deeper engagement in water issues, along with open space, wilderness access and overdevelopment. There also is strong support for the Land Trust taking on a stronger advocacy role. As one person phrased it, “develop relationships with other organizations to influence legislation and bring diverse parties to the table for projects.”

When asked, there is support for the Land Trust’s work outside of the WRV, but it was enthusiastic only in a few cases, and some are concerned if it takes resources away from the valley.

Takeaways

Those interviewed, who represent a broad range of people in the community, are very positive about the work of the Land Trust (as they know it). They strongly associate us with working to protect the quality of life in the valley that they care about. We own “local”, a huge asset, and it distinguishes us from ALL the other conservation groups. We can reinforce these attributes more strongly in our marketing communications.

The Land Trust is seen as the organization that saves land….we need to add “water” to be relevant to the concerns of our constituency going forward. The Home Rivers Initiative is likelyto be a great platform for building a position in this arena, but in general becoming “relevant” for water issues will take more staff resources and more collaboration with water-focused organizations.

We will benefit by strengthening our “brand” – with imagesand associations that put us at the top of peoples’ relevancy and create a deep emotional connection. While perceptions are generally positive, almost no one favored the WRLT in terms of conceptual dollar allocation. And few knew many of our projects. For some, the support for our overall mission may be enough, but we should explore ways to deepen understanding of and appreciation for the breadth of our work. This is particularly trueoutside the WRV.

As we consider a role that involves selective engagement in informing policy, especially around water issues, we can have confidence that our community supports this -- as long as it connects to ecological and quality of life concerns. That is not to say that there won’t be dissenters on particular issues, but our engagement will be perceived as appropriate and necessary.

We continue to have a worrisome lack of awareness and affinity among affluent second-home owners. We need to explore new ways to develop relationships with those who have a deep connection to the outdoors but do not live here full-time.

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Interviewer Data/Profile:

Max Age: 82

Min Age: 26

Average Age: 60

5 part time residents, 37 full time residents

11 are donors

Education:

Of the people who responded to education 2 have a high school education, 1 went to a 2 year college, 18 have Bachelor’s degrees, 10 have Master’s degrees, 3 have PhD’s, and 2 attended law school.

Roles:

Retired (10)

Retired ID legistlator/adjunct prof at BSU

Senior manager cultural nonprofit

Business Administration

Administration/recreation

Silicon Valley-Engineer

Silicon Valley/management/consulting

Executive Investment Management

Investment management

Investment advisor

Investor

Financial advisory

Financial Advisor

Business Management and Consulting

Business Management/writer

Insurance sales

Banking

Attorney

Teacher (2)

Education

Educational research and consulting

Writing/consulting/fundraising

Chiropractor

Speech pathologist

Building contractor/real estate

Ranchers in Pioneers

Business owner

Exercise Physiologist

Book seller

Retail/personal assistant

Part time sales

Adventure travel industry

Development/volunteer

Mother/volunteer

Youth counselor

Youth Recreation/development