Rebuilding Trust for a Land Trust

Overview

A land stewardship responsible for protecting 20,000 acres of ecologically sensitive terrain was facing a quiet crisis — trust between the organization and the private residential community it serves had broken down. Rumors and confusion were replacing communication and collaboration.

My Role

UX Researcher & Strategic Communications Consultant

My team was brought in to help rebuild trust through research-led strategy and community centered storytelling.

The Challenge

Residents of the private community did not understand the land trust’s role. Many residents were unsure if it had their best interests at heart. Without a clear strategy, the organization had unintentionally ceded its narrative to speculation and frustration.

User Research & Insight

LEAN IN & LISTEN

We began by uncovering what people were actually thinking, feeling, and saying:

  • Conducted user interviews with staff and community members

  • Audited existing communications touchpoints (print, digital, events)

  • Mapped personas based on in-depth interviews and qualitative research

  • Analyzed research to uncover pain points (confusion, mistrust, and misinformation) and defined the key problem

  • Facilitated ideation session

  • Distilled findings and shared with the C-suite and board

WHAT WE HEARD

Community members shared feelings of confusion, frustration, and distance. Many didn’t understand the land trust’s mission, couldn’t differentiate it from the HOA, or felt it operated behind closed doors. Some questioned whether the land trust’s work aligned with residents’ interests.

WHY THE DISCONNECT

The organization had historically focused on land management across the 20,000-acre preserve, not communication. Outreach was sporadic, messaging was inconsistent, and there was little visibility into day-to-day operations. As a result, residents were left to fill in the blanks.

THEMES THAT EMERGED

  • Lack of information about what the conservancy does

  • No clear point of contact or way to engage

  • Confusion between the conservancy, HOA, maintenance, and other entities

  • A desire for shared language around land stewardship

KEY INSIGHT

The problem wasn’t hostility — it was absence. The organization wasn’t visible or relatable, leading to misinformation and rumors to fill the gap.

THE PROBLEM

The results of the interviews were conclusive. The conservancy is a land trust that lost the confidence of its main stakeholder. It currently connects with the community in a laissez-faire way. The land trust needs a clear, strategic communication strategy grounded in the user (community) perspective to help rebuild trust.

HYPOTHESIS

If the conservancy uses the communication strategy as a compass to guide communications with the community, then the land trust will begin rebuilding trust with its key audience.

Strategy

In response to what we heard in interviews, we developed a user-centered communication strategy focused on visibility, clarity, and shared ownership. In collaboration with the Executive Director, we developed the conservancy’s first five-year strategic communication plan, grounded in:

  • Transparency and visibility

  • Simple, relatable storytelling

  • Meeting the user (community) where they already were

  • Empowering conservancy staff with shared language and confidence

Goal

The conservancy’s communication strategy will enable employees to strategically engage with the user (community), which will affect how the community perceives the land trust by creating and improving channels that are grounded in the community’s needs. We will measure effectiveness by analyzing engagement, reach, open rates, retention rates, and qualitative feedback from the community.

Implementation

The communications strategy outlined three specific channels to reach the user most effectively: a bimonthly newsletter, revamped website, and social media channels. Creating these involved:

  • Facilitating an affinity diagramming session for the website

  • Building wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes for the website and newsletter

  • Testing and iterating the design, site hierarchy, and flow of the website and newsletter

  • Securing and collaborating with a website engineer

  • Partnering with marketing to ensure tone and voice were consistent across channels

  • Contracting photographers to capture conservation work in action

  • Launching a new website with user needs at the center

  • Launching a branded, bimonthly newsletter to reclaim the land trust’s narrative

  • Launching a centralized social media system, training internal content creators on Hootsuite

    ADDITIONAL ‘WINS’

  • Negotiating a recurring column in the community’s weekly e-newsletter

  • Equipping field ecologists with messaging for community events

  • Presenting our findings, communications strategy, and implementation to boards across the conservancy and the community

  • Advising leadership through reputational risk assessments

Results

We tracked quantitative and qualitative data:

  • 50% open rate on new bimonthly newsletter

  • 25%+ increase in session duration on website

  • 40%+ increase in website retention rate, over a quarter

  • 90% increase in community newsletter open rates

  • 500% increase in Instagram engagement

  • 200% increase in Facebook reach

  • Community survey results illustrated a sea change in sentiment and trust between the conservancy and the community.

  • Recently, my team was invited back to lead the land trust’s next strategic cycle.

Reflection

This wasn’t just a communications breakdown — This is what happens when an organization forgets to design with its users in mind.

The moment we put the user back at the heart of the system, we transformed silence into trust.