Conservation District Resources

Marketing Toolkit

Resources on this page are designed to help Washington conservation districts market their services and work. You’ll find templates, guidance, and products to help tell the story of voluntary conservation and promote a unified brand for Washington conservation districts.

Branding

Consistent use of visual elements will help us amplify and project a more recognizable identity of conservation districts in our state. Here are some resources to help us do that.

Branding Basics

  • Branding Guidelines: Instruction on how to use branding products in this toolkit, including key messages, logos, colors, and fonts (typeface). Please review this document.
  • Color Palette: Colors to use when designing materials consistent with the CD logo and brand.
Brand Guidelines

Branding Guidelines PDF

Logos

"Window" logo and accompanying slogan ("your window to healthy lands") are available in horizontal and vertical orientation, in color and in black and white.

  • Color, horizontal (JPEG) (PNG)
  • Color, vertical (JPEG) (PNG)
  • BW, horizontal (JPEG) (PNG)
  • BW, vertical (JPEG) (PNG)
  • BW Reversed - for dark backgrounds, vertical (JPEG) (PNG)
  • BW Reversed - for dark backgrounds, horizontal (JPEG) (PNG)

Positioning Statement

In August 2019, a diverse group of CD staff and supervisors came together to develop a positioning statement for Conservation Districts of Washington State. A position statement clearly defines an organization, product, or brand, as well as its unique and competitive advantage, to its target audience. It's used internally as the core reference point for all branding and messaging. Here's the statement our CDs came up with:

Conservation Districts of Washington State are the community hub that bring people and resources together through voluntary, locally led conservation to ensure a healthy and sustainable future.


Media & Events

Seeking media coverage and/or planning an event? Your fellow conservation districts helped create these templates and resources to get you started!

Media Relations

Event Planning

  • Event planning timeline (PDF): Suggested timeline and activities to plan a successful event
  • Appearance Release Form (Word): Use this template if you are capturing video, photos, audio, or other recordings of people. This template was developed by the SCC for district use. Disclaimer: Information about appearance release forms is not legal advice. If you have specific legal questions about release forms, we recommend you consult an attorney familiar with this area of law.
  • Would you like SCC to sponsor one of your events? Please fill out the request here.

Tours

Tour Packet Template

Provides a folder for tour materials, including a Tour Insert (see template below).  Use this template to give an overview of your conservation district and key service areas that you want to highlight for tour attendees. Prints as 11x17 document, two-sided, folded.

Tour Insert Template

Template includes space for a tour map and take-home messages about each CD tour stop. It prints as an 8.5x11 two-sided document that can be inserted into the Tour Packet template (see above).

View CD Community Success Stories

Messaging & Testimonials

Think of all the staff, supervisors, and cooperators who have been involved with CDs across our state — that’s a lot of people who can help share the story of our work. Here are resources to help us speak in a strong, unified voice about the value of CDs and voluntary conservation.

Messaging

  • Conservation District Key Messages (PDF): Statements describing the unique value and purpose of conservation districts. They address three questions: 1) What are conservation districts? 2) What do conservation districts do? and 3) Why are conservation districts important?

Testimonials

  • Capturing Effective Testimonials from Landowners and Partners - Worksheet (Word): Use this worksheet to develop your idea and strategy for capturing and sharing testimonials that effectively tell your story.
  • Appearance Release Form template (Word): If your district captures videos, photos, or audio/written recordings of people, consider using an appearance release form that gives you permission to use an image or recording. This template was developed by the SCC for district use. Disclaimer: Information about appearance release forms is not legal advice. If you have specific legal questions about release forms, we recommend you consult an attorney familiar with this area of law.

Outreach & Engagement

From tabling at events, to posting on social media, to meeting with decision-makers — conservation districts use many methods to reach a variety of audiences. These tips and resources were developed with and for CDs to make public engagement easier.

Would you like SCC to sponsor one of your events? Please fill out the request here.

Campaigns and Outreach to Decision-Makers

  • Public Support for Conservation (PDF): Summary of tips from a talk by Dave Murphy - Commissioner of the Missouri Department of Conservation and chair of the campaign for a voter-approved sales tax to fund conservation - given at the WACD 2017 Annual Meeting. Tips focus on how to foster community support for conservation.
  • Tips to Engage Elected Officials and Decision Makers (PDF): Simple tips to help start and maintain effective relationships with key influencers of conservation district work.

Handouts/Program Fact Sheets

Social Media

Examples and Resources From Fellow CDs

Looking for inspiration? CDs have shared some great examples of their outreach over the years. Here are links to their resources and presentations.

  • Forestry Marketing Toolkit (on Google Drive): Consists of shareable content to empower each Puget Sound Region CD outreach/forester team to either chose one of two paths - to either use the foundational documents created or tailor the foundational documents to suit their CD’s unique needs and audiences in ways they see fit that may be slightly altered from the original content but still following branding and stylistic guidelines.
  • Conservation District and Veteran Partnerships: (recorded presentation) Learn about existing and potential opportunities for conservation districts to partner with the Veterans Conservation Corps and design programs in partnership with veterans. Presenters include Jason Alves (Veterans Conservation Corps), Kate Riley (Snohomish Conservation District), and Vicki Carter (Spokane Conservation District). Presentation recorded during the May 2019 meeting of the Communications, Partnership, and Outreach group.
  • Inspiring Farm Conservation Stewardship, Adaptations to Incentive-based Campaigns: (recorded presentation) Presentation by Aneka Sweeney, M.Ed., to the Communications, Partnership, and Outreach Committee in November 2018 about how Whatcom Conservation District has employed a community-based social marketing approach to increase landowner engagement, increase implementation of best management practices, and deliver measurable natural resource improvements.
  • Building and Maintaining Relationships: (recorded presentation) Allan Warren (Pierce Conservation District) provides an overview of how his conservation district fosters, maintains, and manages community relationships. Presentation recorded during the July 6, 2017 meeting of the Communications, Partnership Building, and Outreach (CPO) Committee.
  • Conservation Districts and Environmental Education: (recorded presentation) Presentation from Hannah Liss (Palouse Conservation District) on building partners and integrating environmental learning into conservation district work. The presentation covers tips and challenges related to the district's work with the Palouse Discovery Science Center, Wheat Week, Water on Wheels, Internships at WSU, and volunteer recruitment. (Recorded during the February 2016 meeting of the Communications, Partnership Building, and Outreach group).
  • Kids in the Creek Educational Program: (recorded presentation) Amanda Levesque, Education and Outreach Specialist at Cascadia Conservation District, gives a short presentation about their Kids in the Creek education program and resources available to help other districts launch similar programs.

Photos and Graphics

Using photos and graphics is a great way to visually engage your audience. Washington’s CD have access to hundreds of images that are free for you to use!

Photos

CD/SCC Photo gallery (hosted on Flickr): Find images of working lands, conservation, and landscapes from across Washington. Images have been contributed by conservation districts and the SCC and are available for non-commercial use by conservation districts, the Washington Association of Conservation Districts, Washington Association of District Employees, and Washington Conservation Society.

  • Licensing: CDs, WACD, and WADE are granted a royalty-free license to remix, tweak, and build upon images in the gallery non-commercially. Photos may not be used to infer or imply SCC endorsement of any product, company, or position. Please do not distort the images the photos portray.
  • Credit: While not required, please provide a photo credit as feasible. Suggested credit is: Photo by [photographer’s name],[entity name] (e.g. Photo by Joan Smith, Random County Conservation District]). *Note: When you click on a photo in the Flickr gallery, the photographer is listed in the photo description.
  • How to submit photos: The SCC and Communications, Partnership, and Outreach (CPO) group runs an annual conservation district photo contest each year between August-September. All submissions are added to the gallery. Outside of the contest time frame, we still appreciate your photo submissions! Please email Toyo Garber if you have photos you’d like to share. 

General photography tips and tricks: Find a list of simple tips, presentations, videos, and resources to help build photography skills. (List created by CD employee and photographer Andrew Phay, Whatcom Conservation District)

Appearance Release Form template (Word): If your district captures videos, photos, or audio/written recordings of people, consider using an appearance release form that gives you permission to use an image or recording. This template was developed by the SCC for district use. Disclaimer: Information about appearance release forms is not legal advice. If you have specific legal questions about release forms, we recommend you consult an attorney familiar with this area of law.

Graphics

Visual Equivalents for Conservation Measures: Want to make messages about your accomplishments stick? This resource provides options for translating conservation metrics and measures into visual equivalents (e.g. dump truck loads). Some of the visuals are hyperlinked to digital images that are free for CDs to use in their outreach materials.

Digital Image (icon) Library: Interested in using conservation/agriculture-related visual icons in your communications? This folder is full of digital images that are free for you to use and modify.