The Nature Conservancy’s new CCO shares goals for 2021

It’s a challenging time to be a nonprofit communicator.

With the COVID-19 pandemic consuming precious media bandwidth—and financial turmoil making fundraising initiatives that much more difficult—nonprofit staffers are surely ready to turn the page. But what will 2021 bring?

Meg Goldthwaite, the new chief marketing and communications officer at The Nature Conservancy, doesn’t shy away from the many difficulties ahead.

“As always, getting mission-critical messages out amidst a barrage of media stories, across multiple channels can be a challenge for any organization,” she says. “And now, with the devastating pandemic and governmental transitions in places where we work, even the most urgent of messages – climate change, environmental justice, irreversible trends in biodiversity, etc. – struggle to reach hearts and minds in order to move people to action.”

However, there are vital lessons to take from the past year to guide efforts in 2021. For Goldthwaite, one top takeaway is to keep proper perspective when it comes to messaging. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, she says “communication is in the eye of the receiver.”