Create a Land Legacy
Organization Information:
- Organization Name:
- Upstate Forever
- City & State:
- Greenville,
- South Carolina
- Organization Website:
- http://www.upstateforever.org/
- Organization's Mission Statement
- To promote sensible growth and protect special places in the Upstate region of South Carolina.
Submission Information
- Impact Essay
- Upstate South Carolina is rich with natural, cultural and historic resources that define our region and the people who live here. It is also one of the most threatened regions in the nation when it comes to unplanned, inefficient growth. Each day in the Upstate, 58 acres of open space are lost to development. Our mission is to educate the owners of significant rural lands about conservation opportunities. Many are distressed at the thought of the land they love ever being lost to development, but they do not realize that they have the power to permanently ensure its protection until they receive one of our brochures, such as “Create a Land Legacy” (attached). Through the use of Adobe products that enable in-house design, our empowering message has reached the owners of at least 1,500 important properties at minimal expense, but maximum impact. One landowner wordlessly describes how he feels about a conservation agreement (the primary tool through which we achieve lasting protection for private lands) and his own vision for his property by simply interlocking his fingers and clasping his hands. A perfect fit. In our experience, many landowners feel this way, and this is the message we want to convey as we share this information with a new audience. It can be a challenging concept to relay in print, as the details can grow complex, but Adobe affords us the important opportunity to combine compelling photographs with critical text to achieve both emotional and logical appeal. While we take multiple approaches to landowner education and outreach, mailings to landowners whose properties meet our protection criteria have the most impact, as they reach the most people. “Create a Land Legacy” was the last in a series of Adobe-created marketing materials to reach this audience. It is a particularly timely and important piece, as it makes landowners aware that the most dramatic increase in incentives for land conservation in the past 50 years are set to expire this year. These incentives allow moderate income landowners and farmers to enjoy more of the tax deduction they have earned, so we must share this information before the opportunity is lost. The timing is not ideal, as the financial crisis has crippled our program and reduced our staff resources and budget. Thanks to Adobe, though we have lost a lot this year, we did not lose our last opportunity to share this critical message. By designing and printing this brochure in-house, we managed to send it to 1,250 important landowners for a total expense of $350. It is impossible to precisely measure the impact of previous mailings, since often it is the first step in slowly opening dialogue with landowners, but we believe that hundreds of potential conservation projects we’re currently working on began with such communications. We use Adobe products in every aspect of our land protection work. We would not protect over 10,600 acres on 61 properties without the ability to create powerful educational materials and more through Adobe.
- Submission Category
- Environmental Impact Print/Photo
- Project Image
- Land Trust Brochure 2009.jpg
- Supporting Work Files
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