Overview

In March 2020, I began leading marketing and communications for the Shenandoah National Park Trust, a nonprofit partner supporting Shenandoah National Park. The organization had a broad mission, a loyal donor base, limited staff capacity, and a constant stream of stories to tell — from conservation and youth education to park stewardship, public lands advocacy, license plate revenue, and donor-funded programs.

Then COVID-19 changed the entire donor engagement model.

The park closed temporarily. In-person events disappeared. Donor touchpoints moved online. And yet, the need to keep supporters emotionally connected to Shenandoah became more urgent, not less.

My work focused on building a digital communications system that could help the Trust stay visible, keep donors engaged, translate park priorities into public-facing stories, and create campaigns that supported fundraising, advocacy, and long-term constituent connection.

The Challenge

The Trust had to maintain donor and supporter engagement during a period when its traditional engagement channels were disrupted.

Key challenges included:

• No in-person donor events during critical moments of the pandemic.

• Limited ability to bring supporters into the park for hikes, programs, fundraisers, or cultivation experiences.

• A broad and complex mission that needed to be translated into clear public-facing campaigns.

• Small-team capacity constraints across content, fundraising, design, events, email, social, media, and website needs.

• A fast-changing public lands environment, including record park visitation, COVID restrictions, and national conservation legislation.

• A need to keep donors emotionally connected to Shenandoah even when they could not gather there physically.

The strategic question became:

How do you keep a park-loving audience engaged, informed, and inspired to support Shenandoah when the usual relationship-building moments disappear?

What I did

I led digital campaign strategy and execution across social, email, web, video, virtual events, public relations, and fundraising collateral.

My work included:

• Built and managed seasonal editorial and social media calendars.

• Developed campaign concepts around conservation, park access, public lands advocacy, youth education, and donor engagement.

• Wrote campaign copy for social, email, blog, web, fundraising appeals, and press materials.

• Designed social graphics, campaign visuals, donor-facing collateral, and digital assets.

• Produced, filmed, and edited short-form video content.

• Organized virtual events across Instagram, YouTube, Facebook Live, and Zoom.

• Coordinated social takeovers with artists, musicians, ambassadors, and park partners.

• Created digital fundraising and engagement campaigns for National Park Week, virtual fundraisers, license plate promotion, and conservation advocacy.

• Managed website updates, blog content, campaign pages, and ongoing content curation.

• Supported media relations, including press releases and story placement in regional and endemic publications.

Select Campaigns

Virtual park pop-up campaign

When COVID restrictions limited in-person engagement, I created a week-long digital pop-up designed to help supporters experience Shenandoah from home.

The campaign brought together artists, musicians, storytellers, and park-connected creators who donated their time and talent to celebrate the intersection of art, nature, and public lands.

Campaign components included:

Social campaign concept and calendar

Artist and musician coordination

Instagram, YouTube, Facebook Live, and Zoom programming

Campaign copy and promotional assets

Blog and social content

Live event support

Post-event storytelling

Strategic purpose:

This campaign helped maintain emotional connection with the park during a period when donors and supporters could not experience Shenandoah in familiar ways. It functioned as both stewardship and engagement: a way to thank, gather, and inspire the community without asking every touchpoint to be a direct fundraising appeal.

Why it mattered:

The pop-up gave the Trust a way to keep its audience warm, visible, and emotionally invested during a moment when many nonprofits were losing contact with their communities.

Shenandoah License Plates

The Trust received revenue from the sale of specialty Shenandoah license plates through the DMV. To increase awareness and participation, I created short, recurring commercial-style videos and promoted them across digital channels.

Campaign components included:

• Copywriting and scripting

• Video editing

• Monthly social distribution

• Campaign visuals and calls to action

• Ongoing audience reminders

Result:

The campaign helped drive a 24% increase in revenue in 2020 from this program.

Strategic purpose:

This was a low-friction participation campaign. It gave supporters a way to publicly display affinity for Shenandoah while also generating recurring revenue for the Trust.

Why it mattered:

The license plate campaign worked because it connected identity, visibility, and giving. Supporters were not only buying a plate — they were signaling their relationship with the park and contributing to its future.

Youth Education and Conservation Storytelling

In addition to campaign work, I produced photo and video content that helped tell deeper stories about the Trust’s programmatic impact.

One example was a short film connected to Groundwork RVA, a youth education program bringing young people into relationship with public lands, conservation, and outdoor learning.

I also produced a short film about black bears in Shenandoah — even though, on filming day, the closest we got to bear activity was a few raccoon paw prints near dumpsters.

Campaign components included:

• Field production

• Photography

• Video production

• Editing

• Story development

• Program-focused content

• Social and web distribution

Strategic purpose:

These stories helped move the Trust’s content beyond scenic beauty and into impact: who benefits, what donors make possible, and why park stewardship matters.

Why it mattered:

For fundraising and donor engagement, program storytelling gives supporters a reason to believe their involvement matters. It turns institutional work into human, visual, memorable proof.

Great American Outdoors Act

In 2020, the Trust was part of a broader coalition of national and state organizations supporting passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, one of the most significant federal investments in outdoor conservation in decades.

I helped translate that policy moment into accessible, celebratory, mission-aligned digital content for the Trust’s audience.

Campaign components included:

Social graphics and campaign visuals

Public lands advocacy messaging

Coalition-aligned communications

Celebratory digital content after passage

Copy connecting national legislation to Shenandoah’s future

Strategic purpose:

The goal was to make a large federal conservation issue feel relevant to people who cared specifically about Shenandoah National Park.

Rather than presenting the legislation as abstract policy, the campaign connected it to park stewardship, infrastructure, access, and long-term conservation.

Why it mattered:

This work positioned the Trust as more than a fundraising organization. It showed the Trust as a credible voice in public lands advocacy and helped supporters understand how national conservation wins could translate into local park impact.

Results and impact

Across this work, I helped the Trust build a stronger digital engagement engine during a period of disruption.

Known results include:

• 24% increase in revenue in 2020 from the Shenandoah license plate program following recurring video promotion.

• Created and managed digital campaigns during a year when in-person donor engagement was severely limited.

• Built campaign content across social, email, web, blog, video, virtual events, and fundraising collateral.

• Helped maintain supporter connection during COVID closures and restrictions.

• Supported advocacy communications around the Great American Outdoors Act.

• Produced virtual programming that gave audiences new ways to experience Shenandoah from home.

• Organized National Park Week digital content, social takeovers, events, and blog storytelling.

• Placed dozens of stories in regional, national, and outdoor/endemic publications.

• Created donor-facing content that supported awareness, stewardship, participation, and fundraising.

During a period when in-person fundraising, donor events, and park-based engagement were disrupted, I helped the Shenandoah National Park Trust use digital storytelling, social campaigns, virtual programming, email, video, and creative content to keep supporters connected to the park — and to the organization’s mission.

National Park Week

National Park Week is normally built around in-park events, ranger programs, hikes, and community activities. During pandemic restrictions, I helped create a digital version of that engagement moment.

The campaign included virtual events, blog content, social takeovers, park storytelling, and digital programming designed to give audiences a reason to reconnect with Shenandoah throughout the week.

Campaign components included:

• Week-long editorial calendar

• Event planning and promotion

• Blog content

• Social takeovers

• Visual design

• Email and social promotion

• Partner and ambassador coordination

Strategic purpose:

The campaign transformed National Park Week from a mostly in-person celebration into a digital engagement journey.

Each piece of content had a role: awareness, education, participation, affinity-building, or donor stewardship.

Why it mattered:

This campaign helped the Trust stay connected to supporters during one of the most important annual moments for national park engagement, even when the physical park experience was limited.