When the former San Diego Audubon Society approached Fifth Estate to develop a communications strategy, the project quickly shifted scope as the Audubon name was becoming associated with controversy around actions the naturalist took during his lifetime. Instead of discussing how we would be communicating all the organization’s amazing environmental and conservation work, we were back to the fundamentals. Based on experience with similar projects, we were able to pivot rapidly and lean into the challenge: While many of the organization’s members and stakeholders were eager to move away from the name, many others were not, and passions ran high on both sides. Through a series of quantitative surveys along with internal and external listening sessions, we were able to work with the organization to dig into the reasons behind the emotions, and used an innovative planning tool called a decision matrix to help sort through the feelings, weigh the consequences of potential choices, and arrive at a conclusion. Along the way we developed holding statements, talking points, and Q&As to manage the communications end of the process. Today, the organization is called the San Diego Bird Alliance, and has maintained its role as a thriving conservation leader in Southern California.
