External Communications Policies and Procedures v2 Published: 2021
Last updated
Last updated
External Communications Policies & Procedures v2
External Communications Policies & Procedures
Table of Contents
External Communications Policies and Procedures
Introduction General Guidelines Press
Content Review Process Requirements for Approval Timeline
2021 Communications and Marketing Strategy
General Guidelines General Goals
Social Media Content
Sample Monthly Content Schedule UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
Adopted September 2020
Amended February 2021
Greenstand’s mission is to create a global, open-source marketplace to digitally track and compensate farmers for growing individually managed trees to support reforestation and alleviate poverty.
Greenstand strives to advance its mission by communicating openly and honestly; we aim to use consistent messages with all stakeholders, including potential partners and the media. Signals can get crossed or other problems may arise if too many people attempt to speak on behalf of the organization. This is true in any organization, and particularly true for an open-source startup where many possibilities are being explored simultaneously and information is openly available to the public.
Greenstand does not unlawfully discriminate internally (in its administrative and program operations) or externally (in its recipients of services) on the basis of race, political orientation, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national or social origin, ancestry, economic or social status, place of residence, marital or family status, veteran status, health status, or mental or physical disability.
This document is subject to change at the discretion of the communications team, executive director, and executive board.
Press inquiries
Newsletter
Communications Content Schedules
Communications Onboarding Resources
It is imperative that the communications team produces and shares a consistent stream of engaging content. It should elicit action and give our audience a sense of responsibility.
Engage with larger audiences on LinkedIn and Twitter
Sustain or increase support from donors, volunteers, and fundraisers
Increase blog and website traffic
Utilize emotional branding to make our messaging more impactful
Be positive. Avoid combative language. We don’t blame, fight, or knock down. We build bridges, foster connections, find solutions, and create a vision and path for what is possible. We will not publish content that would constitute discrimination or harassment of any kind, defamation and threats, profanity and similarly inappropriate language, or content that violates copyright and trademark law, promotes illegal activity, or commercial sales.
Be considerate. Review communications prior to sending them with consideration from other perspectives. Examine your communications for language that might be interpreted differently than intended. Revise as needed to ensure that communications are conveying the intended message as correct, concisely, and politely as possible.
Greenstand does not take official stances on religious, political, or legislative issues.
We are focused on community and inclusion.
Use U.S. English spelling for general communications such as website content and social media posts. Conversions to other currencies, units of measurement, and the like can be made for specific communications.
Use USD currency
Metric system (kilometers, hectares)
Format for date should be Day Month (Written), Year
Write or abbreviate the month when possible to avoid confusion between MM/DD/YYYY and DD/MM/YYYY formats
Use gender neutral language when possible. Remember, we are all about inclusion!
Try not to oversaturate your audience. Limit communications that engage a large portion of our audience. Include donation asks infrequently, as the goal of our communications is also to inform Greenstand supporters on our progress. Please do not send any mass emails (5+ recipients) without the permission of the VP Operations or Executive Director.
When discussing individuals or communities of low socioeconomic status, it is best to use terms such as economically disadvantaged, marginalized, or living in extreme poverty. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that people experiencing poverty are not portrayed as flawed or indifferent compared to their wealthier counterparts.
Technology for sustainable reforestation and poverty alleviation is our tagline as approved by the executive board.
Capture, a tree photo capture and its associated data packet that includes verifiable ground truthed impact data.
Greenstand, not GreenStand
Treetracker, not TreeTracker or Tree Tracker
Pay to grow, Paying growers on a regular basis to plant and care for trees which is implemented by Fairtree
Impact Wallet: official title of the token-wallet feature/component
Impact Tokens are the digital representation of the capture value of each tracked tree. Tokens can be sold or traded with other Impact Wallet owners.
Grower(s), not planters. Planting is a one-time event with an uncertain outcome. Growing emphasizes the time and effort required to sustain new trees.
Other acceptable terms:
Treetracker users
System users
Treetrackers
App users
Farmers/tree farmers
Contributors, not volunteers (within Greenstand)
Other acceptable terms:
Open-source, not open source
Enabling, rather than empowering. The term empower implies that Greenstand has power to give.
Paying or compensating, rather than employing. We do not directly employ growers through our pay-to-grow model.
Verified: to describe a tree that has been tracked and approved by Greenstand
Critical mile, rather than first mile or last mile
Economically disadvantaged or marginalized, rather than impoverished or poor
Proof of work: a term describing how tree photo captures represent an event that occured at a singular moment in time; these do not represent future impact status.
Core Partners: Partner organizations that develop core modules of the Greenstand infrastructure.
Fairtree: Fairtree develops and implements the pay to grow system on the ground. The organization was founded by Jon Trimarco in order to facilitate large-scale on the ground planter mobilization. This partnership allows Greenstand to maintain a non-competitive position in the restoration sector by allowing Fairtree to implement their uniquely developed pay-to-grow model into the Greenstand technical system.
Pioneering Partners: These organizations are early adopters and testers of the Greenstand model. These groups supported the development of the Treetracker platform through the alpha testing phase and provided critical feedback imperative to improving functionality. These organizations are highly valued in the Greenstand community and our relationship should be mutually beneficial and supportive at every juncture.
The Kilimanjaro Project
Justdiggit
Kijani Forestry
Greensteps
EchoTZ
The Haiti Tree Project
Industry Partnerships: Organizations with which Greenstand has a formalized relationship, in the form of a mutually beneficial contract or other formally binding agreement.
United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
Treetrackers: Any groups or individuals using the app, including either tree growers or organizations;
Alternative terminology:
System users
App users
Impact Investors: For-profit groups, corporations, and individuals who are only interested in some of Greenstand’s services, such as making impact investments and trading impact tokens Alternative terminology:
Donors
Impact Wallet owners
Transparency
Our communications will be open and honest. We will not distort facts or statistics in our favor. We will announce grant awards and where the awarded funds will be allocated*, in addition to releasing annual reports each fiscal year. We seek to keep all conversations open and available to all community members through Slack channel communication rather than private messages. Private messages should be reserved for discussions that are already closed to decisions and input and are focused on specific or extremely detailed tasks.
* Please note that any external communications regarding grants are subject to review and approval by the grants lead.
Equality
Our communications will not support the idea that developing nations are inferior or in need of handouts from other parts of the world. We are not above our partners, system users, or growers. We create tools that fellow humans can use to support themselves while practicing environmental stewardship.
Accountability
We will follow through with publicly available plans and schedules so that our audience views us as reliable. If and when mistakes are made in external communications, we shall take responsibility and make any necessary corrections.
Equity and Sustainable Development
It is the position of Greenstand that nobody should be marginalized from the global economy. We aid in the creation of fiscal, social, and environmental equity. High-level discussions of related socioeconomic and environmental theories may be addressed in targeted blog posts or social media that is geared towards professional and scientific audiences, such as UpLink and LinkedIn. Other forms of social media should be kept relatively simple.
Inclusivity and Non-Competition
As an open-source community, we will use language that encourages partnership, collaboration, and sharing common resources. Our content will reflect the diversity of our contributors, partners, and growers; use media that is representative of different regions and cultures.
Values check: before publishing any content, ask yourself:
What does this communication say about Greenstand? Does it accurately reflect our values as an organization?
Could this communication be used as fuel for negative or abusive responses?
Is the vocabulary used in this communication appropriate for our target audience?
Are all numbers and/or facts portrayed accurately?
Content creators may use Greenstand’s “IMAGE LIBRARY” shared Google drive for external communications.
The use of media of board members, donors and/or contributors requires their written permission. This may be via email or social media, as long as the permission can be documented and verified by a third party.
All media not owned by Greenstand must be cited. No particular citation style is recommended, but citations of online resources must include the original URL. Citations of offline sources should include the title and author/artist/creator when applicable.
Avoid taking media from Google without proper citation. Use https://www.google.com/advanced_search and filter for usage rights to ensure compliance with copyright laws.
Please direct all press inquiries to Erin Baker at pr@greenstand.org. See press release template here.
Press releases and inquiries are the responsibility of the communications team. To ensure consistent messaging, quotes may be taken from the following Greestanders:
Executive director
Board members
Team leads
Other partners relevant to the press release Press release boilerplate:
Greenstand creates technology for transparent tree planting, large-scale reforestation, and
the sustainable development of rural communities. For more information, visit us at www.greenstand.org.
All press communications must go through the Content Review Process and be approved by the VP Operations or Executive Director prior to publication.
Blog post ideas can be found here.
Our goal is to produce at least 4 blog posts a per month, including the following series:
Hot topic (bimonthly on 1st and 2nd Fridays)
Contributor Spotlight (monthly on 3rd Friday)
Treetracker Spotlight (monthly on 4th Friday)
Periodic project updates from ground support
More details on content and scheduling can be found in the Social Media Strategy on page 9. All blog content must go through the Content Review Process on page 8.
Slack use cases are limited to contributors, contractors, and volunteers who are working to advance Greenstand’s mission and not their own. Any external parties must be communicated with outside of Slack.
Greenstand Growth began in November 2020 with Greenstand’s first ever community-wide email blast. Our audience includes past and present contributors, donors, board members, partners, press, and anyone else who has shown an interest in Greenstand. Greenstand Growth is developed and stored in Network For Good.
Please begin each regular edition of Greenstand Growth with the Monthly Newsletter template in Network for Good. Typical monthly newsletter content may include:
Organizational announcements
Contributor & Treetracker spotlights
Project updates (on rotation)
Technical update
Blog posts
Industry news
Contributor recruitment
Donation asks
New contact newsletters:
Each month we will send a newsletter out to our new subscribers to welcome them to Greenstand Growth! We will send them highlights from the previous month’s newsletter to get them caught up.
Template is in Network For Good & must be updated monthly
Rather than starting a new annual report from scratch each year, the Comms/Marketing team will keep a shared document with a running list of Greenstand’s achievements. This will ensure that nothing is omitted when we prepare the 2020 annual report at the end of 2021.
Post draft content to the relevant Slack channel
Layout and images need approval too.
Receive 2 “thumbs up” reactions.
Receive approval from the channel lead AND VP operations, Tabitha Kelly, or executive director, Ezra Jay.
Grants Tabitha Kelly
Communications, Marketing Engagement
Erin Baker
Website Sebastian Gaertner
Customer Service Karen Nicholas
Mass emails (5+ recipients)
Social media posts
Blog posts
Website edits
Newsletters
External interviews & general communications
New content should be reviewed by the channel lead within 1 week of posting.
New content may be approved or rejected pending further edits.
NOTE: Channel leads may defer to a substitute to temporarily approve and reject content if they will be unavailable for more than 1 week.
If the content is not approved within a week, a second attempt to gain approval should be made after one week by reposting the content.
Content that is not approved within 7 days may be published up to the discretion of the communications lead.
Network
Goals
Actions
Metrics / Performance Indicators
Build and engage with larger audiences on Twitter
Emotional branding
Increases in followers & post engagement
Action words
Calls to action
Daily engagement with similar companies and their followers to increase brand awareness (responses, offering support, showcasing our knowledge)
Cultivate brand
awareness
Greenstand informational video
Post engagements
Acquire and retain donors
Create a "standard" post for EACH of our target audiences. Information would be standard to each audience to help with quick/planned posting, but the post headline would need to change to keep it new and fresh.
Number of new donors
LinkedIn *all content needs to be informational for B2B*
Build and engage with larger audiences on LinkedIn
Emotional branding
Increases in followers & post engagement
Action Words
CTA requests
Daily engagement with similar companies and their followers to increase brand awareness (responses, offering support,
showcasing our knowledge)
Cultivate brand
awareness
Company informational video
Post engagements
Acquire and retain donors
Create a "standard" Ad/post for EACH of the target audience. Information would be standard to each audience to help with quick/planned posting, but post headlines would need to change to keep it new and fresh.
Number of new donors
Blog
Increase blog traffic
Blog promotion post headlines should be the strongest sentence within the post to draw the reader in.
Number of blog readers & click-throughs
Website
Increase website traffic
"Learn more" posts that direct followers to website page(s)
Website clicks
Click-through rate
Top pages
Total number of visits per session
Traffic sources
Greenstand has carefully chosen its social media platforms. Our purpose on social media is to inform, inspire environmental action, and grow awareness of the Treetracker and its benefits. We do not use Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok because we are not a consumer-facing organization that needs to market ourselves in such a way. Greenstand has chosen to participate mainly on social media platforms that maintain professional audiences, such as LinkedIn and UpLink (a professional network for members of the World Economic Forum’s various nature-based challenge cohort members). Our content is tailored for each of our audiences to ensure that we maintain and grow our online presence.
Be sure to use Greenstand’s Brand Toolkit when developing visual content. Our fonts, logos, and brand colors are also available to members of our Canva team.
Social media is a key tool in reaching Greenstand’s audience throughout the world. Posting, managing comments, and responding to private messages are responsibilities of the communication team.
Social media should be updated regularly. It is better to have no social media presence at all than to have disorganized, inactive social media accounts.
Reposts, shares, likes, or comments do not serve as endorsements.
Note for Greenstanders
If you are publicly affiliated with Greenstand in any way (ex: you are listed on the website as a contributor/leader and/or Greenstand is listed as your employer on Facebook or LinkedIn), you represent Greenstand. Any public content posted on personal or official Greenstand social media channels must not contradict our values or these guidelines in any way. Expressing individual political or ideological views on personal channels is permissible so long as it does not contradict Greenstand’s values or these guidelines. The communications team recommends placing a disclaimer in your profile stating that your views are your own and do not represent Greenstand’s official position on any topic. Inappropriate online behavior may result in a warning or action to be determined by the executive director.
Abusive comments likely include spam, are off-topic, promote services or products, are false or misleading, are unsupported accusations, obscene, vulgar, defamatory, profane, libelous, threatening, bullying, harassing, abusive, hateful, incite violence, or are offensive terms that target specific ethnic, racial or religious groups based on gender or sexual identity or individuals because of membership in those groups. These kinds of comments should be documented and removed or reported. Repeat offenders may be blocked from engaging further with Greenstand on social media.
#LetsGrowTogether
#TechForGood
#RestorationGeneration (for posts relating to UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration)
#Greenstanders
#HappyTracking
Establish our social media voice.
Greenstand’s tone can be described with the following adjectives:
Compassionate
Educated & informed
Inclusive, rather than competitive
Helpful
Stay consistent across all social media channels.
Develop content from the audience’s perspective.
What’s in it for them? Not us.
Tailor content for different audiences, but do not lose sight of our overall organizational tone.
Practice the following communications tactics:
Utilize emotional branding to add a human element to our content and foster an emotional connection with our audiences.
Growing trees is more than just a mitigation technique–– it can positively change lives! Examples:
Environmentalists would be interested in the impacts we’ve had on the local environments we work in.
Concerned global citizens would be interested in the socioeconomic impact we’ve had on our project communities.
Scientifically-minded individuals would be interested in our environmental and social metrics.
Tech and IT professionals would be interested in improvements to our app and how they will work to shape the future of tech for social good.
Use “action words”.
“Act now”
“Urge” or “urgent”
“Hurry”
Follow the 80/20 rule.
80% of our content should inform, educate, and entertain.
20% of our content should promote our brand.
Create slogans that are more palatable for social media and can be turned into a hashtag.
Example: Let’s Grow Together // #LetsGrowTogether
Create an informational video promoting Greenstand.
Diversifying our content will diversify our audience.
Create a “standard” ad for each target audience.
This will help inform future content for each audience.
Develop and post original content 7 days/week.
Schedule posts in advance.
Between posts, be sure to share, like, and comment on other organizations’ content 5 days/week.
Daily engagement with similar organizations and their followers will increase brand awareness (ex: responses, offering support, showcasing our knowledge).
LinkedIn will be utilized during the work week (Monday-Friday) in order to best engage more professional audiences.
Twitter will be utilized 7 days a week, at least twice per day.
Paid ads budget
Graphic design and videography intern
Raise awareness of the Treetracker in terms of bringing transparency to tree planting
Raise awareness of the importance of better reforestation practices, for the environment and for the development of a sustainable nature-based economy
Share stories of the communities we’ve helped
Cultural impacts on local communities
Mothers and families whose lives have been changed by tracking trees
History, culture, or other fun facts about our target regions
NOTE: Be careful not to speak over indigenous voices. It is best to write on regions you personally know and/or use local sources in your research.
Show off our global community of contributors and Treetracker users
Project updates
Current vacancies within Greenstand
Reposts from industry partners or other reputable organizations, such as the United Nations, World Economic Forum, or World Resources Institute
Particular emphasis on WEF and other organizations that have helped Greenstand
Positive environmental or tree-related news
Pro tips:
Subscribe to relevant industry email newsletters
See #general_news, #random_watercooler, and #tree_talk channels on Slack
Promoting content from our blog each Friday
Educational posts about environmental concepts & practices around the world
If taking a region-specific approach, try to vary the geographical focus of each post!
Emotional appeals, especially with regard to donation campaigns and other calls to action
Week
Day
Platform
Content type
Topic
1
Monday
Emotional branding
Reforestation
Tuesday
About Greenstand
Poverty
Wednesday
Industry news
FinTech/BioTech
Thursday
UN Decade post
FinTech/BioTech
Friday
Shoutout new blog post
General
2
Monday
Emotional branding
Poverty
Tuesday
About Greenstand
Reforestation
Wednesday
Industry news
Poverty
Thursday
UN Decade post
Poverty
Friday
Shoutout new blog post
General
3
Monday
Emotional branding
Reforestation
Tuesday
About Greenstand
FinTech/BioTech
Wednesday
Industry news
Reforestation
Thursday
UN Decade post
Reforestation
Friday
Shoutout new blog post
General
4
Monday
Emotional branding
Poverty
Tuesday
About Greenstand
Reforestation
Wednesday
Industry news
Poverty
Thursday
UN Decade post
Poverty
Friday
Shoutout new blog post
General
5 (if applicable)
Monday
Emotional branding
Reforestation
Tuesday
About Greenstand
Poverty
Wednesday
Industry news
FinTech/BioTech
Thursday
UN Decade post
FinTech/BioTech
Friday
Shoutout new blog post
General
UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
The Decade (2021-2030) is a “rallying call for the protection of revival of ecosystems all around the world, for the benefit of people and nature.” Greenstand is proud to be a supporting partner of the Decade. We will support #GenerationRestoration and the goals of the Decade through our external communications.
UN Decade on Restoration brand guide
Our commitments:
Modify website Partnerships page to reflect our commitment to the UN Decade
Select content shared from the UN (possibly their visual identity plus Greenstand logo or something) for website home page
Announce UN partnership in 2020 Annual Report
Update Guidestar to include this partnership
Impact Token Raffle
To promote the launch of the Decade on June 5th, 2021 World Environment Day, Greenstand would like to hold a raffle to hold a giveaway of 1000 impact tokens. In this event, Greenstand would create a submission form for Supporting Partners & Restoration Implementers to enter to win tokens. With random selection, impact tokens can be moved into an organization’s or individual’s impact wallets in the Treetracker. By giving these tokens to external participants, but who are also Supporting Partners & Restoration Implementers, we would be able to test impact token trading across wallets and obtain valuable feedback for improvements from our target users. Find our Impact Token Raffle work plan here.
Green Holiday content (embedded into Social Media Planner)
World Wildlife Day - March 3
International Day of Forests - March 21
World Health Day - April 7 (health, wellbeing, and nature)
World Atmosphere Day - April 16
Earth Hour - Last Saturday of March
Earth Day - April 22
National Arbor Day - Last Friday of April
International Migratory Bird Day (U.S/Canada) - May's second Saturday
International Day for Biological Diversity - May 22
World Environment Day - June 5th, 2021
Launch of the UN Decade & Greenstand Impact Token Raffle
World Oceans Day - June 8
World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought - June 17
World Rainforest Day - June 22
National Clean Beaches Week - July 1st-7th
International Mangrove Day - July 26
World Nature Conservation Day - July 28
National Wildlife Day - September 4
International Day of Clean Air - September 7
International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer - September 16
Clean Up the World Weekend - September's third weekend
Zero Emissions Day - September 21
National Public Lands Day - September 26
World Rivers Day - September's last Sunday
World Habitat Day - October's first Monday
World Animal Day - October 4
International Day of Rural Women - October 15
World Food Day - October 16
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty - October 17
World Planting Day - October 22
International Day of Climate Action - October 24
World Cities Day (Nature & Urban Biodiversity) - October 31
National Recycling Day - November 15
World Soil Day - December 5
International Mountain Day - December 11
Giving Tuesday is an international day of giving that is celebrated by nonprofits across the world. Greenstand’s first Giving Tuesday was in 2020, which taught us invaluable lessons about planning a social media campaign and rallying our diverse audiences. Last year’s social media posts can be found in Canva > Past Social Posts. In 2021, Giving Tuesday will fall on November 30th.