The Wilderness Society
Annual reports: writing, creative direction
With each passing year, The Wilderness Society’s work assumes greater importance—and every year, my colleague Pat Chesnut and I set out to express the worth, weight, and humanity of this work in a fresh and compelling voice. From the excitement and momentum that characterized 2015—a watershed year for designating national monuments—to 2016’s in-depth personal profiles illustrating what the public lands we share mean to those who work to protect them, to the tight narrative and focused strength and resolve that captured 2017, each report delivers a powerful message within a great story, explaining complex, expansive work in an engaging and understandable way.
It’s gratifying to help an organization doing critical work reflect on the incredible work they do and use it to inspire their supporters, and equally gratifying to see the quantifiable impact of our team’s work. Since Pat and I began writing The Wilderness Society’s annual reports, each year the number of gifts received upon receipt of the annual report has increased, as well as the size of the average gift received and the total dollars received.