Transcript NatureRocksnonprofittoolkit

Camp Nature Rocks
Toolkit
Remember the first time you saw a
star shining brightly in the sky or
caught your first firefly? Today, so
many children and youth may not
have had these opportunities, if not
for camp. For generations, children
have gone to camp in order to
experience the outdoors in a shared
community designed to maximize a
young person’s experiential learning
above and beyond the four walls of a
classroom. They have used their
energy, wonder, and laughter to
experience and practice life in ways
that prepare them for adulthood.
All people are connected with nature,
but unfortunately, many people are
too removed from nature to recall
this connection. The “power of the
camp experience” can renew our
ability to recognize our deep-rooted,
human connection to the natural
world. The camp community has an
important role to play in connecting
children and youth to nature.
I invite you to partner with Nature
Rocks—a national campaign to
inspire and empower parents to take
the lessons learned at camp into
their homes and family activities.
Specifically designed to help day
and resident camps, this kit provides
you with tools you can use to reach
parents.
I am thrilled to be able to bring
Nature Rocks to you to help inspire
your camp families. Please join us.
Let’s give another generation
memories of nature and the outdoors
that last a lifetime.
Peg Smith, CEO
What is Nature
Rocks?
Nature Rocks is a national campaign to inspire and empower millions of parents to reconnect their
families to nature. It provides them with the tools, ideas and information they need to enjoy fun,
inexpensive, quality family time together.
Nature Rocks is designed to motivate parents, providing them the why, emotionally resonant
benefits, and how, easy access to activity ideas, nature location and event finders, and invite friends
functions that can get them off their computer and out the front door in as little as 5 minutes. By
engaging parents in this manner, we are increasing their comfort with nature and building towards
larger actions. The key is to make the actions easy and fun for the whole family, plus let them know
that everyone is happier, healthier and smarter with nature. Just go to www.NatureRocks.org!
Marketing Campaign
The campaign includes a dynamic parents’
website with great information, tools and
tips. It is promoted by our growing list of
partners, media outreach, and grassroots
efforts, as well as online and parent to
parent. Social media has proven fertile
ground, and continues to grow in both size
and reach.
Seasonally relevant campaigns support the
benefits of time in nature, offering seasonal
activity guides, featured content, earned
and social media outreach and events.
Nature Rocks offers great support for you including:
1.
NatureRocks.org: inspiring vignettes, educational information and resources, an interactive
activity finder for easy activities at home and nearby, a find nature map featuring local camps
(including yours!), other destinations and activities, nature events by zip code (you can add
your’s too) and social networking tools.
2.
National conference and training: through ACA you will have the opportunity to participate
in trainings through webinars and other support on how to make Nature Rocks work for you.
3.
Partner Toolkit: this guide contains information on the campaign and detailed tools for you
including:
• Guidelines and opportunities for participation
• Strategies you can use to reach your community
• Sample material for use with the media
• Information on how to get additional Nature Rocks resources
• And more!
Anchor Partners
Channel Partners
How to
Participate
By participating in Nature Rocks, your camp will tap a national marketing campaign to help you reach
parents through a unique marketing effort designed to promote the connections to nature that your
camp offers and ways in which your camp can help families enjoy and learn from the outdoors. For
example, the American Camp Association will feature Nature Rocks in e-blasts to over 2.6
million parents nationwide. As another example, REI will prominently feature Nature Rocks on its
Web site, in its e-mail communication to over 3 million customers, in store displays and in printed
material.
Your camp will benefit from co-marketing with Nature Rocks because it will be more readily recognized
by parents in your region.
Just follow the 6 simple steps listed below:
1. Review the Nature Rocks camp toolkit.
Attend a webinar training session if possible.
2. Get the full resource kit as described in the
Using Nature Rocks section.
3. Use the Nature Rocks brand in your
communications–-together with the ACA
brand and your camp’s brand–-as described
in the Brand Guidelines (see Resources).
You can refer to your camp as, “[Camp
Name], a Nature Rocks group.”
4. Implement a communications strategy using
the ideas found in the Strategies section.
5. Reach out to your community – including
both online and direct marketing to your
community to dove-tail with the national
campaign.
6. Build partnerships with local groups in
your community and national partners to
build momentum!
Strategies
To make the best of Nature Rocks, we suggest outreach
strategies that will dove-tail with the national campaign. Specific
steps your organization can take:
1.Plan a special event as the anchor to introduce Nature Rocks
in your community; for example a family camp or other familybased program.
2. Put the Nature Rocks logo on your materials.
3.Use the family activity resources available at
www.NatureRocks.org (seasonal guides, find nature and event
tools), and www.CampParents.org/nature/. Promote specific
local activities and events for families.
4.Reach out to your local media with a press release based on
the Sample Press Release. Focus on how your programs offer
affordable, quality time for families. Submit an OpEd or write
letters to the editor about the benefits of the camp experience
and using Nature Rocks activities.
5.For TV media, approach local TV news and point to the “broll” video news clips (see Resources). The b-roll has clips of
Rich Louv and others that local stations can use as part of their
story. And you should have a local spokesperson available for
the news programs to interview and add to the segment.
6.Become a fan of the ACA and Nature Rocks Facebook,
Twitter, and MySpace Pages, encourage parents to do so.
www.facebook.com/ACACamps?ref=mf
www.facebook.com/NatureRocks
www.twitter.com/NatureRocks (or @NatureRocks)
www.myspace.com/nature-rocks
7.Build partnerships with local civic groups using the sample
slide show (see Resources) and reach out to your local REI
store.
8.Use Nature Rocks gear including t-shirts, caps, journals, flip
cameras, stickers, and more at your events, available at
www.cafepress.com/naturerocksshop and
www.zazzle.com/naturerocks (and you can make your own with
your brand too!)
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: [Date, Year]
CONTACT: [Your Name and Phone Number]
[YOUR CITY] [YOUR CAMP] JOINS NATURE ROCKS – OFFERS NATURE ACTIVITIES FOR
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN [YOUR TOWN/REGION]
[YOUR CAMP] has joined the nation-wide Nature Rocks initiative, to inspire and empower parents
to take their families in nature for happier, healthier and smarter children.
To kick off the campaign [YOUR CAMP] is offering fun nature activities for families in [YOUR
TOWN]. [YOUR CAMP] is offering [SPECIAL EVENT OR OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION,
LOCATION AND TIME FRAME].
Families can enjoy a variety of nature resources, from downloads from the American Camp
Association at www.CampParents.org/nature/ , to activity guides, ideas and tools to find nature
locations and events from Nature Rocks at www.NatureRocks.org/.
Families can also include these [YOUR CAMP] activities and events in their plans:
[DESCRIPTIONS].
“Not only does exploring nature provide the whole family with special time together, a growing
body of research suggests that children are happier, healthier and smarter when they get regular
opportunities to play and explore nature,” said [YOUR CAMP SPOKESPERSON].
“Activities in nature help children concentrate, be more creative and do better in school.” said
[YOUR CAMP SPOKESPERSON], “Camps offer kids and families an easy way to learn and grow.
We’re thrilled to be able to offer great opportunities to families throughout the region.”
[YOUR CAMP & DESCRIPTION]
Nature Rocks is a national campaign to inspire and empower parents reconnect their kids to
nature and enjoy quality family time with nature. This initiative is a partnership with anchor
partners REI, the Nature Conservancy, and US Fish and Wildlife Service, and channel partners the
American Camp Association, and American Heart Association. This initiative was founded by the
Children & Nature Network and ecoAmerica. For inspiring stories, easy to use tips and tools, and
information of the benefit of nature to families, go to www.NatureRocks.org.
The American Camp Association® (ACA) works to preserve, promote, and enhance the camp
experience for children and adults. ACA-Accredited® camp programs ensure that children are
provided with a diversity of educational and developmentally challenging learning opportunities.
There are over 2,400 ACA-accredited camps that meet up to 300 health and safety standards. For
more information, visit www.ACAcamps.org.
Using Nature
Rocks
The Nature Rocks brand was developed through extensive research
to inspire the broadest possible audience of parents. It is designed
to show that kids and families are happier and healthier when they
play in nature, together.
The brand is flexible for print, web, and even product use. It has
color options and friendly characters to accent materials. The full
set of Nature Rocks materials for you is listed in the Resources
section.
Nature Rocks works best with a
“personality”, a voice that is:
Trusted, Friendly
Fun, Active
Motivating, Inspiring
Witty, Smart
Inclusive
Economical
Appropriate use
The brand is available for most uses without charge to promote
healthy, active, exploratory and respectful connection with nature
by individuals, groups and organizations as follows:
• You can make and use Nature Rocks decals, mugs, t-shirts or
other items for personal use at any time.
• You can use Nature Rocks for events, program outreach and
fundraising through the American Camp Association’s
partnership agreement with Nature Rocks.
Visit www.acacamps.org/nature/nature_rocks.php for access
to the full resource kit.
Gear
Nature Rocks includes cool fun gear you can offer families
through your program and more are on the way. These are
available at www.cafepress.com/naturerocksshop and
www.zazzle.com/naturerocks.
You may also wish to create your own co-branded gear.
With the local organization license you can create your own
products for small scale fundraising through services like
www.zazzle.com or www.cafepress.com. You can use
these for your own fundraising.
For bulk purchases contact us at [email protected].
For commercial licensing contact us at
[email protected].
t-shirts
key chains
decal
s
Resources
Signup today to get access to the full resource kit!
Go to www.acacamps.org/nature/nature_rocks.php for:
• Program Overview: for more details on the program.
• Logo files: for websites and print. High and low
resolution, including logos, characters, and color bars.
• Brand Guidelines: detailed information on how to use
the brand in materials and communications.
• Flyer & handouts: for use in outreach
• Community presentation: for local partner outreach
• B-roll video for local TV news: contact PR at ACA
national at [email protected].
And don’t forget…
• ACA websites and Facebook page
www.ACAcamps.org
www.CampParents.org
www.facebook.com/ACACamps?ref=mf
• Nature Rocks website and social media pages
www.naturerocks.org
www.facebook.com/NatureRocks
www.twitter.com/NatureRocks (or @NatureRocks)
www.myspace.com/Nature-Rocks
Toolkit ACA