PALTA is studying the feasibility of whether land trusts can work together to efficiently increase each organization’s membership. Can they collaboratively negotiate mailing list rental, design, and even mailhouse services to achieve an economy of scale not possible working independently? If PALTA determines that such an effort is both feasible and sensible, PALTA would then endeavor to work with 6-8 land trusts with a speculative goal of doubling memberships overall within a 3-5 year period of time.
If you feel this might be of interest to your land trust, please complete the brief questionnaire to help PALTA in assessing the feasibility and to indicate your interest.
PALTA has hired David Allen of Development for Conservation to complete the feasibility study. Questions may be directed to David at fundraisinghelp@sbcglobal.net or 608-239-5006.
In determining potential interest, you may wish to ask yourself the following:
- What issues does collaboration raise for our land trust related to confidentiality? What assurances would need to be in place for us to participate?
- Do we have adequate systems in place to keep (renew) the members we have? If we doubled our membership, how would those systems be affected?
- Assuming that a foundation might be willing to fund initial implementation, would we be willing to commit to carrying the program forward on our own? (Organizations that stop member acquisition programs often drop membership rapidly due to attrition.)
