Communication challenges for non-profit organisations: A conversation with Faye Treffry

In this third episode of the Human(e) Language podcast, I speak to Faye Treffry, Brand and Communications Manager at Cornwall Wildlife Trust in the UK.

Faye is an accomplished marketing, brand and communications expert with over 20 years of experience in the field. She is also a passionate environmentalist.

Before joining Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Faye was a Director and Head of Growth at Green & Blue, where she not only achieved year-on-year financial growth, but also led the company’s certification as B Corporation, founded Solitary Bee Week, and influenced UK planning policy for nature. You could say Faye is a true force of nature, for nature!

After taking a year-long career break to backpack through Central America with her family, Faye returned to Cornwall and joined Cornwall Wildlife Trust in 2024.

During our chat, we unpack some of the communication challenges for non-profit organisations.

For nature conservation charities in particular, one such challenge is how to drive donations for a cause where there is no immediate result or ‘trade off’.

As Faye explains, when you buy a product from a shop or online, there is a transactional exchange for a tangible product. In nature conservation, however, results are rarely immediate. It can take years for the results of a charity’s work to be visibly seen and enjoyed by the general public.

Beavers are a great example. They are incredible ecosystem engineers. To quote the Cornwall Wildlife Trust website, beavers “create wetlands which benefit wildlife, absorb carbon dioxide, reduce flooding, and improve water quality.” The charity is currently fundraising to release wild beavers in Cornwall.

But ecosystems aren’t created over night. And beavers don’t build dams in a day.

Fundraising campaigns like Bring beavers back to the wild in Cornwall essentially encourage people to donate money in exchange for a future promise. Donations become a long-term investment in nature, wildlife and regeneration.

Which is why communication plays such a crucial role in building trust in the organisation and keeping existing members as well as the general public engaged over a long period of time.

We touch on the complexities of nature conservation, and the importance of being able to communicate scientific information in a way that will be easily understood and remembered by a diverse audience.

We also speak about communication fatigue, and the challenge of striking a careful balance between creating a sense of urgency to encourage action, while keeping the messaging hopeful enough so people will still want to act.

Finally, we talk about using storytelling to engage different audience types, while at the same time maintaining one unifying message across the organisation.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Human(e) Language Podcast

00:26 Faye's journey into non-profit marketing

04:15 Challenges of communication in non-profit organisations

09:32 Understanding communication fatigue

16:26 The power of storytelling in nature conservation

20:10 Segmenting audiences for effective communication