When lawyers turn good (and need to get famous)

If you’re an active LinkedIn user interested in the climate space, chances are you might have seen ClientEarth increasingly in your feed over the last few months. The organisation has been rolling out a new approach to comms which we helped them develop through a series of short sprints last year. 

When Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour donated $21million to environmental law charity ClientEarth in the heady pre-lockdown world of 2019, it was the first time that most people had heard of this unique organisation that is using the law to protect the planet. Founded by legal legend and Buddhist monk James Thornton in 2007, ClientEarth has built an impressive reputation for holding governments to account on existing environmental legislation. From halting new coal-fired power plants, forcing proper air pollution responses from No10 or halting illegal use of rainforest products, ClientEarth has grown in size and stature and its effectiveness the envy of many other eco-NGO’s.

As they grew, new challenges and opportunities emerged. This is where we came in. Like many charitable organisations, they often focused most on the people who held the same values as them - fostering a passionate but modestly-sized group of supporters, but not reaching out into broader audiences beyond this. It's a common theme in the climate space - a lot of people care about this stuff, but they don't speak or get excited by policy or climate language, which means a lot of organisations miss out on really maximising the potential of their audience.

Through a series of collaborative sprints with the Communications and Membership teams we identified multiple target audiences for growth - new segments that could become their fans, champions and supporters. And then worked with them to develop both the creative approach and organisational structures for a new, supercharged approach to multi-channel communications that found new audiences, harnessed the potential of creative partners and equipped their followers with the facts to champion advocates far and wide.

We don’t want to take all the credit for this - its mostly a testament to the commitment of their teams. But we’re happy to see the impact it’s having on their performance and broader profile. And its a reminder to all other purpose-driven organisations out there - building your tribe isn’t just about connecting with those who are exactly like you, but finding a way to attract different audiences and groups around a common core.