One of the best, most provocative sessions at the National Trust meeting

(besides the saga of the National Trust's financial involvement in the demolition of the Century Building in St. Louis, against the council of the local preservation organization in St. Louis... see Save the Century--at least this case is leading to some important changes in Trust policy on such questions) was the presentation by Eric Freidenwald-Fishman on "Creating Sustainable Support for Preservation" (this is the actual powerpoint presentation).

The point he made is that to get sustainable behavioral changes, you need to connect-repackage-reposition-frame your issues in ways that touch people's deeply held values. According to the paper on the Metropolitan Group's website, "Building Public Will," the five phase process framework is:

1. Framing the Problem
2. Building Public Awareness
3. Becoming Knowledgeable/Transmitting Information
4. Creating a Personal Conviction
5. Evaluating while Reinforcing

The reason this is so important because all too often, our messages and campaigns reflect our own concerns and "hot buttons," not necessarily the concerns of those we are trying to reach...and change.

One of the examples he gave during the talk was of the campaigns for cleaning local rivers. There are thousands of rivers across the country, and thousands of local organizations concerned with this issue. MetGroup found that environmental issues, in reality, didn't mean too much to most people when it comes to issues of river cleanliness. What does matter is that people are concerned about their own health and the health of their children, and that 50% of drinking water in the U.S. comes from rivers. By reframing the issue along those lines, local river environment organizations are finding much greater success in fundraising and in achieving policy initiatives.

Rather than repeat the arguments of the paper for you, I recommend that you read it.

It's particularly important for preservationists, not just in terms of developing "sustainable fundraising strategies" but for identifying and linking to the concerns of residents that are consonant with historic preservation policy and practices. After all, it is not just whether or not someone donates to local or national preservation organizations, the real issue is the stewardship of the architectural and placemaking patrimony in our communities.