Do you know what really motivates your supporters? That was the question at the center of our research and recommendations project with The Wilderness Center (TWC) in Wilmot, Ohio.

The Wilderness Center is a busy, beautiful nature center nestled in the midst of thousands of acres of pristine nature preserves. The nature center and trails are free and open to the public throughout the year, thanks in part to financial support from members. In recent years, however, membership levels have decreased. TWC asked Sustainable Economies to study why membership support dropped, and recommend strategies to reverse the trend.

Sustainable Economies began by analyzing the four most recent years of membership data to quantify the membership decline. Between 2022 and 2025, TWC’s membership declined significantly. Hidden within that decline was a drop in “comped” memberships. In addition, in fiscal year 2025, membership revenue rebounded significantly.

Despite that promising revenue rebound, however, most indicators pointed to diminished capacity for TWC to achieve its mission if membership levels continued in their current trajectory.

Sustainable Economies employed a three-phase research approach:

• Discovery Workshop with TWC’s leadership team
• Community Workshop and interviews with members, visitors, and volunteers
• Survey distributed via email and social media to members, visitors, and the general public

During the Discovery Workshop, the leadership captured their existing knowledge about what motivates members via an Audience Personas process. One of the most important takeaways from this workshop was a viewpoint shift: instead of sharing the information that seemed important internally, the staff got excited about putting themselves in their audiences’ shoes and filtering messages according to what they most want to hear about.

The Community Workshop and interviews explored four themes:

1. What do visitors and members value most about engaging with The Wilderness Center?
2. What would members like more of?
3. Challenges and barriers to access
4. What is the most important reason to become a member?

From these research themes, we learned that participants value TWC as a peaceful escape to a kinder world; a place to make a difference; and immersive nature experiences facilitated by an expert guide.

Since the Community Workshop was meant to facilitate a deeper conversation amongst a smaller number of guests, it was time to test those initial findings via a quantitative survey. The Survey assessed whether people agreed with those three themes, and explored how much they valued spending time in nature – with actual dollar figures – as a way to connect with family and friends or to relieve stress.

The survey validated the notion that members and visitors appreciate TWC as a peaceful escape to a kinder world. Participants also assigned a value ranging between $60 – $70 for the personal wellbeing and social benefits of each visit to spend time in nature at TWC.

Our recommendations were based around one transformational insight synthesized from the three phases of research:

“Good stewardship starts with loving something so much that the science behind it is kind of secondary to first appreciating it.”

With this core idea in mind, we proposed that TWC build its marketing and communications to current and prospective members around the four stages of their engagement journey:

1. 1. Spending time in nature – a peaceful retreat to a kinder world
   2. Learning & community programs – immersive nature experiences facilitated by an expert guide
   3. Hands-on & volunteer programs – making a difference at TWC and at home
   4. Most important reason to become a member – protecting land and habitats

To build marketing and communications around the member journey, we recommended three initiatives:

1. • Unify Messaging & Visuals – Align messaging and look-and-feel with TWC’s primary differentiator.
   • Reorganize Website Navigation & Content Structure – Restructure the website navigation and content structure around the four stages of the visitor and member journey.
   • Integrate Conservation Impact – Weave compelling examples of TWC’s conservation impact throughout communications, rather than presenting them as a standalone message.