Strengthening Strategic Communication among Ocean Conservation NGOs

Year

2021

Client

Mingamar

EnvironmentTraining
Image by Michaela 💗 from Pixabay

About the Mingamar Programme

Mingamar: Aprendiendo en Comunidad is an initiative that began in 2019 with the goal of strengthening civil society organisations dedicated to marine and coastal conservation in Latin America. Its core objective is to amplify the impact of these organisations by fostering collaborative networks and enhancing key organisational capacities.

Participation is voluntary and grounded in cultural, territorial, and organisational relevance. The programme initially engaged grantees of the Walton Family Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Marisla Foundation, promoting collective learning and sector-wide cohesion.

Course Objective

As part of the Mingamar programme, I was invited to co-design and facilitate the course “Comunicación con Estrategia y Sentido” (Communication with Strategy and Meaning). The course was created to:

“Strengthen participants’ capacity to communicate strategically from a solid organisational narrative and a comprehensive understanding of their audiences.”

This course addressed a common challenge among marine-focused NGOs: how to communicate their mission effectively and authentically in order to engage communities, influence policy, and increase visibility in a complex communication landscape.

A total of 14 organisations participated in Comunicación con Estrategia y Sentido, including Terram, Oceana, Oikonos, WWF Chile, CODEFF, and FIMA. This course received one of the highest participant evaluations within the Mingamar programme and was valued for its practical structure and relevance. After the course, several organisations received individual mentoring to further develop their strategies and address specific communication challenges.

Course Design

Course Design: Ports of Learning

1

Port 1: Strategy to Move Oceans

Participants explored the foundations of strategic communication and learned how to align messaging with broader organisational goals.
Tools: Communication strategy canvas; distinction between goals and objectives
Bitácora Exercise: Define the purpose of your communication and identify the intended audience
2

Port 2: Sounds of the Sea – Listening to Communicate

This module focused on understanding and segmenting audiences, with an emphasis on empathy and emotional resonance.
Tools: Audience mapping; emotional engagement techniques
Bitácora Exercise: Create audience personas and identify key communication opportunities
3

Port 3: Stories that Cross Oceans

Participants worked on developing narratives and interpretive frameworks that reflect their mission and values.
Tools: Narrative strategy; framing techniques
Bitácora Exercise: Craft a values-based story aligned with your communication strategy
4

Port 4: Diving into Digital Communication with Content

The final session explored the strategic use of digital platforms and how to design relevant and consistent content.
Tools: Platform analysis; content planning
Bitácora Exercise: Conduct a digital audit and outline a simple content strategy

The Role of the Bitácora de Viaje

A key feature of the course was the Bitácora de Viaje, a practical learning journal that accompanied participants throughout the training process. It served as a space for reflection, documentation, and applied learning, enabling each organisation to tailor the course content to its own context.

By the end of the course, each participant had built a working draft of a strategic communication plan that was relevant to their mission and audience.

Bitacora 1

Results and Impact

  • Tangible Outputs: Participants created practical communication strategies tailored to their current organisational challenges.
  • Skill Building: Attendees improved their skills in audience engagement, storytelling, and digital communication.
  • Network Strengthening: The course fostered trust, collaboration, and shared language among participating organisations.
  • Continued Application: Many organisations continued using the Bitácora as a reference tool for campaign planning and internal discussions.
  • Expanded Support: Several participants received mentoring support after the course to help implement their strategies more deeply.

Mentoring and Organisational Reflections

The mentoring phase provided space for more focused and hands-on support. One particularly impactful experience involved working with FIMA, an environmental law organisation. The team adopted new approaches such as user experience thinking and Design Thinking to improve how they communicated about their projects.

“As a team, we’re grateful that you showed us there was another way to approach things, especially in a field that was completely unfamiliar to us.”
 — Antonia Berríos, FIMA

“The method we identified to redesign the project was Design Thinking, which is a flexible system for evaluating, prototyping, and testing ideas. It helps you empathise with users and generate ideas that might have been outside our initial range of solutions.”
 — Antonia Berríos, FIMA

The team began applying the concept of user experience meaningfully and correctly, using it as a foundation for project planning.

“Small adjustments can have a major impact on the user experience. If the user cannot even access the content, then it loses its purpose.”
 — Constanza Dougnac, FIMA

The mentoring process showed how simple, well-targeted tools introduced during the course could spark real shifts in mindset, vocabulary, and practice.

Facilitator Reflections

One of my main takeaways as a facilitator was how much organisations value clear, accessible frameworks to help them structure their communication efforts. Many teams face challenges in making their work understandable and compelling to audiences outside their immediate networks.

Designing a course for participants without formal communication training was both challenging and rewarding. The practical focus, grounded in their own projects and organisational realities, made the content feel immediately useful and relevant.

Because the training was held virtually, we prioritised designing highly engaging, interactive sessions that included a mix of formats and rhythms to keep energy and focus throughout. The involvement of the Mingamar team was key to ensuring a supportive learning environment that respected participants’ time, knowledge, and experience.