EcoRestoration Alliance · Internal — for comms committee review
Communication & Website Strategy Brief
One vision, told at three altitudes, to two funding orbits, through one canonical website. This brief locks the message spine that the new ERA site — and every channel pointing at it — will be built against.
Status Draft for review
Date June 2026
Sources Full list in the appendix (§08)
01 The problem this brief solves
ERA has three web properties telling three different stories, a 14-channel comms surface, and a vision statement that takes a paragraph to say. Meanwhile the strongest material — the CCQ cooling science, the crisp contrarian voice, the learning hubs, the Oracle trajectory — is scattered across decks and staff pages where the public never sees it.
The fix is not new ideas. It is hierarchy: one message spine, with every asset assigned a place on it.
02 The vision ladder
Stop hunting for one sentence that does everything. Use three rungs — each for a different moment. Feel first; explain the cleverness later.
3-second hook
"Healthy ecosystems cool the planet. We're restoring that power — fast."
The homepage hero, social bios, the first line of every pitch. Alternates from the same family: "Climate repair, not climate despair." · "Don't look up. Look down."
10-second what
"ERA makes nature's cooling power visible, fundable, and real — connecting the science, the restorers, and the money, and proving it on the ground in Panama and Africa."
The org boilerplate: About-page opener, grant cover paragraphs, introductions.
30-second how
"We do it by aligning three kinds of intelligence: natural — the living systems that already regulate climate; human — a ~600-member alliance of scientists, practitioners and storytellers; and artificial — tools like the Big Map that make a scattered global field legible. Our learning hubs turn that alignment into restoration you can see, measure, and replicate."
The earned reveal. "Aligning intelligences" lives HERE — never on rung one, where it reads as jargon before the listener cares. (Membership ~600 and climbing toward a 1,000 goal; update the figure as it grows.)
Decision (locked): the public site leads with the CCQ science wedge — it is contrarian, quantified, and ours. Hubs are the proof, not the hook: lots of orgs do hubs; nobody else says "restore Earth's air conditioners."
03 Two orbits, one organization
ERA's material splits cleanly into two funding/messaging orbits. They never need to be reconciled on the same page — they need separate doors. The Big Map (ERA²) is the bridge: it is climate infrastructure and the Oracle's substrate.
| Orbit A — Climate infrastructure | Orbit B — Aligning intelligences |
|---|
| The pitch | Restoration is climate repair: cooling, water, W/m² | An Oracle of EcoRestoration uniting natural, human & artificial wisdom |
| Hero proof | CCQ paper, named scientists, Panama & Africa hubs | ERA² / Big Map (4,400+ curated projects), Templeton framing, indigenous knowledge |
| Funders | Climate philanthropy, family offices, Threshold network | Templeton-style science-of-purpose & consciousness funders |
| AI's role | Backstage — "tools that make the field legible" | Center stage — the point itself |
| Tone | Pragmatic, contrarian, measurable | Visionary, philosophical, reverent |
| On the website | Homepage, Science, Initiatives, Donate | One deep page: "ERA² & the Oracle" — clearly marked as the road ahead |
Decision (locked): the Oracle appears on the public site as trajectory, not product — "where this is going," with the Big Map shown as the living foundation that exists today. Funders like roadmaps; they punish vaporware presented as shipped.
04 Proof-point bank
The site's credibility currency. Hard numbers (leaf edge) and voice lines (aqua edge) — sourced, reusable, and consistent everywhere they appear.
Ecosystem degradation drives 15–45% of climate forcing — invisible to carbon-only accounting
CCQ whitepaper
Conventional accounting undervalues restoration's climate benefit 4–10×
CCQ whitepaper
Restored ecosystems can cool locally 2–4°C within months
CCQ whitepaper
Big Map curates 4,400+ restoration projects from across the field — a census of the work, not just ERA's own; the alliance itself is ~600 members
ERA² / Apr 2026 newsletter
Demonstration hubs live: EcoFinca (Panama Canal watershed) & Edward's Hamlet (Uganda)
Newsletter / AGM 2026
UN Decade endorsement; ERA Fund seeded by a founder donation, backing its first small projects
Live site / Apr 2026 newsletter
"The planet is heating because Earth's air conditioners are breaking down."
Voice — CCQ
"Don't look up. Don't panic. Look down."
Voice — Panama deck
"Climate repair, not climate despair."
Voice — Panama deck
"A way for planetary intelligence to know itself."
Voice — Templeton (after Sagan)
"The Big Map is not a wish list. It is a census of what is already working."
Voice — Apr 2026 newsletter
"Watch for free. Join to ask questions." — the open-but-belonging model
Voice — Apr 2026 newsletter
"Forests don't simply grow where it rains — they ensure that it rains where forests grow."
Voice — Jun 2026 newsletter
05 The consolidated sitemap
One canonical site on Render, fusing the prototype's look, the live site's substance, and the Render hub's tools. Everything else redirects here.
Home faithful replica
Pixel-faithful to the Squarespace prototype — honoring the design team's direction — with the hero copy carrying the CCQ wedge.Source: prototype site
Science / CCQ
The cooling thesis, the whitepaper, named co-authors, the shipping-sulfur natural experiment, segmented deck downloads.Source: /ccq/ page + CCQ decks
Initiatives / Hubs
EcoFinca Panama, Edward's Hamlet, African Consortium, ERA Fund — the proof the thesis works on the ground.Source: Panama deck, newsletter, live site
About / Alliance
The 10-second + 30-second story, values ("Rooted in Our Values"), people, partners wall, UN Decade badge.Source: live site + AGM
Stories / Currents
The storytelling pillar: Currents blog, the live newsletter archive (Apr/Jun editions onward), member voices, "Words to Live By." The canonical home the Substack mirrors.Source: prototype + Apr/Jun newsletters
ERA² & the Oracle trajectory
The Big Map live today; the Oracle as the honest road ahead — aligning natural, human & artificial intelligence. Orbit B's door.Source: ERA², Templeton submission
Engage / Directory
Join the alliance, member directory, town halls, working groups.Source: live site + Render hub
06 Fundraising: two doors, one truth
The evidence is in: money has come through warm networks + the CCQ paper, not cold web conversion. The site's job is to be a credibility surface that closes warm leads — and to quietly build recurring grassroots support.
Door 1 — Major & foundation
"Fund a leverage point." Named scientists, quantified claims, the hubs, the segmented decks (Philanthropy / Family Office), and a direct line to a human. No checkout flow — a conversation starter.
Ask: a meeting
Door 2 — ERA Sustainer
Frictionless $5–10/month recurring tier for the community orbit. One screen, one story ("keep the map alive"), mirrored on Substack. Builds the recurring base no grant provides.
Ask: $5–10/mo
Supporting moves
- Systematize the newsletter — it's live, not a gap. Two editions are out (April Earth Month, June "Nature Knows How to Cool the Planet") with a third imminent. Give it a fixed spine (Feature → Message from Jon → Town Halls → News → Words to Live By), a named subscriber promise, and a one-click archive on the site's Stories page. Each issue is already a donor-nurture touch — wire in a Sustainer ask.
- One content stream, many outlets. The site is the canonical hub; Substack, Medium, LinkedIn and the Big Map all point back to it.
- Brand hygiene during consolidation. One name and one URL per asset. The April newsletter alone calls it both "Big Map to Save the Future" and "…the Planet" — pick one. Same for CCQ's three URLs and the agent emails. Canonical domain ecorestorationalliance.org → Render, everything else 301s.
07 What gets built, in order
- 1. Homepage replica — faithful to the prototype, CCQ wedge in the hero copy. The diplomatic artifact; review with Stefan & Mary.
- 2. Science/CCQ + Donate doors — the fundraising core.
- 3. Initiatives/Hubs + About — proof and identity, content from the live site.
- 4. ERA² & Oracle page + Stories — the deep layer.
- 5. Handoff — structured codebase to Claude Code for deployment on Render.
08 Sources
Everything this brief draws on, so its claims are traceable for the committee.
Live & staging web properties
- Squarespace prototype — ecorestorationalliancenow.org (the "ERA 2.0" fundraising one-pager; plus the downloaded ERA 2.0 (Copy).html file set, used as the pixel oracle for the homepage replica).
- Current live site — ecorestorationalliance.org (Wix: About, Science, Stories, Initiatives, Engage, Public Directory, Donate; "Rooted in Our Values," partner wall, UN Decade endorsement).
- Render staging hub — era-website.onrender.com (staff dashboard linking the interactive tools).
Tools & pages within the Render hub
- CCQ whitepaper page — /ccq/ ("Cooling Climate Quickly"): the cooling thesis, stat cards, participation tiers, named co-authors.
- ERA² / Big Map — the Ecosystem Restoration Atlas (4,400+ curated projects) and the AI Eco-Oracle concept screen.
- Comms Committee Briefing — the 14-channel comms map, fundraising status, brand-consolidation notes.
Attached documents (PDF)
- CCQ – Family Office v5.pdf · CCQ – Philanthropy v5.pdf — the two segmented funder decks.
- ERA AGM 2026.pdf — canonical org facts: board, membership, ERA Fund.
- How the shipping industry can cool the planet.pdf — the 2020 sulfur "accidental experiment."
- Panama May 2026.pdf — the EcoFinca demonstration hub ("Don't look up. Look down.").
- TempletonSubmissionAug2024.pdf — "Aligning AI, Human, and Ecological Intelligence" (the Oracle's funder-grade articulation, after Sagan).
Newsletters (draft)
- ERA April 2026 Newsletter — DRAFT (Lucy) — Earth Month edition.
- article — June 2026 newsletter — DRAFT — "Nature Knows How to Cool the Planet."