Covid-19 Crisis Communications: The Challenge for Environmental Organizations

During the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. environmental organizations and U.S. chapters of international environmental organizations grappled with a broad set of challenges, including when and what to communicate to supporters. In the winter and early spring of 2020, environmental organizations became crisis communicators, confronted by time pressures and the limited attention spans of audiences beset by the pandemic. Crafting communications that are concise and factual, compassionate, that instill confidence, and that evince organizational competence are important facets of crisis communications. However, environmental organizations faced the additional challenge of ensuring that their own priorities were presented clearly and persuasively amidst the flood of pandemic-related information. Responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, and preparation for future pandemics, force environmental organizations to amend their crisis communications to underscore their relevance to crises and their role in problem-solving.