CIRCLEWOOD

Circlewood exists to accelerate the development of an ecologically-conscious faith
(eco-faith) that restores health to the community of creation and leads humanity
into a more just, sustainable, and verdant way of life.

Our 30-year Mission
• To accelerate the greening of faith through:
o Creating media that build global awareness, community, and change.
o Designing programs and courses that train a generation of earthkeepers.
o Building a world-class center for eco-faith development on Camano Island, Washington.
• We will know we have accomplished the mission when:
o Circlewood media are regular and trusted sources for individuals, communities, and organizations around the globe.
o There are 1,000 CW alumni accelerating change in 1,000 places.
o Circlewood Village is a recognized and recommended destination for individuals, communities, and organizations.

1. Expanding our Creative Media: a. We launched our Earthkeeper Podcast on Earth Day, 2020. The Earthkeepers Podcast promotes global connection among ecologically-minded people who believe that earth care is an integral part of spiritual life. Through conversations about topics like ecology, climate change, gardening, farming, social enterprise, theology, environmental justice, outdoor recreation, conservation and community development, we aim to inspire a movement of ordinary earthkeepers who will help heal the world. Our goal is to find our podcast episodes on every major podcast platform. b. We are preparing to launch a newsletter blog in the next month, which will expand our reach and build our community. Our Executive Director will provide much of the written material for this blog, which will be an important step in articulating Circlewood values and ideas to the wider community.
2. Develop Education Program Strategy: We tailor speaking, teaching and other events to specific groups and communities with oral presentations such as speeches and sermons, interactive workshops, such as the webinar we launched in 2020, entitled The Bible, Ecology and Practical Earthkeeping. When the coronavirus forced people to stay at home, we were able to act quickly to meet the increased demand for stay-at-home education by launching this pilot online class. The class was an important step forward as new participants widened our community and perspective, built our resources for future conversations, and provided our facilitators with valuable experience that will be useful for planned future online courses. We also held our first webinar, entitled Signs of Hope, which presented, in an engaging format, examples of positive action by people and organizations investing in the holistic health of all of creation. We plan to offer similar programs in the future. In addition to these, we organize events such as retreats, vision trips, and service projects, which are primarily planned and implemented by our Executive Director.
3. Camano Project: Within a pristine forest on Camano Island, we are developing Circlewood Village - a place where people come for connection, community, and collaboration. We are stewarding the forest on our land, the first step being a thinning followed by a replanting which will accelerate the process of forest diversification. We plan to model how to caretake a diverse, sustainable, healthy, varied forest ecosystem and invite learners to a demonstration forest we plan to develop on our Camano Island property.
Other Key Strategies:
4. Keep Developing the Board
5. Build Collaborative Staff System
6. Create Volunteer Opportunities
7. Mission-Focused Adminstration
8. Treat Donors as Partners
9. Cultivate Long-term Foundation Relationships
10. Lay Groundwork for Capital Campaign
11. Build Program Income
12. Cultivate Corporate Relationships
13. Develop Forest Products

1. We own 40 acres of land on Camano Island outright and are moving ahead with plans to develop and sustainably forest this land.
2. We have a healthy savings account due to years of generous donations. These funds are enabling much of our Camano development work as well as the staff expansion we have enacted this year.
3. We have a capable and passionate Executive Director and a dedicated and skillful board of directors. The various voices and perspectives enable us to consider and understand many points of view, while maintaining a strong unity around the goals of our organization. The relatively small size of our organization enables discussion and consideration of different points of view, but also gives us the nimbleness to make quick adjustments and decisions when opportunities or needs arise.
4.Skilled staff and contractors. Our staff is deeply committed to the vision of Circlewood and bring practical and visionary strengths to our organization.
5. We have a podcast with a strong and growing voice, establishing important connections and growing its audience and, as a result, our Circlewood community.
6. We have a partnership with a deeply invested ecologically-minded architect whose familiarity with the history of Circlewood and support of its mission is an important asset as we try to model our values in all aspects of our work, including what we build and how we build it on our Camano property.
7. Consistent and long-term financial partners. We have a strong core of regular givers as well as those who consistently give generous annual gifts to our organization.
8. We have recruited two capable hosts who ran and helped organized our pilot spring webinar. They are available, willing and capable to continue in these roles and we are putting plans in place to expand our webinar offerings into new and relevant areas of need and demand that dovetail with our mission.

We have acquired 40 acres of forested property on Camano Island, with one unfinished building, some unfinished roadways, and a well. We are working to put in place the necessary infrastructure to move forward with the construction of a retreat and demonstration center for sustainability and spirituality. We are also actively looking for someone to caretake the property while we are in these early stages of project development. A thinning of the forest is scheduled for spring 2021, which will provide some revenue for our organization, and, perhaps more importantly, clear space for the planting of trees and other plants that will diversify our forest, provide varied habitat, and make our forest healthier.

We have hired an Executive Director with passion and leadership skills. He has spoken at numerous churches, conferences, schools and is skilled at engaging participants in varied settings and of varied demographics. His pastoral skills enable him to engage people both personally and missionally and his oral and written skills are valuable assets in communicating Circlewood values and aspirations. We have increased his hours this year, from 20 to 30, so that he is able to devote more of his time to the work of our organization. We have additional staff who support the organization and its goals.

We have launched our Earthkeeper podcast that is, after its first year, contributing an important voice to the conversation about taking care of the earth. We have established and maintained a regular bi-weekly podcast publication schedule which has been important in building a consistent audience. As our audience grows, we are working to provide podcasts that address both ideological questions and practical considerations about earth care. We have a committed podcast host as well as valuable support in the form of professional podcast production assistance and research assistance. The direction of our podcast is guided by our Executive Director and our Podcast Host. We have a wide web of connections from which we draw our podcast guests. We are working on monetization of the podcast, expansion of the audience, and strengthening of the podcast community through interaction, identification, and incentives.

The programs we had planned for 2020 were curtailed severely by the coronavirus. As a result, we shifted our focus to offering new programming that was feasible and desirable in a stay at home environment. We created a five-week online course that explored the Bible’s ecological perspective, with particular attention to our place in the community of creation and our calling to “tend and keep” the earth. We also held our first webinar, Signs of Hope, which presented positive examples of holistic care of all of creation in an engaging and informative format.