East Coast Greenway Alliance

Strategic PlanningBrand + Creative
Written By Kristine Neil

At its best, a greenway provides communities with safe opportunities for connection, wellness, and joy. East Coast Greenway Alliance, the champion behind the formation of the East Coast Greenway route from Maine to Florida, knows these benefits well. In 2021, East Coast Greenway Alliance was at a pivotal moment, with newfound political supporters of greenways, increased greenway usage due to COVID-19 indoor activity restrictions, and more frequent public conversations around environmental justice. To seize the moment, East Coast Greenway Alliance engaged Mission Partners to guide the organization through the development of a new five-year strategic plan.

Mission Partners engaged the board and staff throughout the full process, keeping power dynamics top of mind, with facilitated planning sessions and research to help inform strategic direction. Mission Partners then worked with East Coast Greenway Alliance to develop the designed strategic plan that could be shared externally. The East Coast Greenway Alliance board and staff knew justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) needed to be a focal point of the plan, from working alongside communities along the greenway to forming values-aligned partnerships. The Mission Partners team helped ensure JEDI was thought of through every priority, tactic, and goal. With the new strategic plan in place, East Coast Greenway Alliance had a record-setting year in 2021, securing $550 million in public investment, obtaining 660 miles of new route signage, increasing reach from news coverage by 220%, and welcoming eight new staff members and a new co-chair to its Board of Trustees.

Kristine Neil

Fractional Web Partner

I'm Kristine Neil - a communications strategist who has spent 20+ years designing websites, first running a full-scale design and marketing agency, and now leading my own studio. I've been the creative director managing the work, the coder quietly fixing what others couldn't, and the strategist in the room asking why before how. Somewhere between the MBA and the other degrees, I decided web design was just one tool in a much bigger toolbox - the real work is figuring out what you're trying to say, who needs to hear it, and what's getting in the way. A website is just where all of that comes to life.

I mostly build on Squarespace, and after years deep in the platform I know how far it can go and when to push past its limits. These days, I'm especially drawn to working as a fractional partner - getting to know an organization over time and helping with whatever moves them forward, whether that's a full redesign, an ongoing hand with content and strategy, or just being the person who knows their site best. I write here about AI, UX, eCommerce, web strategy, and making the complex feel a little more human.

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