The Client: Mt. Adams Institute

Mt. Adams Institute is a nonprofit organization with a mission to reconnect people with nature. They specialize in programs for veterans, people wanting a career in forestry, and young people wanting to learn about the outdoors in a unique and magical way. It’s a mighty beast of an organization that serves many many people, giving hope, sparking emotional comfort and curiosity, and creating a community bond that lasts a lifetime.

The Executive Director, Brendan Norman, has been dedicated to growing this special resource since 2011.

Greta Rose Agency was honored to build a new and improved website to serve as the main information hub for all program participants, as well as the staff. The challenge would be to organize the information in a beautiful manner that reflected nature, but could be accessed by a community that might not be super tech-savvy. In a nutshell, the site would evoke “calm, clean and be easy to use.”

Here is the video montage we created for the home page, which successfully explains the full story of what this organization provides in stunning visual clips. A simple mission statement and invitation welcomes you in. This created the perfect first impression.

The biggest challenge was making this one website serve many audiences. On one hand, we wanted to honor veterans and provide a quiet landing place for them to connect to the outdoors and possibly start new careers in forestry or land preservation. On the other hand, we had parents of young children wanting to play and discover the magic of farm and forest. Then, we had a few audiences in between!

Seeking to expose the through-line that connected these groups, and find the voice of the organization so we could speak clearly and present information that seemed consistent, concise and clear…. we worked diligently with all staff members and department heads to define company culture. It proved to be a powerful exercise internally to carve out the mission, work together, and ultimately communicate better.

Basically, we let Nature tell us how to proceed. I wanted you to feel like you were entering nature as you navigated the site. Just like a walk in the woods, you might continue down a path and meander where curiosity lead you.

We wanted the site to feel playful, but not silly. Like sitting around the camp fire, the site should feel relaxed and jovial, deep hearted respect. Never trying too hard.

We listened carefully to our community for feedback. What did they want to know? What did they hope to discover? We wanted to give it to them.

The staff embraced this site with integrity, taking advantage of this resource. It’s exciting to see the site working for this organization and community!