Early Establishment and Feasibility Process

Startup Funds

The Salmon Project is an experimental initiative started in late summer 2012. The project’s startup was funded in two phases.

The first phase was supported by a $50,000 grant made to the Foraker Group in August 2012 by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF). This grant supported early administrative startup activities, including the formation of a non-profit corporation under Alaska State law, called the Alaska Salmon Initiative and the employment of a contractor, Erin Harrington, to initiate feasibility assessment of a project exploring “the feasibility of a non-partisan effort to bring together diverse Alaskans to sustain Alaska's wild salmon for its economic, social, cultural and ecological values.” Articles of Incorporation for Alaska Salmon Initiative were filed on August 8, 2012.

The second phase of startup was supported through a second grant from GBMF in October 2012. That grant was made directly to the newly formed Alaska Salmon Initiative, and was for the period of October 2012—December 2013. The grant was intended to support the feasibility investigation implicit in ASI’s founding documents.

The feasibility assessment in the project was designed to be experimental. The early budget was designed to cover costs and investigations in the following areas:

• Contract staffing
• Public opinion research, to determine whether it was actually possible to design a project that met the purpose outlined in the Articles of Incorporation
• The development of a “salmon report card” assessing the current state and well being of salmon systems in Alaska.
• A literature review of past public engagement around wild salmon and social values in Alaska
• Development of an experimental social marketing campaign and supporting media experiments
• And strategic planning and facilitation work.

Of the items outlined in the initial grant objectives, all were completed except the “salmon report card.”

Contract Staffing

Contract staffing to the project was provided to The Salmon Project via a co-employment agreement with the Foraker Group. Erin Harrington was hired as the project’s executive director.

Research Process

Public Opinion Research

[Direct Link to the Full Public Opinion Research detail page]

Alaska Salmon Initiative contracted with DHM Research to conduct a body of early research. It was the first major undertaking of ASI and was intended to assess the question implied in ASI’s founding document: were Alaskans interested in “a non-partisan effort to bring together diverse Alaskans to sustain Alaska's wild salmon for its economic, social, cultural and ecological values.” Were they connected to salmon as strongly as the founding board suspected? Would they find such an effort credible? Could it be established in a way that bypassed political or resource development conflicts? Particularly important in late 2012 and 2013 was the question of whether the initiative could be developed without running into high levels of suspicion or incredulity because of the ongoing statewide conversation and conflict related to the proposed Pebble Project?

The research process included:

• Informant interviews with more than 30 opinion leaders around the state, with particular attention paid to rural and Alaska Native leaders.
• 12 focus groups in 8 communities
• A statistically weighted quantitative telephone and online survey with an n=2,068 (half phone/half online)

This research was eventually augmented by a set of annual surveys, conducted in 2014 and 2015, as well as a smaller research projects conducted in support of the King Makers and Baby Salmon Live Here projects. To see a full inventory of data and reports from the research conducted by The Salmon Project, see the Public Opinion Research Detail page.

Additional Small Research Projects

In addition to the public opinion work, the early ASI research body also included three smaller reports.

• A “literature search” project conducted by Northern Economics, Inc. The literature search was intended to determine whether previously in Alaska there had been any major initiatives, research projects or events intended to draws Alaskans of diverse backgrounds and diverse salmon use characteristics together in a collaboration to identify the connections between salmon and Alaska values. The resulting report is entitled “Initiatives toward Sustainable Use of Alaska’s Salmon Resource: A Half-Century Perspective.”
• A salmon “factoids” research project conducted by Northern Economics, Inc. This project was intended to provide information that could be used as simple educational resources in online, social media and possibly print resources. This work was executed in two phases, with two resulting documents. The first focuses on species, levels of harvest, use by different sectors, the salmon management regime, and hatchery production in Alaska. The second discusses international management, the constitutional importance of salmon, the limited entry program, salmon as a percentage of ex-vessel value in commercial fisheries, employment in the commercial salmon industry, and salmon in educational curricula.
• A historical review of personal involvement by Alaska legislators in the salmon industry or other salmon-connected businesses. Report
• A review of salmon curricula in use in school districts or in other educational settings in the state. This review did not go to the level of individual schools. It resulted in an Excel report detailing identified curricula, a contact list tied to the spreadsheet, and a results document from an Alaska Resources Library and Information Service (ARLIS) search.

Design of “The Salmon Project” Brand Concept and Early Outreach

From its earliest concept, ASI’s work included experiments in marketing and outreach to Alaskans about their own salmon relationships. Early in ASI’s feasibility process the corporation entered into contracts with Nerland Agency (since rebranded as Spawn Ideas) as its marketing agency of record, and Thompson & Co. as its public relations agency. This team began a process to develop a public-facing brand for ASI’s experimental work. “The Salmon Project” was selected as the name for the project in spring of 2013. This included the design of the mark associated with The Salmon Project’s brand.

Salmon Love/Sustained by Salmon Marketing Campaign

In spring 2013 the marketing and PR team identified for the feasibility process also started working on a marketing campaign that would test public engagement in the project concept. In May 2013 the ASI board approved use of the “Salmon Love” lips logo [full logo set] as the mark for the 2013 test marketing campaign. An accompanying “Sustained by Salmon” logo [full logo set] was approved for communications that were specifically linked to commercial (included guided sport) users. Direct mail was sent to Alaskans holding sport, commercial harvest, commercial crew, or guided sport licenses or permits, using data provided by or purchased from Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Alaska Department of Administration, and the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission.

• Salmon Love | Full logo set
• Sustained by Salmon | Full Logo Set

After a preliminary consultation with a technology consulting firm to assess Salmon Project needs, a contract was let with ThinkShout, Inc., for the design of a campaign website and an integrated constituent relationship management (CRM) system. The Drupal platform was selected for the website, with an integrated CRM solution built on the Drupal base called RedHen.

The Salmon Love campaign went live in the first week of August, 2013. In order to prepare for the campaign, we quickly produced a handful of concepts and content to populate the website. These concepts and content were:

• Salmon Love/The Salmon Scale
• The Salmon Scale gave participants a short quiz on the ways they are connected to salmon, ranging from commercial fishing to thinking fishing is a great first date. They received a score at the end of the quiz, which rated them on a “Salmon Love Scale.”
  • Quiz Questions and Format
  • Quiz Result Blocks 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
• Commercial Fishing Film
  • We partnered with Alaska Public Media’s Indie Alaska to produce a film featuring commercial fisherman Toby Sullivan, in order to be able to feature it at project launch.
• Habitat Matters
  • Safe Habitat Matters Graphic
  • Lifecycle Graphics
    • We produced a set of graphics illustrating the salmon life cycle that were included in the website at launch.
• Practice Safe Salmon
• Practice Safe Salmon provided a short informational piece on how to safely care for your catch.
  • Caring For Your Catch graphics
• King Makers
• King Makers was a concept aimed toward private landowners who had the power to make choices on the land they owned or managed that were positive for salmon. Nerland Agency/Spawn produced two films as part of the King Maker concept, as well as some children’s interactive activities. The films were produced in partnership with Great Land Trust. A King Makers logo was also developed.
• King Makers
  • Scott Walther/Hatcher Pass video
  • Chickaloon Tribe Fish Passage video
  • Children’s Resources
    • Coloring Pages & King Makers Crown

King Makers was further developed as a concept, in partnership with the Great Land Trust. Eventually the program was fully transferred to the Great Land Trust, whose core programming made the campaign a better fit. A logo was developed prior to the transfer.

• King Makers logo set

May 2013 Convening

In May 2013, as part of the feasibility assessment of the potential project concept, The Salmon Project hosted the first of what would be three convenings, inviting Alaskans from around the state who held positions of leadership in civic or business settings, or who otherwise had strong voices on behalf of Alaskan interests. Importantly, we invited very few people who were typically involved in salmon or fisheries-related issues, or in conservation arenas. We hosted the event at the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood. In advance of the gathering we sent copies of David Montgomery’s book, King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon to all the participants and asked them to read it and consider its implications for Alaska. We also invited Dr. Montgomery to provide the keynote address.

In a two-day gathering, participants explored their own relationships with salmon and asked each other questions about its role in the communities, cultures and economies of Alaska, and pondered questions of what would be lost if we failed to steward salmon over the long run. All participants left with a new sense of the role and importance of salmon in Alaskan ways of life.

The conversations around King of Fish also planted the seeds of what would become, a year later, an experimental “book drop” program through which more than 1,300 copies of the book would be distributed in 9 communities and regions around the state.

Participants also brainstormed a number of “next steps” for The Salmon Project. Major points of discussion and takeaways from the event were compiled into summary notes that were shared with all participants.

• Summary notes from the May 2013 Convening [filename 2013 Alaska Salmon Retreat Summary notes.docx]