The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) awarded multiple grants through the Multistate Conservation Grant Program (MSCGP) this past September that will address recruitment, retention and reactivation (R3) needs. Pending final approval by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southwick Associates will assist the American Sportsfishing Association (ASA) and National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) with three specific projects:
1) Creating National and Regional Data Dashboards to Evaluate License Trends
This grant proposal was submitted by a coalition of organizations, led by the ASA. Data dashboards provide states with visual, easily accessible insights into license sales trends and customers. This information allows states to rapidly assess if R3 efforts are succeeding and where improvements are needed. Such data dashboards have been tested and implemented in Oregon, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Georgia, with others in development.
The grant will support the creation of 12 additional state dashboards. More importantly, the grant will foster the creation of the the first-ever regional and national data dashboards, enabling evaluation of participation and R3 effectivness on a much larger scale allowing for more frequent checks of regional and national fishing and hunting participation rates. Additionally, the project will also involve creating many more state dashboards, with an expectation that dahsboards will be created for at least three to four states per region.
2) Improving Local Angler Recruitment Events
Another grant was awarded to the American Sportfishing Association. Significant money is spent annually by states and industry on fishing derbies, rodeos and other angler recruitment events, and yet very few event organizers can report whether they are effectively creating new anglers, or just serving people who already fish. This project will seek to help local events improve their efforts by providing an understanding of each event’s effectiveness, what will guarantee success, as well as feedback regarding possible improvements. Future investments in local fishing events by industry and states can then in part be tied to the implementation of best practices with regards to creating new or regular, independent anglers.
3) Improving Recruitment of New Hunters and Recreational Shooters
This project was submitted by the Nation Shooting Sports Foundation. Through a study conducted in 2016, the foundation discovered that 24 million Americans are interested in purchasing their first firearm, indicating there is still much room for growth in the shooting sports. However, little is known about how to best motivate these potential shooters to begin participating. Thus, the NSSF is leading an effort to develop and test a series of messages, marketing tactics and imagery to be packaged and delivered to states and NGOs to enhance their R3 efforts. A combination of surveys and focus groups will be employed to accomplish this goal. Providing insights on which marketing efforts are most effective will ensure that state and NGO R3 marketing efforts are as successful as possible.
More information about these projects will become available once these grants have been awarded. If you would like more information about these projects, please contact Rob Southwick at Rob@southwickassociates.com.