Rooted City Project's Strategy
Turning Cleveland lots into community gardens, one bed at a time.
A sample of what Strategicraft produces from a brand profile.
Member and Volunteer Faces
Both audience segments — neighbors and civic donors — respond to faces and stories over statistics, making individual member portraits the fastest path to trust and membership conversions.
Example topics:
- Miss Carolyn's second-season tomato harvest in Glenville
- The apartment-dweller who ended up teaching the garlic workshop
- A first-time volunteer day from a newcomer's perspective
Northeast Ohio Growing Reality
Hyper-local, season-specific growing advice positions Rooted City Project as the credible Cleveland-native alternative to generic gardening content that assumes a backyard and a longer season.
Example topics:
- Why a thick October compost layer beats pre-winter soil amendments in this climate
- What actually survives a Cleveland frost in a raised bed
- When to start seeds indoors for a Lake Erie spring
What the Work Actually Looks Like
Donor-minded Clevelanders who want to see where their charitable dollars land need unfiltered, on-the-ground documentation — not polished campaigns — and this pillar delivers that directly.
Example topics:
- The Saturday the wheelbarrow broke and two beds still got framed
- How a vacant corner in Slavic Village became a functional growing site
- End-of-season site walkthrough before the beds go to sleep for winter
Urban Land and Food Access Context
Civically-engaged subscribers and potential donors follow Rooted City Project because the gardens sit inside a larger story about Cleveland neighborhoods, vacant land, and who gets to grow food — this pillar serves that layer of the audience without requiring statistics.
Example topics:
- What it means that a lot sat empty for eleven years before anyone planted it
- Why renters on the east side are the majority of garden members
- The neighbor on the porch who knew the lot's history better than any city record
See this strategy turned into a 30-day plan.
The calendar maps these pillars and formats onto specific posts.
View the 30-day calendar