Helping nonprofits working on solutions to share and scale their impact through communications and design.
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Full Bloom | October 2025
a monthly climate change content party in your inbox 🎉 from Heartseed Creative /
Hi friends,
I'm a mom! I'm back from maternity leave! My daughter is beeeeautiful. Also, the world is scary and I'm already spiraling about how I will explain these things to her when she's older. It's a lot. (I wrote about coming back earlier this summer.) Climate communications are especially at threat in federal circles — did you see the new list of "forbidden" words from the Trump administration's Department of Energy? I'm glad to be writing this lil' newsletter and reconnecting with you. And doing my darnedest to focus on all of the action that still is happening, even when the setbacks just keep on coming.
Some exciting news: I'd like you to meet Elza Vucane, marketing & growth lead at Heartseed Creative! After supporting clients during maternity leave and being a genuinely awesome soul, she's stayed on to continue the good work. You can learn more about her on our website, plus, she attended New York Climate Week and repped Heartseed. {read more about her experience there in a special section below}
I've also added new sections to this newsletter, so now you'll regularly see:
📚 a climate communications resource
🪴 ideas for your comms team in the "content greenhouse"
💡 interesting links from the ecosystem
🎨 a featured climate artist
🌟 a Heartseed client's case study
💬 a wee poll at the very bottom to grow the conversation and have some fun
With gratitude,
Lauren Boritzke Smith
Founder
P.S. You might've noticed the Heartseed Creative website got a refresh. Whatcha think??
ROOTS OF CHANGE
Climate Comms Resource
Technology is always evolving and it's nuts, right? AI and algorithms and misinformation...I'm still reading "The Replaybook", but it's giving me all kinds of insights into how to navigate our digital info landscape and how we can use it to strengthen climate messaging rather than let it scatter and erode.
Feeling the fall / back-to-school vibes? Create a 7-day micro-campaign to educate your audiences on a topic or initiative, i.e. "7 youth climate leaders you should know". This could be an Instagram series, an automated email campaign that gets sent daily once they subscribe, or another format. Start creating!
For a less-intensive spin on the above, host or post an ask-me-anything. Solicit questions from your community on a specific topic and answer them in a newsletter, post series, or livestream.
Live into a culture of reciprocity; reach out to a partner and feature their work on your channels, lending your audience's eyes to their good work while building community.
Elza Takes on Climate Week NYC
I survived my first Climate Week NYC — and yes, it lived up to its reputation for being overwhelming. So I went in with a clear plan and it paid off!
There were more creative communications events than in past years, but still fewer than I expected… which says a lot about how critical, and still underappreciated, this work is in the climate space. We need to continue focusing on the creativity problem in our industry more than ever, because presentation is often what reaches the people who aren’t already listening.
These are conversations that the world needs to hear and be part of. Many factors make NYCW inaccessible and the rooms often leaned toward those with the resources, connections, or simply lucky circumstances to be there. I’m so glad to hear there are talks of more Climate Weeks coming to major cities across the U.S.
At Heartseed, this is exactly the gap we’re here to fill. We want to help climate organizations and nonprofits share their stories in ways that spark new action, not just echo in the usual circles. The impact of our work still depends on more voices, more stories, and more creativity at the table.
I'm so grateful for all the friends, new and familiar, I connected with last week. 🫶
I'm so concerned about microplastics. I seriously think about them every day. If you haven't heard of Ben Von Wong's disruptive art sculptures, you should get lost scrolling his portfolio for a while. He's brought massive artworks to global events (like the plastic pollution treaty talks) to make people stop and pay attention, while generally creating something beautiful and thought-provoking out of wasteful materials.
We first designed the Biochar Carbon Removal Manual for the International Biochar Initiative in 2024. With a fast-moving industry, it was already time for an update. We've brought the new version to life through thoughtful art direction, clear content layout, collaborative review, and copyediting We're also setting up the download infrastructure, planning a launch webinar, and more to make sure it reaches the right people and is easy to use!
Do you have a report, impact story, or guide you need "beauti-fied"? Get in touch, we'd love to partner with you.
How We Can Help You
At Heartseed Creative, we work with climate organizations and small businesses to scale impact with communications and design.
We're looking for 3 nonprofits who are ready to give their email program a serious glow-up over the next 3 months. Ready to tidy up your subscriber list, attract more clicks, and make your emails something people actually look forward to seeing in their inbox?
So if you...
Are a nonprofit or small business tackling climate change
Think storytelling + design should actually make people care
Want to turn your emails from “meh” to “must-read”
