MEIC board member Jim Sayer (left) works the table with staffer Shannon James at a climate rally in Missoula. Photo via Jim Sayer.
by Jim Sayer
Greetings from spring-bedazzled Missoula … and thank you for being a part of this essential organization! As a 20-year MEIC member and current Board Treasurer, I take great pleasure in expressing gratitude directly to you, the people who power our organization in so many ways. However, thinking of you, our current members, also prompts the question: Who will be the members that power MEIC in the future?
It’s a question that’s been on my mind since I joined the board two years ago – and a question I’ve pondered for decades, as the past director of nonprofit groups whose main sources of income were memberships and donations.
By many metrics, MEIC is a thriving organization. We have an incredible 52-year record of success in protecting Montana’s environment. We have an amazing staff: tenacious, hard-working, and among the most experienced of any state environmental group in the nation. We also have remarkable financial reserves and a solid balance sheet to support our work.
Nevertheless, these assets may be offset by a potential liability: younger people may support our mission and work but they aren’t necessarily “joining” MEIC in the traditional sense, as members or donors.
Now that the 2025 Legislature has wrapped up, we’re pulling together a working group to review our membership model, research other nonprofits who’ve been successful in growing their support and broadening their base, and consider how MEIC can do better. Already, we are working to expand our outreach and field operations with “community connector” staff and events around the state.
But we are on the hunt for other creative solutions and would appreciate your suggestions. My guess is that many of you belong to many more nonprofit groups. What are the attractive features of your favorite groups? Are there unique ways that nonprofits catch your attention and sustain your allegiance? Do they have specific ways of reaching out to new populations, especially younger folks? Are there ways they engage new people, beyond a simple membership fee or donation request?
In thinking about these questions, feel free to think expansively. MEIC’s foundation is strong right now, which makes it the best possible time to consider new directions. And you — as someone who already knows the value of a strong statewide environmental group — are in a prime position to help find those directions.
Please feel free to contact me at jimsayer17@gmail.com with your ideas, and if you want to have a conversation, don’t hesitate to let me know. I could not be more excited to work with our members to ensure the future of the group that protects our beloved state’s clean and healthful environment. Thanks again and we look forward to hearing from you!
Jim Sayer is a part-time nonprofit consultant and very active volunteer who relishes Montana’s great outdoors and lively communities. He is the former director of Adventure Cycling Association, the Sierra Business Council, and Greenbelt Alliance (in the San Francisco Bay Area), and a former senior executive with the U.S. EPA. You can find him biking, hiking, running and swimming all around Western Montana with family and friends. Let him know your favorite spots, and he might just join you there!
This article was published in the June 2025 issue of Down To Earth.
