Trees Atlanta — Follow-Up Sequence

Target: Trees Atlanta — treesatlanta.org — 40-year-old citizens' nonprofit that planted and has cared for Atlanta's urban forest since 1985; HQ at the Kendeda TreeHouse (Oakland City); runs the Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum, Youth Tree Team, education and workforce programs; Charity Navigator four-star

Contact: Judy Yi, Director - Marketing & Outreach (judy@treesatlanta.org); Executive Director Greg Levine (greg@treesatlanta.org) as alternate

Channel(s): Email (primary); Instagram DM @treesatlanta for the shorter touches

Source first-touch: registry/leads/drafts/trees-atlanta-outreach.md

Source row: targets.md E13

Generated: 2026-09-20 (night-shift)

Assumes: no reply to the first touch (free 60–90 second reel offer)

Register: marketing-and-outreach director at a donor-funded environmental nonprofit; storytelling for donor retention and volunteer recruitment, not a hard sell

Cadence

|-------|--------|---------|------------------|

| 2 | D+12 | Email | Free one-page "Planting Day Story Checklist" (Appendix A) |

| 3 | D+20 | Email (or DM) | Honest proof points: the L5P series (putting together) and prior mission-driven media work |

| 4 | D+28 | Email | Seasonal hook: fall planting season, one planting day beats the count of 190,000 |

| 5 | D+36 | Email (or DM) | Door-open close, no ask |

Flags — read before sending

1. Channel. Email to judy@treesatlanta.org is primary. The shorter touches (3 and 5) can go as Instagram DM to @treesatlanta. Pick one channel per touch; don't double-send. The org's staff page asks people not to email multiple staff with the same inquiry, so one recipient per send.

2. Verify Judy Yi is still Director - Marketing & Outreach before Touch 1. Sourced 2026-09-13; roles rotate. If she's moved on, Greg Levine (Executive Director, greg@treesatlanta.org) is the alternate and the greeting swaps to "Greg".

3. The seasonal hook is fall planting season in Georgia (roughly October–March). Touch 4 says "as the fall planting season comes around" and names no date or event. Confirm the actual volunteer planting-day calendar before sending Touch 4 and adjust if the season already started or the first days are full.

4. Touch 3 must stay at "early / putting together / no finished episodes" for L5P, and "media work I've done" for Detroit Action and the Albuquerque speaker series. Do not upgrade either to finished episodes or results until that's actually true. This is the touch most at risk of overclaiming.

5. Do not imply Trees Atlanta is a current client anywhere. It's a cold prospect. The only orgs named in this sequence are Trees Atlanta itself, Little Five Points (the series, "putting together"), and Detroit Action plus a speaker series in Albuquerque (factual prior work, held at "media work I've done").

6. Numbers used come straight from the first-touch draft and the E13 row: founded 1985, first 46 trees on Carnegie Way in 1986, 190,000+ trees planted and cared for, 44,000+ volunteer hours annually, 40th year 2025. No new program counts, event dates, awards, donor numbers, or testimonials. If Brandyn wants to name a specific longtime volunteer or a specific planting day, he supplies it.

7. Stop the moment they reply. This is a conversation, not a drip. Any response restarts as a real thread and the remaining touches get dropped.

Touch 1 — The number-vs-tree gap (D+5)

Subject: a tree you planted in 1986 is canopy now

Judy —

190,000 trees is the number that goes on the homepage. The story underneath is one tree at a time, and that part doesn't show up on a stat sheet.

A tree Trees Atlanta put in the ground on Carnegie Way in 1986 is a mature canopy now. A 60-second cut that puts the young tree next to the tree today, the first planting next to a Saturday crew forty years later, says more about the work than any count ever could.

If there's one planting day or one longtime volunteer you'd point a camera at first, that's where I'd start.

~110 words. Leads with a concrete idea drawn from Trees Atlanta's own history (Carnegie Way, 1986) without re-offering the free shoot as the lead. "You pick it" carries forward from the first touch. Frames the whole thing as the decades-scale story a stat page can't tell, which is a marketing director's donor-retention problem, not a video pitch.

Touch 2 — Free asset: the planting-day checklist (D+12)

Subject: a planting-day checklist you could hand to a volunteer coordinator

Judy —

I put together a one-page checklist for capturing a volunteer planting day on video. It's written so you could hand it to whoever runs the planting calendar or the Youth Tree Team and call it a starting point.

It's below, the whole thing, no strings. If the "one day a month" rhythm reads like something that'd feed your donor emails and your volunteer recruitment, that's the part I'd want to build with you.

— Brandyn
Ghost Coast Video · ghostcoast.video

The checklist is Appendix A below. Self-contained, ready to paste into an email, a DM, or a Google Doc. The "hand it to a volunteer coordinator" framing is aimed at a marketing-and-outreach lead who has to make the case internally, not at a direct video buyer.

Touch 3 — The proof point, honest (D+20)

Subject: what I'm learning filming the work nobody sees

Judy —

I'm putting a short interview series together over in Little Five Points right now, and I'll be straight about where it stands: early. No finished episodes yet.

What I know from the media work I've done, Detroit Action and a speaker series out in Albuquerque included, is that a volunteer shop doesn't need a production budget to start this. The stories are already in the dirt. It's a matter of pointing a camera at them.

When the first L5P cuts land I'll send you one, so you can judge it instead of taking my word.

— Brandyn
Ghost Coast Video · ghostcoast.video

~100 words. Claims only what's true: the L5P series is "putting together," no episodes, no metrics. Detroit Action and the Albuquerque speaker series are held at "media work I've done" — facts, not results claims and not client relationships. Does not imply Trees Atlanta is a client anywhere.

Touch 4 — Fall planting season hook (D+28)

Subject: one planting day is a better fall story than 190,000

Judy —

One timing note, then I'll get out of your way. As the fall planting season comes around, the hard thing is making 190,000 trees feel like something a donor or a new volunteer can hold onto.

The fix is one day. A 60-second piece on a Saturday planting, the neighbors who showed up, the kid in the Youth Tree Team, the hole getting dug, turns the count into a "your giving did this" and a "you could be out here too." That's the asset that brings back a donor and fills the next crew.

If the calendar's already locked, no problem. The trees keep either way.

— Brandyn
Ghost Coast Video · ghostcoast.video

~95 words. Uses the real seasonal hook (Georgia's October–March planting season and the volunteer planting-day calendar) without asserting a specific date or event. The "count into a 'your giving did this'" angle is the donor-retention and volunteer-recruitment register, distinct from the CCI "room not the stage" and FCS "year-end" angles.

Touch 5 — Door-open close (D+36)

Subject: leaving the door open

Judy —

I've sent a few notes over the last month and won't keep them coming if the timing's off. A marketing shop's got enough on it.

The offer stands as it was. If Trees Atlanta ever wants its people and its trees on camera, I'm around. And when the Little Five Points series is actually finished, I'll send you a link anyway. It's the honest version of what I've been describing.

— Brandyn
Ghost Coast Video · ghostcoast.video

~75 words. No ask, no recap, no guilt. Closes on the honest forward promise (the L5P link), which doubles as a reason to keep the thread.

Appendix A — "The Planting Day Story" capture checklist

The deliverable for Touch 2. Self-contained; paste into an email, a DM, or a Google Doc.

The Planting Day Story — a capture checklist for volunteer and tree-planting events

What it is. A short checklist for what to capture at a volunteer planting day or a youth program session, so the footage tells the story of the people, not just the tree count.

Why it matters. Numbers get listed. People remember faces and dirt and a day that felt good. A donor or a prospective volunteer who sees a Saturday crew actually putting a tree in the ground understands the work faster than any paragraph about it.

Before the event.

[ ] Name the one story this day is really about (one volunteer, one tree, one block)
[ ] Pick the three places the story happens (the sign-in table, the hole getting dug, the group photo at the end)
[ ] Make sure one volunteer knows someone will ask them one question

During.

[ ] Get hands in dirt, not just the tree: the shovels, the roots going in, the water
[ ] Capture one honest moment, not a posed one (a kid lifting a tree too big for them, two strangers sharing a shovel, someone caught off guard laughing)
[ ] Ask one person "why'd you come out today" and let them answer in their own words

After.

[ ] Cut the best 60 seconds within 48 hours, while the volunteers are still talking about it
[ ] Send it to the people in it so they share it themselves
[ ] Keep the full footage for the donor emails, the next volunteer drive, and the annual report

The rule of thumb. A tree going in the ground is the story. The count is just how many times it's happened.

Notes for Brandyn

Appendix A is ready to deploy as a one-page PDF or Google Doc for Touch 2. The "hands in dirt, not just the tree" angle is what makes it Trees-Atlanta-specific rather than a generic nonprofit checklist, and it's distinct from the CCI "room not the stage" checklist and the Astronomia "post-event" checklist.
Strongest touch if only one gets sent: Touch 1 (the 1986-tree-is-canopy-now idea). Touch 4 (the fall planting season) is the close second because it's tied to the volunteer calendar Judy actually owns promotion for.
Downstream asks stay held until a real conversation, per the first-touch draft. None of the touches ask for a paid series, event coverage, or a retainer — the only thing on the table is still the free first piece and the door staying open.
No fabricated clients, metrics, or program numbers anywhere. Only Trees Atlanta's own published facts (1985 founding, 46 trees on Carnegie Way in 1986, 190,000+ planted and cared for, 44,000+ volunteer hours annually, 40th year 2025, BeltLine Arboretum, Youth Tree Team, summer camp since 2013, workforce-development program, Charity Navigator four-star) are named.