Building Trust with Landowners in Emerging Communities

Purpose

• Ideas and activities for building authentic and trusting relationships with landowners in emerging communities.

• Approaches to address distrust, show humility, and establish credibility

Related Sections

• Keystone Landowners

• Partnership Guide

• General Guidance for Reaching and Engaging Landowners in Emerging Communities

Trust Equation

Here, we use a simple equation adapted from the work of Maister, Green, and Galford in The Trusted Advisor to break down the concept of trust: 

To increase trust, the top part of this equation (Credibility, Reliability, and Familiarity) should be as big as possible, and the bottom (Self-Orientation) should be as small as possible.

Increasing these three components in the numerator increases your trustworthiness:

• Credibility is typically associated with competence, your capabilities, and/or your credentials. It can look like subject matter expertise and exuding confidence in your knowledge. In short, it's knowing what you say you know. It can also be saying when you don't know.
  

• Reliability focuses on your actions and showing that others can trust you to do what you say you are going to do. It's showing up when you say you will show up. It's delivering what you promise, consistently over time. If someone has low reliability, they’ll come off as inconsistent and will lose trust. As a representative of your agency, it’s important to show up and serve the people and land that you’re committed to. Set time aside every week to answer emails and check your office’s voicemail box so landowners aren’t left wondering. Providing reliable service shows landowners that they can trust you.
  

• Familiarity is when someone knows you well enough to feel safe: safe in open conversations, safe to share information, and safe enough to be vulnerable around you without any type of consequences. When you have familiarity, people feel a connection to you and know you as a genuine person.

Decreasing the denominator increases your trustworthiness:

• Self-Orientation looks like selfishness; someone is in it for themselves or everything revolves around them. When people have high self-orientation, it feels like they don't care about others because they aren't paying attention since they are so focused on themselves. On the other hand, a low self-oriented person comes across as caring and intentionally concerned about the needs of others. Landowners are usually able to decipher if someone (or their organization/agency) is coming to them with their own personal gain in mind versus the benefits of the landowners and their land.

Remembering this simple equation and combining it with the other tools in this toolkit will greatly help you when it comes to building trust with landowners. 

Trust-Building Engagement

A trusting relationship doesn’t happen overnight or with one conversation. It takes time and an active presence. Intentionally engaging in different spaces and at different events beyond formal meetings is a major factor in building trust with landowners. 

Trust-building engagement can allow you to: 1) build familiarity and relationships with community leaders and organizations who can serve to vet you and your programs in anticipation of reaching a larger audience; 2) be visible in the communities of focus at public/community events/fairs/festivals, etc., 3) increase awareness of your agency’s programs and services via community education workshops; and 4) increase participation in your existing programs.

Types of Trust-Building Engagement

• Cold Phone Calls/Emails: Make phone calls and email community leaders or community organizations to introduce your agency and your desire to reach out to emerging communities. It can help you to gain insight into a particular region for targeted outreach success, to schedule activities, and to prepare for physical visits (canvassing) to build relationships. Ask about community events that go beyond traditional landowner-focused events where you could table in the future.

TIP: Calls/emails are a way to make some initial contacts in the community or find and plan canvassing visits but are at the low end of an engagement strategy and generate little to no trust. Cold calls and emails are not recommended for reaching individual landowners, as this is the way predatory developers often reach out to landowners.

• Canvassing: Travel to gathering places within the communities to connect with local landowners and organizations to begin to build trust with them. Consider community centers, barber shops, public libraries, farmers markets, cultural festivals, or other places where people gather. Scheduling one day of canvassing a week (or some dedicated timeframe) by one agency representative across the service area will help maintain consistency.

• Attending any Community or Landowner-centric Meetings: Attend local meetings with residents and institutional leaders and collaborate with partners and community members to strengthen connections with your agency. When possible, attend or join other USDA-related staff members at taskforce or coalition meetings. Have a staff member table at landowner-focused meetings at community centers or churches, or at other community events such as food festivals (the World Grits Festival or Chitlin Strut in South Carolina are two examples).

TIP: Check the local news channels, Eventbrite, Facebook, and other social media platforms to learn about relevant community events in specific counties/regions. Finding events can allow you to set up an information table in a public space where you can answer questions and facilitate contact with trusted liaisons. Schedule time at local community centers to familiarize yourself with the resources that people need. 

• Networking: Every time you are out in the community is an opportunity to network. Be passionate and talk about your agency’s work. Be proud of the difference your work is making and can be made for the new communities and landowners. When you interact with others, exchange information and develop contacts. Always have your card and contact information. You never know who will be inspired to get more involved. There can be so much value rooted in a word-of-mouth exchange. 

TIP: Always have rack cards and business cards on you or in your vehicle.

• Social Platforms: Social media and networking platforms can work well as a compliment to face-to-face outreach, though not as a stand-alone substitute. After relationships have been built with direct, personal outreach and written materials (in their language), social can serve as a trust-amplifier to build on the existing personal connections. As an example, WhatsApp groups and Facebook have played a meaningful role in Spanish-speaking rural communities in Puerto Rico as a way to share information peer-to-peer.

No single trust-building activity will end in community members trusting you. Instead, try a combination of the ideas listed here. It’s important to be patient and resilient just as the community members have been for years with the agencies. 

Building Trust When Your Agency's Reputation is a Barrier

When previous experiences or perceptions of your agency have led to distrust, you must approach outreach with extra humility, patience, and transparency. The following practices help signal a shift toward community-centered service. They address past harm, show humility, and establish credibility:

1. Acknowledge, Don’t Avoid

• If a landowner expresses frustration or skepticism, acknowledge it respectfully while avoiding defensiveness.

• A big component of entering a new community that has been marginalized is to acknowledge it and explain why you are engaging now. 

• Sample responses:“I understand some folks have had difficult experiences. I’m here to listen, and I hope to earn your trust over time—not assume it.”

2. Lead with Listening

• Spend more time asking questions rather than sharing information.

• Confirm their expertise: “You’ve been on this land longer than anyone. What do you think would help the most?”

3. Be Transparent About Your Role

• Clarify that your role is to connect, support, and share—not to inspect, enforce, or demand anything.

• Be clear about your capabilities and avoid overpromising.

4. Show Up with Others They Trust

• If possible, visit with a respected community-based organization (e.g., local conservation nonprofit, bilingual extension agent, or faith-based leader). (LINK TO Organizations and Channels.)

• Check with the landowner beforehand to see if they would like someone they know to be there with them.

5. Offer Immediate, Useful Help

• Share valuable information immediately (e.g., details about a pest, a planting calendar, or a free map).

• Show that you’re a resource, not a recruiter.

6. Avoid Bureaucratic Language

• Avoid using acronyms or program codes unless requested. Opt for plain language instead.

• Say “we work with landowners” instead of “delivering technical assistance under EQIP and CSP.”

7. Be Human First

• Share a personal reason this work matters to you.

• Express gratitude often. Let landowners know:“We appreciate your time and knowledge. We know trust is earned slowly and we are committed to doing that.”

8. Follow Through, Every Time

• If you say you’re going to call, then follow through and call.

• If you promise a resource, then send it.

• Monitor each interaction to ensure continuity and accountability. Learn more.

• If you can’t provide what the landowner wants, let them know. Don’t leave them wondering or give them false hope.

Navigating Sensitive Subjects

• Prepare ahead of time

  • Know what might come up so you can be prepared. 

  • Is it election season? Is there a recent event in the news? Is this a common topic for the area? Is there past harm that feels raw to the community?

  • Ask veteran colleagues or community leaders for help identifying hot-button issues.

  • Remember that local, state, and federal governments are often lumped together, so any action viewed as “poor performance” by any government staffer or agency may be tacked on to you and your agency.

  • Plan concise statements or transitions. 

• For past harms or distrust, see above: Building Trust When Your Agency’s Reputation is a Barrier.

• For politicized topics, find a phrase you can use to defer and move on to a more relevant topic:

  • “I don’t like to get into that at work, but I see you have some oak seedlings coming in over here...”

  • “That’s above my pay grade, but I’d love to know what your goals are for your land...”

  • “I wish I knew, but would you tell me more about your experience?”

• It's ok to say I don’t know. Admitting ignorance on something is a sign of integrity, self-awareness and strength rather than weakness. It builds trust, fosters honest communication, and opens opportunities for learning.

If you would like to connect about this topic, please reach out to:

• Trinity Barnes, Climate Smart Forestry Program Specialist, Trinitydbarnes24@gmail.com

• Josh F. Walden, Esq., Chief of Programs and Policy, jwalden@heirsproperty.org

• Nolo Martínez, Executive Director, nolo.martinez@asekia.org