ABSTRACT
Effectively managing, building, and cultivating relationships with internal and external publics is central to the practice of public relations. In an effort to embed stewardship as a part of the ethos of the field, scholars indicate that stewardship should be incorporated into traditional public relations models. As an example of stewardship in practice, many nonprofit organizations recognize both donors and volunteers with special invitation-only annual banquets or celebrations. Stewardship has also proven to play a critical role in relationship building within sports communication. While stewardship has been empirically investigated in the areas of nonprofit, corporate, and sports communication, its application in other areas of communication is evident. Stewardship could play a role in each of these instances, both in the context of building relationships with stakeholders of environmental organizations and in the context of developing strategies for environmental communication itself.
