Our Work
Keep It Colorado supports coalition members in their work to advance conservation and stewardship and protect Colorado for the future - meeting our vision for a Colorado where people, lands, waters and wildlife thrive.
Our five core focus areas are Emerging Issues & Opportunities Forum, Policy Advocacy, Health & Sustainability Solutions, Member Connection & Coalition-building, and Advancing a Culture of Conservation.
Emerging Issues & Opportunities Forum
We provide a forum for exploring and examining emerging issues and opportunities, including trends, tools and creative approaches that advance the pace of conservation and encourage innovation in conservation. The rest of our programs and services are products of, and informed by, this work.
What does this mean for Colorado? Land trusts are exploring new business models and creative approaches to conservation so they can protect more land. By tapping into the tools and expertise of a broad network of other conservation-minded groups, they can further build on their successes and help drive a new conservation movement in Colorado.
Service highlights
Serve as an incubator and cultivator of ideas, approaches and solutions.
Identify and respond to the voiced and evolving needs of members.
Prioritize and facilitate the pursuit of emerging issues and opportunities identified by the conservation community. Examples include identified needs for a strategic, coordinated, statewide conservation roadmap; forward-thinking policy that enables conservation; transaction cost assistance; alternative incentives for landowners; remote monitoring technologies; educational and engagement tools and tools and resources; and resources to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the conservation sector.
The Conserving Colorado Roadmap was developed in response to the community’s need for a coordinated, strategic plan for the future of private land conservation.
Policy Advocacy
We advocate for sound public policy that supports and advances more on-the-ground conservation based on members’ collective input and priorities.
What does this mean for Colorado? Sound public policy is a down payment on Colorado’s future. Forward-thinking conservation policy protects the investment our communities have already made in conservation, enables landowners to conserve more land, and permanently protects the natural outdoor spaces and places Coloradans love.
Service highlights
Identify and drive or support local, state and federal policy initiatives.
Educate and engage existing and new legislators.
Support other related policy measures that impact conservation and reflect the coalition’s values.
Create advocacy and outreach tools and resources for members.
Hold an annual Policy Summit to collect input about priorities for the upcoming legislative session.
Publish Policy Briefings and host community policy calls to keep members informed and engaged.
Members convene at the annual Policy Summit to discuss and collect input about policy priorities.
Keep It Colorado meets with legislators, land trust partners and property owners to illustrate the benefits of conservation.
Health & Sustainability Solutions
We pursue and develop funding and programmatic solutions that strengthen the coalition’s ability and the greater conservation sector’s ability to continue this work now and into the future.
What does this mean for Colorado? When conservation organizations have more tools in their toolbox to conserve land - and do it more efficiently and sustainably - more open space, more wildlife and more habitat get protected. The more Keep It Colorado is able to fund and support their conservation initiatives, the greater the success of these programs to conserve Colorado’s landscapes into the future.
Service highlights
Identify and develop funding opportunities for the Keep It Colorado organization and for coalition members, such as our transaction cost assistance grant program.
Protect existing and advance new critical conservation resources and tools, such as the conservation easement and state tax incentives.
Coordinate with partners to develop and expand opportunities to support conservation, such as a partnership with Land Trust Alliance to offer trainings and grants to advance organizational health through capacity building and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Offer a leadership cohort to create a conservation sector that is more diverse, equitable and inclusive and support community-centered conservation efforts.
Property conserved with help from a grant to Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust.
DEIJ leadership cohort members collaborate to examine the organizational ecocycle.
member connection & Coalition-building
We create opportunities for members to come together to move the community forward in unison and reach common conservation goals.
What does this mean for Colorado? Our members represent all regions of Colorado and have hundreds of years of collective experience conserving private and public lands. By working together – sharing, learning and continuing to grow – they can protect more land and pass the benefits of conservation onto the local communities that make up the total fabric of our state.
Service highlights
Convene members for collaboration, connection and learning.
Provide “hot topic” or mission-aligned training and resources in response to member requests and emerging opportunities.
Drive and facilitate conversations to create strategy, problem-solve and explore new ideas.
Host an annual Spring Summit to create learning, connection and networking through workshops, educational sessions and social opportunities.
Host “Circle Calls” for peer learning around stewardship, conservation, communications, development, operations and leadership.
Offer opportunities to showcase members’ conservation successes and innovative approaches.
Keep It Colorado gives members a platform for sharing their conservation strategies and successes with each other.
Members gather at the annual Spring Summit.
advancing a culture of conservation
We connect more people in Colorado to conservation – past, present and future – through outreach, education and engagement, and collaborations and partnership-building.
What does this mean for Colorado? Conservation touches everyone. Yet people define conservation in different ways, and don’t always see “who” is making conservation happen. When Coloradans see and feel what conservation looks like in their lives and communities, they will likely feel a deeper connection with Colorado’s special landscapes and get behind efforts to protect those landscapes forever.
Service highlights
Elevate members’ on-the-ground conservation work across a variety of communications channels.
Share stories about the public benefits of conservation.
Encourage engagement in conservation work.
Engage partners and the broader conservation community in the coalition’s work.
Serve as a central hub of shared educational resources including toolkits, research reports and public opinion polls.
We speak at industry meetings to illustrate the myriad public benefits of private lands conservation.
We create awareness about how conservation happens, and our members’ role in that. Photo: Caveman Collective
