From Building a Diverse Wildfire Workforce to Supporting Resilient Working Landscapes in the West: Announcing Our Summer Grant Recipients
While grounding ourselves under the shade of Redwoods and debating the benefits of public land use, the Mighty Arrow Board of Directors approved several new grants, and one renewed multi-year commitment, to 13 organizations this summer. We are excited to bring new organizations into our growing group of #MightyPartners.
Our grant reviews were more focused on sustainable agriculture, public lands protection, and carbon reduction initiatives this time around. Last Spring we went heavy on funding voter access organizations, and this winter we will look closer into our criminal justice reform strategy.
We’ve realized that we can have the greatest impact by the relationships we build through this work. We continue to be inspired by the people along the way. Some of the organizations and collaboratives we selected for funding are brand new, and we couldn’t help but jump on board. Others have been around a while longer, and are seeking momentum for the body of wisdom they’ve built. All of them are people we believe in. We would love to introduce you to them too!
Social Justice
Cultural Enrichment Center of Fort Collins
The Cultural Enrichment Center is designed to address the cultural, academic, career and social needs of middle and high school African American students in Fort Collins. The enrichment center is crafted in an academic cultural framework for the purpose of connecting participants with history, literature, arts, music, dance, traditions and folklore of the African American experience. Their goal is to provide a curriculum that advances a student’s readiness to explore and engage in core educational concepts through the lens of an African American.
We also love their Resources page with lots of suggestions on books, podcasts, documentaries and more to raise awareness and encourage reflection on the issues in front of Black Americans.
Climate
Project Drawdown’s mission is to help the world reach “drawdown” — the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline, thereby stopping catastrophic climate change — as quickly, safely and equitably as possible. Project Drawdown believes widespread awareness and understanding of climate solutions is vital to kindle agency and effect change worldwide. Mighty Arrow’s Board has used the solutions framework developed by Project Drawdown to shape our own climate funding strategy.
GreenWave is a global network of regenerative ocean farmers. Their team replicates and scales regenerative ocean farms to create jobs and protect the planet by training and supporting ocean farmers in the era of climate change. Working directly with coastal communities around the world, GreenWave aims to create a blue economy — built and led by farmers.
Wildfires are inevitable — how we respond is up to us. The Ember Alliance helps communities prepare for wildfires, from preplanning to response, and the sometimes long recovery period that comes after them. The Alliance is committed to training a workforce across the country to address this challenge, and adds, “For too long, these valuable blue collar jobs have not reflected the diversity of America, and we work to solve this.”
Food Systems
Drylands Agroecology Research’s vision is to transform dry, abandoned and marginalized landscapes into lush ecosystems where humans, animals and spirit can thrive. So far, their team has conserved 75,000 gallons of water, sequestered 20,000 tons of carbon and planted 15,000 trees. Because we’re better together, DAR partners with land stewards and organizations to build regenerative land and human systems.
Funders for Regenerative Agriculture (FORA)
Recognizing the urgency of addressing global climate change and systems collapse, Funders for Regenerative Agriculture is a network of funders working together to organize and implement programs that accelerate the emergence of regenerative agriculture, healthy soil and working lands systems that support people and the planet. Mighty Arrow is a member of this group and is also exploring contributions to their collaborative funding pools that work to build momentum on regenerative ag policy, and communications.
Every farmer has a different set of opportunities and challenges. Mad Agriculture meets farmers where they’re at in their journey as they transition to regenerative agriculture models. Their four branches ensure that farmer partners have the financial (Mad Capital), strategic (Mad Lands), connective (Mad Markets) and communal (Mad Revolution) support they need to thrive. Mad Agriculture has been a previous partner to our foundation. Our board recently committed to a second 3-year funding cycle.
The Quivira Coalition builds soil, biodiversity and resilience on Western working landscapes. The Coalition fosters ecological, economic and social health through education, innovation and collaboration. At the foundation of their work is the concept that well-managed working rangelands and forests are two of the most effective, efficient and immediately viable paths to remedy the devastating impacts of climate change. Quivira is inspiring a group of young farmers who will carry sustainable land management practices into our future food systems.
Land & Water Stewardship
The Colorado Wildlands Project works to protect wild public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. They are dedicated to the conservation, climate resilience and equitable management of our public lands by rallying support around wildland protection in Western Colorado and collaborating with partners across the Colorado Plateau. Mighty Arrow is specifically engaged in their work on the Dolores River in Western Colorado.
Green Groups Graze (via https://tomkatranch.org/)
Green Groups Graze’s (GGG) mission is to provide healthy food on working lands in a way that regenerates the planet and inspires others to action. GGG’s work includes educating members about each other’s programs, identifying areas of mutual interest, focusing on ways to shift federal grazing policy and supporting outcomes-based grazing and adaptive grazing, and connecting the leadership of these white-led organizations with Indigenous grazing leaders to begin to discuss areas of collaborative action.
NoCo Places 2050 is a collaborative of eight county, state, and federal public land agencies from north-central Colorado working on systemic change in the way public lands are managed so we can be more effective in addressing the challenges the mountain and foothill regions are facing due to increased demand for outdoor recreation.
For more than 40 years, the Tuolumne River Trusts has continued a decades-long legacy of restoring and protecting the irreplaceable Tuolumne Watershed, which spans from the Sierra Nevada Mountains through the Central Valley to the San Francisco Bay. The Trust wants every person who benefits from the Tuolumne to know that their food was grown from its water, their tap water comes from it, their wild salmon were hatched in its gravels and their backpacking, fishing and rafting trip depends on its health.
The Wilderness Workshop is the conservation watchdog of nearly 4 million acres of public lands in Western Colorado. Using science, the law and grassroots activism, WW works to keep the White River National Forest and nearby Bureau of Land Management lands more or less “as is” and, where possible, to restore wildness to this nationally important landscape. WW is the only nonprofit organization that’s devoted to protecting these particular public lands on a full-time basis. Mighty Arrow’s support is specifically focused on the collaboration being built to obtain Wild & Scenic River designation for the Crystal River in Colorado.