Meet Our Spring 2026 Mighty Partners: Empowering Landscapes, Reclaiming Narratives and Investing in the Future
We are proud to announce our latest cohort of grantees—a group of visionary organizations working at the intersection of environmental resilience and social equity. From reclaiming Indigenous fire stewardship and narrative sovereignty to building community-led climate infrastructure and dismantling barriers to the outdoors, these partners are addressing the root causes of our most pressing ecological and social crises. Together, they represent a movement that moves beyond traditional conservation, ensuring that those with the deepest ties to the land are the ones leading the way toward its future.
Some may be small, some large. All are Mighty Partners. Learn more below—and if their work inspires you as it does us, please help amplify their stories within your own communities.
Access Granted Group is a time-bound think tank building the infrastructure and agenda for a conservation movement that starts with frontline communities and grows durable power through political transitions. Many frontline communities, Indigenous leaders, and non-traditional conservation stakeholders have been consistently excluded from agenda-setting until it's too late for their input to be meaningful. In an effort to build collective and community-led power, Access Granted Group aims to break this cycle before the 2029 political transition window opens.
All Hands Ecology - Fire Forward Program
Decades of suppressed fire management has left overgrown fuels, degraded habitat, elevated wildfire risk, and a severe shortage of skilled prescribed fire practitioners. All Hands Ecology’s Fire Forward program shows how ‘good fire’ builds natural resilience against climate-change driven wildfires by returning fire knowledge and decision-making into the hands of communities that have been historically excluded, particularly as climate pressures make the need more urgent.
Youth today face a compounding crisis: a surge in mental health struggles and digital overload, occurring just as essential developmental supports—nature, mentorship, and peer belonging—are becoming scarce and inequitably distributed. The "nature gap" means that youth who would benefit most from wilderness experiences face the steepest barriers to accessing them: cost, lack of gear, transportation, and the absence of trusted entry points into outdoor culture. Back to Earth addresses these challenges, reconnecting young people to the outdoors while dismantling the structural barriers that restrict access. This partner came out of a Transformational Capacity Grant, launched alongside our Mighty Partner Project last year, which attempts to break down traditional barriers to foundation funding by creating a Mighty Partner-referral application for emerging organizations
Real change requires owning the story, not just being a part of it. Natives Outdoors is a Native-owned creative collective and consultancy that empowers Indigenous communities by reclaiming their narratives in the outdoor and conservation industries. Originally founded as a social media project to address the lack of representation, it has evolved into a powerhouse for storytelling, filmmaking, and product design. By partnering with tribal governments and major brands, the organization works to dismantle structural barriers to access, promote indigenous-led conservation, and ensure that those with the deepest ancestral ties to the land are the ones leading the conversation about its future.
The North Coast Soil Hub is part of a regional network of seven Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) and agricultural partners dedicated to advancing regenerative agriculture and carbon farming across California's North Coast. By providing farmers and ranchers with technical assistance, science-based education, and a shared soil health database, the Hub helps producers implement climate-friendly practices—such as cover cropping, compost application, and reduced tillage—that improves land resilience and sequesters carbon. Soil Hubs are Resource Conservation Districts that are self-organizing across the state of California to more effectively use scarce resources to reach a broader sector of the agricultural community with technical support.
Born from a series of community listening sessions, the Poudre River Fund is a community-driven financial mechanism designed to protect and enhance the Poudre River Watershed. By mobilizing local capital, the Fund provides long-term stability and sustainable funding for watershed health, bridging the gaps left by fluctuating state and federal resources.
Partner Renewals
After blowing away the goals of the 1000 Farm Initiative, because they are now approaching 2,000 farms sampled in just three years, the Ecdysis Foundation is adding Project Avalanche to their work objectives to escalate the scale of science collected on working regenerative farms across the US. And something magical is happening in their connections with farmers. Regenerative Agriculture is now a social movement!
We loved getting to know the Grasstops Collective individuals last year and look forward to meeting the new cohort this year. Building a skill set around advocacy will be critical for the work we have ahead to rebuild our environmental policies and programs. Outdoor Alliance is a critical partners as we build back that movement.
Under a new name and bigger vision! Formerly known as the Tuolumne River Trust, this organization has adopted two more river basins to add to their already impactful work. At a point in history where so many initiatives are forced into restriction, the Yosemite Rivers Alliance said we’re ready for more! Mighty Arrow is excited to standby this expansion and the impact greater alignment will bring to the watersheds flowing down from the Sierras and into the greater Bay-Delta region of Northern Callfornia.