Meet Our Summer 2026 Mighty Partners: Championing Collective Action for Climate, Clean Water and Public Lands
We are thrilled to introduce our latest cohort of grantees. From holding oil and gas operators accountable in Colorado to closing clean water access gaps in Native communities and uniting coalitions across river basins and iconic landscapes, our Mighty Partners are working on the frontlines of environmental justice, clean energy development and public land protection. 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.
Colorado Rising for Communities is powering a grassroots movement to protect the health, safety, quality of life and future of our climate from the impacts of oil and gas operations in Colorado. Weld County has over 36,000 oil and gas wells, and as they age and production declines, operators have little incentive to maintain or plug them — leading to leaks and emissions of methane, benzene and other pollutants. Colorado Rising's data shows 90% of Weld County schools have at least one well within a mile. Regulatory gaps mean these "marginal" wells can sit idle indefinitely unless operators or regulators are pushed to act in plugging these wells. Colorado Rising works to create the necessary grassroots pressure to secure action from operators, and more broadly elevate this issue to state decision makers.
350 Colorado: Safe & Healthy Colorado Campaign
350 Colorado is a grassroots movement working to build a fossil-free future powered by 100% renewable energy, empowering communities across Colorado to fight for environmental justice. Colorado ranks fourth nationally in oil production, with over 45,000 active wells and significant new drilling planned in Front Range population centers — disproportionately sited in low-income communities and communities of color. Oil and gas fracking is the state's top source of climate pollution and ground-level ozone, with proximity to wells is associated with elevated rates of congenital heart defects, childhood blood cancers and respiratory illness. Despite recent legislative and regulatory reforms, no statewide mechanism exists to phase out new permits. 350 Colorado operates as a coalition hub, working with local organizations to build community action on the climate crisis.
Greenlight America is a mobilization hub supporting local and state-based groups across the country working to get clean energy projects built in their communities. Most U.S. clean energy projects are blocked or delayed not by federal policy but by local permitting fights, where a handful of vocal opponents show up to hearings and supporters don't — causing projects to "lose by forfeit." Last year's reconciliation bill phases out tax credits for utility-scale wind and solar projects, giving developers a two-to-three-year window to secure permits and stay eligible, which raises the stakes on each local decision. Greenlight identifies these critical local moments and mobilizes existing-but-silent local supporters to show up and advocate for a clean energy future.
Eddyline Strategies
Eddyline Strategies is working to develop a strategy around coalition building in the Rio Grande Basin. The Rio Grande / Rio Bravo Basin — 1,885 miles, serving over 6 million people across three U.S. states, four Mexican states, 18 Rio Grande Pueblos and Apache and Navajo communities — is severely overallocated and in crisis. As of this summer, more than 85 miles of the Middle Rio Grande ran dry, including 11 miles through Albuquerque, New Mexico. Despite conditions being arguably more tenuous than the Colorado River because of less storage and smaller snowpack, the Rio Grande has received a fraction of the federal attention and funding. Eddyline Strategies aims to explore the core structural problem that the Rio Grande has no basin-wide coalition of conservation organizations working in coordination — and build an action plan to solve that.
Universal Access to Clean Water
The mission of Universal Access to Clean Water is in its name: Achieve universal access to clean, safe drinking water for all Native communities in the United States. Nearly half of Native American households lack reliable access to clean drinking water or basic sanitation — on the Navajo Nation, over 30% of households lack running water entirely, with average daily household water use a small fraction of the U.S. average. Federal investment (the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided over $13 billion for Tribal communities) created real momentum, but funding has been fragmented, time-bound and light on support for long-term operations — with recent federal funding pauses threatening to unwind this progress just as implementation is underway. Universal Access aims to call the federal government to action under its federal treaty and trust responsibilities to provide clean water access for Tribes, advocate for the necessary resources and promote a “whole of government” approach to achieving universal access.
The Conservation Alliance harnesses the collective power of business and outdoor communities to fund and advocate for the protection of North America's wild places. Since 2024, protections for over 86 million acres of public lands and waters have been threatened. Despite strong public support (over 80% of Western voters cite conservation and public lands as critical voting issues), public lands face ongoing threats including sell-offs to states, giveaways to extraction companies and decision-making processes that bypass public input. The Conservation Alliance is working together with a broad, bipartisan coalition of partners to mobilize communities around this near-term opportunity to protect public lands and waters.
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) is the country’s largest coalition of hunting, fishing, and conservation groups, outdoor businesses, and individuals working to advance proactive conservation solutions through policy. In the Rio Grande Basin, TRCP aims to support fish and wildlife habitat and greater watershed health through supporting the implementation of conservation and restoration projects and initiatives. The Rio Grande Program has evolved from informal coordination into a structured coalition, with TRCP working alongside partners to help local tribes, downstream communities and watershed groups secure federal funds for water resilience, habitat restoration and sustainable river flows.
For 34 years, Earthworks has advocated to protect communities and the environment from the harmful impacts of oil, gas and hardrock mining. They aim to dismantle systems of injustice and oppression on the way toward a clean energy, responsibly resourced, more equitable future. We work alongside frontline communities to end oil and gas expansion, protect climate and health from oil and gas pollution, and ensure that the renewable energy transition doesn’t shift burdens upon mining-impacted communities. In Colorado, Earthworks' Optical Gas Imaging (OGI) evidence and community advocacy contributed to Colorado regulators revoking operating licenses (most notably Prospect Energy in Larimer County), staying a 30+ well megapad application near Aurora neighborhoods, and strengthening Air Quality Control Commission rules on methane and air toxics.
National Young Farmers Coalition
The National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC) is a farmer-led, grassroots network shifting power and changing policy to equitably resource the new generation of working farmers. They are the largest unified voice calling for farm policy that will deliver a bright future for young farmers and ranchers in the U.S. NYFC occupies a distinctive niche: rather than advocating on behalf of farmers from the outside, they build the infrastructure for farmers to advocate for themselves — through fellowships, chapter networks and direct placement into governance roles. They explicitly play the long-game: build farmer power and refine policy proposals now so the movement is positioned to act when opportunity presents.
Kitchen Table Advisors works with under-resourced farmers and ranchers to fuel their long-term success and transform the food system. Working with farmers and ranchers across Central and Northern California who are leaders for social and environmental change and whose values are deeply ingrained throughout their daily lives and their businesses, KTA cultivates trusted relationships, provides practical business advising and builds opportunities for equitable access to land, capital and markets. The KTA community envisions a world where sustainable farmers and ranchers are thriving and valued as important leaders within vibrant, community-based food systems rooted in the equitable distribution of power and resources.