Working to Preserve Open Space and Rural Land; and Create a Network of Trails, Bikeways and Greenways in the Pikes Peak Region
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Starting a trails and/or open space coalitionReturn to the Advocacy index of topics This paper is broken into three parts: an executive summary, a longer, more detailed version and specific steps you can use as a roadmap to get started.. We have found it works for us and hopefully will help you as you increase your efforts on behalf of trails or open space. Executive Summary The Trails and Open Space Coalition is a nonprofit organization working to create a network of trails, greenways and open space in the Pikes Peak region. Organized in 1987, we became a nonprofit in 1991. We have built a well-respected and strong organization with over a 1000 members and helped bring millions dollars for trails and open space into the region. We are the "umbrella organization" for community organizations, businesses, agencies, individuals and families who all share a common vision. We have created the political climate in which decisions to allocate public funds for trails and open space are now supported by both the public and government officials. Creating a new organization to support trails or open space in your area can be a critical key to actually getting trails built or open space preserved. The new organization can provide advocacy to support your trails or open space master plans or help your community create a new trails and open space master plan. To create a trails and/or open space coalition, you need a broad-based coalition of community, business, organizations and agency support. Your coalition enables you to support government plans through a variety of means. As an organization, you will need a board of directors who represent your membership. You have to know what you want before you can decide how you will achieve your goals. The development of a vision, mission, goals and objectives can help you put the pieces together to develop and promote your organization. The Trails and Open Space Coalition's vision is to preserve open space (includes ranchland preservation) and create a network of trails, bikeways and greenways in the region. We do this through advocacy, education, project funding and involvement programs. Once you have your vision and mission, you have to act upon it by first educating yourself in the myriad of trail related issues in your community. You have to know about your master plan, who the players are how your local government works and many other things. You will need to learn how to promote and market yourself as an effective force. You have to be able to promote the benefit of trails and/or open space and why trails need to be built or open space preserved. To do this, you will have to establish good relations with your local governmental agencies. You will also have to learn how to raise funds and whether to operate as an all-volunteer organization or to hire a staff. There are many advantages to becoming a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Finally, you will learn the benefits of creating a trails or open space champion program to provide much needed assistance and advocacy for your trails and/or open space program. The Trails and Open Space Coalition has succeeded in creating a respected trails and open space advocacy organization, raising funds, and attracting members. We have done so by building a broad-based membership, sticking to our mission, publicizing trails events and ideas, hiring a staff and recruiting and training advocates for specific projects. From the feedback we have received, our model of building a coalition for trails and open space advocacy seems appropriate for other areas. Call 1-(719) 633-6884 if you have any questions or e-mail us at info@trailsandopenspaces.org. CREATING A TRAILS and OPEN SPACE COALITION 1. Background/History/Overview The Trails and Open Space Coalition is a nonprofit organization working to create a network of trails, greenways and open space in the Pikes Peak region. Organized in 1987, we became a nonprofit in 1991. We have built a well-respected and strong organization with over 1000 members and helped bring millions dollars for trails and open space into the region. We are the "umbrella organization" for community organizations, businesses, agencies, individuals and families who all share a common vision. We have created the political climate in which decisions to allocate public funds for trails and open space are now supported by both the public and government officials. We've come from an all volunteer organization in 1987 with no budget to having a staff of three people with a full-time executive director and assistant director and a halftime office coordinator. Our budget in 2005 was over two hundred thousand dollars. Our sphere of influence is the entire Pikes Peak region and consists of two counties, El Paso and Teller, the City of Colorado Springs and other smaller cities and towns in the area. We work with approximately a dozen master plans for the region as well as numerous individual park master plans. The City of Colorado Springs has a planned network of 215 miles of trails. We attend dozens of planning meetings annually. Besides being the Executive Director of the Trails and Open Space Coalition, the Executive Director has chaired the El Paso County Parks Advisory Board, is a past chair of the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments Transportation Enhancements Sub-Committee, the immediate past chair of the Colorado Springs Citizens Transportation Advisory Board, and is a member of the City of Colorado Springs Trails and Open Space Technical Teams, the Teller County Trails Committee and the Ute Pass Corridor Trails Committee. We have formed dozens of specialized groups to spearhead preservation of specific pieces of open space or to champion a trail. In 1997, we were instrumental in the passage of a sales tax for trails, open space and parks. Since then, we've added open space preservation and on-street bicycling to our mission. Recently, we assisted in the preservation of 787 acres in the foothills of Colorado Springs. 2. Getting Started - two scenarios. The most useful and important action taken for trails in our area was writing a master plan for trails and having the City Council adopt it. A citizen's advisory committee and the City Parks Departments, helped by consultants, prepared a Trails Master Plan for Colorado Springs in 1986. The City Council was persuaded to adopt it by ordinance. That approval lends credibility to the plan and continues to draw support from council members, business leaders, and community organizations. The City has since approved a more comprehensive Trails, Open Space and Parks Master Plan. El Paso County and Teller County have their own plans covering all three areas and many other regional communities also have plans. The geographic areas covered by these plans is comprehensive. The recommended trail corridors extend through the entire metropolitan area and nearby counties. Some open space areas also overlap. The plans include the following information: - Market research and demographics--current and anticipated levels of use, - The goals for and philosophy of a multi-use trails network and candidate open space areas, - Identified trail corridors and desired open space parcels l Standards for trails construction, - Budget and phasing considerations A master plan gets you a step ahead. It provides a nucleus of interested and educated people who may be able to become a part of your organization or provide ideas and suggestions. It provides credibility to your efforts and gives you a roadmap to work towards. One of our major objectives is to assist local entities in the implementation of their master plans. Without a plan, it is harder to know which direction to go. A master plan normally has been blessed by the governing fathers; i.e., city council or county commissioners. Without a plan, you have to search for credibility and look for blessing of your projects. This is not to say you won't have or support worthwhile projects outside of any formal plans. We've done projects on other trails and open space and been quite successful because they were projects recognized as important to people. 3. Get Organized. Form a broad-based coalition. Representatives from 17 community organizations in Colorado Springs issued a resolution supporting the creation of a trails coalition in 1987. We asked a wide variety of organizations to sign the resolution. We wanted to build a coalition that was as broad- based as possible. That helped us draw support from more people throughout the community, which meant we could build a larger membership--a larger constituency for trails. Our large constituency impresses elected officials, agency representatives, and foundations, which means more money for trails and now for open space. The list of the groups who signed our resolution included: developers, user groups, economic development organizations, environmental organizations, land trust, neighborhood associations. Since then, many other types of groups have joined our organization. All of the major trail user groups in our region belong to our organization. In forming a trails or open space coalition, you should work first and hardest to pull in certain "core" groups: - Large or influential trail user groups or open space advocates, - Business organizations, chambers of commerce, and economic development councils, - Local governments, - Tourism bureaus, - Influential community groups, and - Individual citizens and families. The business community is vitally important to your cause because business people influence others and are often leaders in local government. Local government agencies are also important to you. Even if they don't join your coalition, get them on your side and get them on your mailing list. One reason our Trails and Open Space Coalition has been successful at attracting and keeping such a wide variety of individual members and member organizations is that we have focused on our mission, and we always present a professional image. Members can be confident that they won't be embarrassed or angry about our actions later on. More members provide more support and greater influence. It then becomes self-generating and continues to grow. When we added open space preservation to our mission, we worked with our local land trust organization, the parks departments, and other open space advocates who shared our vision. Build a Board of Directors. Just like your membership, your board of directors should represent a diverse cross section of the community. Our board does not have appointed positions from any particular areas, but does have representatives from the business, high tech and development communities as well as different user groups. In order to build a good board, start out with a half-dozen people who represent your most important core groups and/or hard-working, influential in the community and assertive. The function of the board is to develop policy, provide guidance to the staff, lead projects, help raise funds, and serve as the organization's ambassadors in the community. Ours is a working board to increase our resources, so we want people with energy to lead projects. State law requires us to have a minimum of a president, secretary and treasurer. Our board varies each year but is generally between 15 and 20 members. This gives us a ready source of volunteers for special events and projects. Without a staff, a strong, working board is essential. Membership is important to your organization. Members become ambassadors and advocates to the community and provide a ready source of volunteers for a wide variety of activities: office work, phone calls, bulk mailings, trail work. The list is endless. We, like many other nonprofits, have evolved to being a non-member organization however. This is more of a technical and administrative point in our bylaws which allows the board to make decisions on its officers and members without having to take it to a vote of over 1000 'members'. Getting a quorum of your membership for a vote when you have a lot of members can be challenging at times which we found out. Our bylaws now say "This organiztion shall have no members." However, we have donors (over 1000) which we think of as members and who are treated that way. As I say, it really is a technical thing to consider. It's easier and cheaper to keep your current membership or donor base than it is to constantly attract new ones. We have incentives such as an attractive two-color newsletter, other mailings, invitations to hikes and others. We mail out several renewal notices to try to entice our members to stay. We maintain a data base of about 5000 names with software to track a great deal of information about members and other people and software to track our finances. We quickly learned we could not deal with just notes on people or ledger books for our finances. 4. Determine What You Want When you are developing your new trails and/or open space organization, it is important to decide what you want to do. Do you just want to preserve open space? Do you want to be a "friends" group? Do you want to just build single track trails, build urban trails, be an advocacy organization, raise funds for trails, provide education or what? Do you want to do all of those? We are primarily an advocacy organization. Most of our time goes to trying to influence decision makers on the need for trails and open space and then helping them prioritize and implement their efforts. We then help with fundraising and education. We don't do much hands on trail building, although our board likes to do one project a year to get their hands dirty. We like to say we build trails through the political process. Our resources are limited and yours will be too. Starting off too big can lead to problems or possibly failure which leads to loss of credibility and influence. Do you want to support just non-motorized or motorized trails as well? How restrictive will you be in your efforts? We support the development of non-motorized trails in our area. That's what almost all of our local governments' master plans support. However, we have worked with motorized groups and publicized their trail workdays. We've been involved in the development of plans which include motorized access. You have to be flexible! We have also expanded significantly into road and highway issues. We've found that in our area, virtually all major highway and road projects have a pedestrian/trail/bicycle impace. With our mission, we want to ensure access on or across these projects. With that in mind, we've gotten heavily involved in highway and road plans. We attend public meetings, participate in the planning process and let out througts be known. We now have highway consultants come to us to pick our brain on their projects to ensure they don't impact a trail, etc. As the first chair of the Colorado Springs Citizens Transportation Advisory Board, I was successful in getting $5,000,000 for the Pikes Peak Greenway, our major spine trail in Colorado Springs, to be a part of our 2004 successful Rural Transportation Authority ballot initiative as well as a number of bicycle improvements. Access to or across roads are in important part of the trail process so don't limit yourself in what you may need to be involved with. You also need to develop your sphere of influence. Are you interested in one trail or parcel of open space only, multiple trails, a city or county-wide approach? We started off as a result of the Colorado Springs master plan supporting their efforts and have eventually grown to our current two-county area. We have ventured out of our area numerous times as a consultant to help other communities form their own coalition. 5. Vision, Mission and Strategies Once you determine what you want to do, it is important to choose a vision, mission, goals and objectives. (You might choose to only have a mission statement rather than both a vision and a mission.) Choosing a vision, mission statement and basic strategies are among the most important decisions you'll make. Your vision or mission can become your "calling card" on every thing you do: business cards, letterheads, etc. They become your basic operating philosophy, and when there are disagreements, you can go back to them and say "this is who we are." Our board originally adopted this mission statement: "The Pikes Peak Area Trails Coalition promotes the development, maintenance, and appropriate use of non-motorized, multipurpose trail systems within the Pikes Peak area for the enjoyment and transportation of residents and visitors. " The board also adopted these strategies to support the mission statement: - Support the city trails master plan, - Educate the public, government, and business community regarding the economic benefits of trails, - Educate trail users on trails etiquette, - Serve as a vocal, visible trails advocate to local, state, and federal agencies for increased public funding and more effective trails policies, - Raise funds from foundations and donations for building trails, - Coordinate and support volunteer projects, - Support off-street trails and on-street bike lanes as transportation routes. Since then, we have created a mission statement which everyone can remember and greatly expanded our mission, goals and objectives. CURRENT MISSION STATEMENT "Preserve open space and create a network of trails, bikeways and greenways in the Pikes Peak region." GOALS ADVOCATE Create the political climate in which local decisions to fund open space and trails are approved and supported. Assist local governments in the implementation of their trails, parks and open space master plans. Build, encourage and coordinate grass-roots support for open space and trails. Develop public/private partnerships to benefit trails and open space. Influence and coordinate with government agencies, community organizations and businesses. Promote intermodal use of trails. EDUCATE Educate the public, government, and businesses about the recreation, transportation, environmental, wildlife and riparian protection, cultural and heritage, economic benefits, tourism opportunities, health and physical fitness and education opportunities of trails and open space. Educate the public about the appropriate and safe use of trails and open space. Provide youth education opportunities. Provide information about trail and open space opportunities in the Pikes Peak region. Conduct events featuring local trails and open space. RAISE FUNDS/PROJECT FUNDING Raise funds to continue advocacy, education and volunteer efforts. Raise public and private funds for trails and open space. Support local jurisdictions in their requests for funds. VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS Volunteer Encourage, coordinate and support trails and open space volunteerism. Promote and support local groups in their volunteer efforts and projects. Community Participation Encourage, coordinate and support individuals, organizations and businesses to participate in trails and open space activities and the public process. Provide notification to the community on events, activities, public meetings. Membership Encourage membership in the Trails and Open Space Coalition as a way of building additional community support, advocacy, education, fundraising and involvement opportunities. Encourage membership in local organizations which promote specific trails or open space. 6. Act Before you can act or do something, you have to be informed. You must educate yourself about a variety of subjects. You have to learn what plans your local government entities have. They may have comprehensive plans, trail master plans, park plans and many more. There may be bicycle ordinances, park ordinances and more. There may be city or county planning procedures that people have to follow. Developers may have to donate land as part of the development process. To be effective, you have to know how local government works and who the players are. What committees are there and which ones can you or members of your organization become part of or at least attend and be a force at their meetings. You must know who the people are in every level of government, business and other organizations that you should establish a relationship with. Since we deal with multiple jurisdictions, our relationships are complicated, but we often find we are the only ones providing coordination between jurisdictions. You have to be smart on trail construction and maintenance, on wildlife and habitat, the Endangered Species Act, TEA-21 and other funding mechanisms, the public process and many, many other activities. It's a constant process of educating yourself and others. You may be the only who attends a meeting that some public official should know about some piece of information. You may go to a trails related conference a city trails official can't go to. You can send them pertinent information on a variety of subjects. Attend public meetings. You can learn the process and who else participates. Make an input and make yourself part of the process. Get connected to the people who run the meetings. Be an insider, not someone perceived as a "pain in the neck" in the audience. Once you develop partnerships, you help build trails. You can organize and sponsor trails or open space cleanup projects or construction projects. You can coordinate volunteers for other organizations. The Trails and Open Space Coalition is the regional coordinator for all trail projects for Colorado Lottery Trails Month (our version of National Trails Day) and assists in finding volunteers and publicizing everyone's events. Conduct hikes on existing or planned trails or open space parcels. This can show people the progress being made or new routes for them to run or hike on. We host hikes on a monthly basis on a variety of trails: mountain trails, park trails, open space urban trails throughout the Pikes Peak region. When we have people sign their liability waiver, we get their address and then we put them in our data base to send membership information to them. Hikes can get you new members! Host seminars. We've hosted trail building workshops, bike commuting workshops, open space preservation workshops, trail etiquette and many others. We've co-sponsored a number of regional conference on open space or ranchland protection attended by developers, estate planners, ranchers, farmers, parks and many others. You can do the same thing for trails. Help your community implement its master plans. The Trails and Open Space Coalition has been working this so long that the parks departments come to us to help coordinate grant support, to prioritize the trails and to develop public support for projects. We even brief other citizen's groups on trails funding requirements and priorities. Our state trails coordinator tells groups they have to get support for their grant requests like we do. Get involved in citizens' committees. I've been on a number of citizen boards and committees and am asked to participate on many ad hoc committees the city or the counties may put together to develop a new plan or a new ordinance, to review bridge plans for a trail input, development plans and others. Our assistant director also sits on a variety of committees. Members of my board also participate on a variety of committees. 7. Publicize your efforts For you to be successful and to attract attention to your efforts, you have to learn to market yourself. You have to let people, agencies, businesses, and organizations know who you are and what you are trying to do. You need to learn to work with the media, how to drop a hint at the right time to reporters, write press releases and PSAs. Write articles for local newspapers and newsletters. Publish brochures about your organization as well as information pieces. Everything should have membership application information on it. We have brochures on our organization which include our mission and accomplishments, brochures on bicycle rules of the road, trail etiquette, hiking Pikes Peak, and the benefits of trails and open space. We've published a trail guide for the 100 most popular trails in the area. Our newsletter, which is published quarterly, is a two-color publication on colored stock with lots of pictures and clip art. It is distributed to about 1100 members and 150 government leaders and employees as well as other influential members of the community. Members of city council, the county commissioners, park board members and planning commission members all receive complementary issues. We also distribute 100 at various events we attend. We use it for advocacy, education and fundraising. We always have a calendar of events included. We have a huge website with news, info, trails guides, resource info and a lot more. Check it out. There is a lot there. Build a variety of slide shows and go on the road. We've progressed to using PowerPoint shows with a laptop and projector. It enables us to tailor our presentations over and over again. Go to schools, businesses, churches, service clubs and other organizations. You publicize your efforts, show off trails and open space, and possibly get additional support for trails and open space in your community. The more people find out about what your organization has accomplished, the more people will join and donate money. They're more interested in your track record than your plans. Therefore, start some projects right away. It can't be stressed enough how important it is for you to inform the community. You may be surprised at how supportive people are, once they find out about your vision for a trail or a trails network. Publicity establishes and maintains your image in the community. 8. What can you talk about: Talk about the benefit of trails and open space. Trails and open space enhance a community's quality of life. As our communities grow, our need for trails and open space grows. Trails can provide recreational, transportation, environmental, cultural, historical, economic, tourism, health and physical fitness and educational opportunities. Open space can protect habitat, protect areas of native vegetation, provide scenic vistas, provide a sense of place, provide recreational opportunities and be a major economic asset. Open space can be used to protect habitat for species important to the region, including rare or threatened species. Open space can serve to protect native vegetation and preserve water resources. Trails provide easily accessible and low cost outdoor recreation for an incredibly diverse group of people. Walking, running, pushing a stroller, roller blading, bicycling, horseback riding, bird watching or studying are just a few of the things that can be done on trails. Properly designed trails provide the disabled access to the outdoors experience. Open space can provide opportunities for types of recreation best suited to a natural setting. Trails provide safe, alternative transportation routes between work places, parks, residential areas, shopping and schools. Unlike some modes of transportation, trails are available to everyone, including children, seniors and the disabled. Increased use of trails and the preservation of open space provide a significant opportunity to help our environment. The greatest environmental benefit of bicycling and walking is the decreased use of fossil fuels. Trails provide sanctuaries for trees and shrubs to grow. Open space provide opportunities to protect habitat and wildlife while providing means to observe and learn about native species. Trails and open space provide ways to observe and protect our heritage and culture. Many of our open space areas are lands donated by our founding fathers. Trails provide access to many wonderful historical areas and provide the opportunity to protect and preserve lands and buildings of historic or cultural interest which link us to our past. Trails and open space provide significant economic benefits. They can create jobs, enhance property values, expand local businesses, attract new or relocating businesses, increase tax revenues and promote your community. They attract tourists which, in turn, provides economic benefit to the community. Increased trails use can result in significant benefits in terms of health and physical fitness. As our communities continue to grow and become more condensed, our need for the relaxation provided by trails becomes more important to our mental well-being. Open space protects visual resources - those scenic qualities that make our area unique. They include our mountain backdrop, rock outcroppings and distinct landforms. Trails and open space give great education opportunities. Our youth can learn about wildlife, habitat and geology in a safe, natural environment. Open space areas have great potential as outdoor classrooms. Trails and open space provide us opportunities as adults to teach our youth to be responsible for the environment and to be good neighbors. You can talk about trail etiquette. Explaining how to accommodate various types of trail users is an important part of building your coalition. Discuss "leave no trace' principles. It also generates respect for your organization when they see that you understand the problems on trails and you're doing something about them. Resolving user conflict may be a major issue in your community. Few people understand how trails are funded and built. Incorporating funding and construction in your presentation can be very useful in helping people understand trail building in your community. Provide status updates. Show slides of completed trails and corridors which you hope to have a trail in. You can also use this presentation to show people how to commute from one area of the community to another. 9. Establish Good Relationships with Government We work cooperatively with government employees and government agencies. We join and lead their committees, help them with grants, and provide public support for their projects. They in turn build trails or preserve open space. Local agencies and employees have a big influence over local land use policies which will affect open space and trails. For example, park land, drainage easements and utility easements can be used for trail corridors. Drainage areas may be prime open space candidates. Park land dedication can provide significant additions to an open space inventory. In addition, even local governments employ a surprisingly large percentage of the population - potential allies and coalition members. Creating unnecessary adversaries creates future problems. Participate in committees: park boards, technical teams, ad hoc committees and others. Offer city departments assistance. They have limited staffs. Do their leg work for them. You can be their eyes and ears to report problems or to find out information. Remember, government works slowly, be patient. Learn to work from the inside. It's a lot easier than being on the outside trying to make something happen. Give them credit for doing a good job, for completing a new trail or acquiring an easement. Downplay their failures. But, don't be afraid to disagree. It's OK to have two different opinions. Pick your battles and try to win the war. You may not be able to win every individual battle. You may need to be persistent and work over a period of time to win them over. Look for alternatives and don't be afraid to compromise. But be supporters if you can, They in turn can be your biggest supporters. You also have to learn how to work the public process. If you are going to be effective, you have to be able to learn how public meetings are conducted and when they are. It's too late to try to do something once the bulldozers are digging up your planned trail corridor or open space area for a new housing development. Learn about development master plans, how the zoning and planning commissions work. When are their meetings? Get a typical agenda and attend a few meetings to understand the process before you have to stand up and speak at one. Don't be afraid to speak out! We also help fund some of their projects. We donated $25,000 to the Blodgett Peak Open Space Trailhead in 2004 and have done many similar things over the years. We were recognized by the Colorado Springs City Council in January of 2005 for our 2004 efforts and support over the years. 10. Fundraising Most of us in the "trails and open space game" are more worried about fundraising than anything else. If you're a beginner, you're probably either scared to death of raising funds because you don't know how to do it, or you're dreading the prospect of begging for money. I can reassure you on both counts. First of all, fundraising is not terribly difficult or incredibly complex. If you are self-motivated, organized, determined, and willing to learn, you will do fine. Second, fundraising is not "begging." If you are buying open space or getting trails built, you are providing a valuable service to the community. You are going to be surprised and gratified at how often trail users and community leaders will say "thank you" for your work. Fundraising is merely a process by which you let people know that you need help--financial help--to continue your work. Donations are the way citizens, businesses, and foundations assist your efforts. Most often, they are very grateful to be able to help without actually having to provide physical labor or volunteer time! Here's how you do it: First, involve your board. They can be your most effective fundraisers. Then decide what you want to accomplish. Do you want to help your local government acquire open space, build a trail, lobby local governments, publish a newsletter, and/or hire a staff person? Be specific. Educate yourself about fundraising. Read a couple of books on the subject. There are books with sample fundraising letters. Recruit a volunteer who has written successful proposals. Get copies of a few well-written grants to use as models. Research sources of money or support. If you are building a trail, are federal transportation grants available? Do you have a state trails program? Does your city government have funds for part or all of the cost? Where do those funds come from--a sales tax, a property tax? Should you approach private foundations? Local businesses? Individuals? Can you use volunteers for part or all of the work? Most likely, funding will have to come from several of these sources. If you expect local agencies to do the work, you'll want to help them find funds. First, find out what they already know. Then help research TEA-21 grants, state funds, private foundations, etc. If you want to conduct a lobbying campaign or publish a newsletter, will foundations or local businesses help? Can you accomplish part of all of the work with volunteers? Some of the most important information will be foundations' deadlines for grant proposals. Note those dates, and structure your work to meet them. Determine who will execute the project(s). Will a local government agency build the trail, or will volunteers do it? Will a staff person carry out the lobbying necessary to push that open space tax through, or can you do it with volunteers? For any project, even if you decide agencies or professionals will direct the effort, the more volunteer time you can include, the better. Funders like to know that their money is being matched by volunteer hours. Write program descriptions and budgets. Divide the tasks into programs, and write a description and a budget for each program. Assign a value to the estimated volunteer hours, and include them in your budget. There are books and professional advice available on this, but it need not be complex--just use common sense. Get advice from leaders of local nonprofits; from your state trails coordinator, if you have one; and from local government employees. Now, write your grant proposals. Have them edited and proofread by several capable people. Apply to many sources, and don't get discouraged when some turn you down. Ask those who turn you down for advice. Consider hiring a professional grant writer. We have done that and been quite successful. Don't wait until you are completely comfortable with fundraising--get started now! Foundations, corporations, and individual donors are all much more interested in your project than in whether you write well. If you get discouraged, remember that this is the most difficult part of starting or running a nonprofit organization. Everything else is much easier. Finally, you must be financially responsible. People who give you money expect you to use for the purpose intended and to keep track of it. We have sophisticated data bases to track our donors and a professional accountant to maintain our finances. 11. Hire a Staff? To staff or not to staff! Our advice: do it. In the beginning, we tried to operate as an all-volunteer organization. Volunteers are wonderful and essential for many tasks. However, volunteers have their own lives and frequently can't follow up on tasks or projects or spend enough time on projects. Their time is precious and sometimes they can only devote limited time to you. It's difficulty to maintain consistency using multiple volunteers. In our early years we missed out on important opportunities to influence trails policy or funding. Our recommendation is to hire a staff. Hiring a staff person is like the chicken-and-egg question. How do you raise the funds to hire a staff person when the reason you need the staff person in the first place is to raise funds? You may have to use a volunteer or pay a grant writer to get that first capacity building grant. You also don't have to start out with a fully-funded, full-time, permanent staff with benefits. Think creatively. Your staff can grow as you grow. We started off with a half-time executive director and currently have two and one/half employees. Think creatively. Look for master's candidates, interns, retired executives, etc. 12. Become a Nonprofit Organization The Trails and Open Space Coalition, as any other business, has to have funds to operate and to build trails or preserve open space. Foundations, companies and individuals prefer to give to tax-exempt organizations so that their donations are tax-deductible. Most foundations require you to be a 501 (c)(3). You can also do your mailings cheaper as a nonprofit. For donations to be tax-deductible, your group must be classified by the IRS as a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization. The 501(c)(3) designation is given by the IRS to nonprofits which qualify as tax-exempt. To qualify, an organization must be a charitable organization, be incorporated, and have articles of incorporation and bylaws. You may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of your activities and may not participate at all in campaign activity for or against any political candidates. You can support issues (influence legislation) up to about 20% of your income - that is the substantiality test mentioned above.) Use IRS publication 557 to file. It may take months to get the tax-exempt designation, so get help. Get a book on filing, order the forms and find an attorney who might help you pro bono. 13. Create Trails or Open Space Champions In the business world, a "champion" is the person who ushers a new project through all the obstacles. The trails network we want to build is very large--hundreds of miles of trails. We have dozens of open space candidate areas in our open space plans. Our board and staff can't follow up on all the opportunities for every trail or parcel of open space, so we established a cadre of trail champions and open space advocates. A trail or open space champion performs any and all tasks necessary, and marshals a variety of skills from anyone and everyone available, to ensure the project's success. He or she might organize volunteer projects, scout for potential trail routes or open space parcels, organize trail or open space tours to acquaint neighbors with the areas, contact homeowners and/or businesses along the trail or open space parcel to enlist their support, talk with city council members or county commissioners to gain funding, and/or write letters or appear on television news to talk about the trail or piece of open space. Most of our champions approached the coalition first because they saw newspaper articles or a copy of our newsletter asking for help. A few were "drafted" by coalition members who requested help. Conclusion The Trails and Open Space Coalition has succeeded in creating a respected trails and open space advocacy organization, raising funds, attracting members. We have done so by building a broad-based membership, sticking to our mission, publicizing trails events and ideas, hiring a staff and recruiting champions to help. From the feedback we have received, our model of building a coalition for trails and open space advocacy seems appropriate for other areas. Call 1-(719) 633-6884 if you have any questions. SPECIFIC STEPS - A ROADMAP 1. Get Started. Keep it going. Call a meeting • Call a meeting of people with the same interest - preserving a piece of open space or building a trail. • Attract participants by putting up notices at a trail, public service announcement in the newspaper, calling people you might think are interested, notices in stores or any other way you can attract people. • Set a time for future meetings and commit to regular meetings. Talk about the issue(s) and possible goals for the group • Talk about the issue - "The John Smith Ranch has gone on the market to be sold and I feel it should be preserved as open space...." • Figure out what it is you want to do. • Determine how you can effect the issue • Determine a mission for your group • Establish achievable, short term goals - don't do so many that you can't make them happen. Assign responsibilities for each goal. Figure out how you are going to make them happen. Create an organizational structure • Every group needs a leader who can then provide direction, run meetings, keep the meetings from being chaos. • Develop a board of directors, committees • Create a mechanism to get funds: dues, contributions, etc. Establish a means to become sustainable • Raise money that will keep you going while you pay for the printing, postage, copying, etc that you will need. • Open a checking account and appoint someone to handle the funds. Keep good financial records. • Get more members! • Incorporate 2. Work with local officials • Determine the people in the appropriate jurisdiction that can provide you information and help you. - Is there someone at city or county parks that you have to work with? - Review appropriate master plans to see if the project will fit under the guidelines set forth in the plans • Enlist their support. • Be friendly, not confrontational. They need support not criticism. • Help them with their work on the project. They are probably very busy on other projects. 3. Get educated • Read the appropriate masterplans • Learn about funding mechanisms, conservation methods, who the players are, how local government works, construction, maintenance, wildlife, habitat and the public process. 3. Attend public meetings 4. Raise money 5. Develop partnerships 6. Publicize your efforts
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