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How To Build A Trails Coalition: The Pikes Peak Model
Learn all the details of developing an advocacy
organization for greenways and trails
By Skye Ridley, Executive Director emeritus, American Trails
September, 1994
 ABSTRACT
The Pikes Peak Area Trails Coalition is a nongovernmental, nonprofit
organization working to create and maintain a regional trails network
of over 200 miles of urban, mountain, and rural trails.
Since we incorporated in 1990, we have built a strong organization
with over 600 members and helped bring over a million dollars for trails
into the region. We are the "umbrella organization" for 50 community
organizations, 50 businesses, and 500 individuals and families. We have
created a political climate in which decisions to allocate public funds
for trails are now supported by both the public and government officials.
How have we accomplished this? What did we do right, and what are the
pitfalls? If others want to create a similar organization, what steps
should they take, what should they do first, and what can wait until
later?
This article provides advice for those who would like to benefit from
the Trails Coalition's experience and build their own trails coalition.
Write a Trails Master Plan and Get It Adopted
The most useful and important action taken for trails in our area was
writing a master plan for trails and having City Council adopt it.
A citizen's advisory committee and the city parks and public works
departments, helped by consultants, prepared a trails master plan for
Colorado Springs in 1986. City Council was persuaded to adopt it by
ordinance. That approval lends credibility to the plan and draws support
from council members, business leaders, and community organizations.
The geographic area covered by the plan was comprehensive. The recommended
trail corridors extend through the entire metropolitan area and nearby
foothills. In retrospect, we wish the plan had been an area-wide one
that included outlying towns and rural areas, because trails in those
areas need attention as well.
The plan included the following valuable information:
- Market research and demographics--current and anticipated levels
of use,
- The goals for and philosophy of a multi-use trails network,
- Standards for trails construction,
- Budget and phasing considerations, and
- Examples of successful trail projects.
Form a Broad-Based Coalition
Representatives from 17 community organizations in the Colorado Springs
issued a resolution supporting the creation of a trails network 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
helps us draw support from more people throughout the community, which
means we can build a larger membership--a constituency for trails. Our
large constituency impresses the elected officials, agency representatives,
and foundations, which means more money for trails!
To state it more simply: There's strength in numbers!
The list of the groups who signed our resolution might serve as examples
of groups you should approach in your own community:
- Economic Development Council
- Audubon Society
- Pikes Peak Seniors
- Colorado Springs Cycling Club
- Council of Neighborhood Organizations
- Homebuilders Association
- League of Women Voters
- Springs Area Beautiful Association (environmental organization)
- William J. Palmer Foundation (land trust)
- Colorado Amateur Sports Corporation
- Colorado Mountain Club
- El Paso County Horsemen's Council
- Pikes Peak Roadrunners (runners' organization)
- Strada Bicycle Club
- Falcon Wanderers (volksmarchers)
- Mesa Northwest Homeowners Association
- Middle Shooks Run Homeowners Association
In forming a trails coalition, you should work first and hardest to
pull in certain "core" groups:
- Large or influential trail user groups,
- 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 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 the Pikes Peak Area Trails Coalition has been successful
at attracting and keeping such a wide variety of individual members
and member organizations is that we never get involved in other issues,
and we always present a professional image. Members can be confident
that they won't be embarrassed or angry about our actions later on.
We definitely made the right choice about structuring our organization
as a coalition. Having a large number of member organizations has been
important to our phenomenal progress. (However, the word coalition can
have negative connotations in some parts of the country, because of
the implication of political action, so you might want to use league
or association instead.)
Build a Good Board of Directors
Just like your member organizations, your board of directors should
represent a diverse cross-section of the community. Our board includes
leaders from
- Equestrian, bicycling, running, and hiking groups;
- A business organization;
- A homeowners association;
- A community planning committee; and
The board members include:
- A realtor,
- A lawyer,
- A CPA,
- A trail designer and volunteer crew leader,
- A professional fundraiser,
- A university geography and environmental science professor,
- A former member of the City Council, and
- An architect.
It takes time to build a good board. Start out with a half-dozen people
who represent your most important core groups and/or are hard-working,
influential in the community, and assertive. It never hurts to have
wealthy people on your board, but that's not the most important thing
at this point.
The function of a board of directors is to manage the organization,
help raise funds, and serve as the organization's ambassadors in the
community.
Why Become a Nonprofit Organization?
The Trails Coalition needed to raise money for both building trails
and for operating expenses. In both cases, we discovered that foundations
and major donors give only to tax-exempt organizations because they
want their donations to be tax-deductible. Individuals also appreciate
tax deductions for their membership fees.
For donations and membership fees 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 incorporated,
have adopted articles of incorporation and bylaws, and have a public
service mission.
Should you try to file for 501(C)(3) status yourself? Our advice: Yes,
but get help.
Borrow a book on filing for tax-exempt status,
Call the IRS and order the forms yourself,
Fill the forms out as best you can, and
Find a lawyer who will help finalize the forms for free.
You should realize that it takes at least six months to get the tax-exempt
designation, even with professional help, and that the IRS almost never
grants 501(C)(3) status on the first try. So get started early and get
help.
Mission and Strategies
Choosing a mission statement and basic strategies are among the most
important decisions you'll make for your nonprofit organization. The
mission statement is your "calling card," repeated thousands of times
in your brochures, grant proposals, letters, and public presentations.
Your board and staff should be able to recite it in their sleep! When
board members or general members disagree about specifics, you will
turn to your mission statement, objectives, and strategies to clarify
the issues.
Our board adopted this mission statement:
"The Pikes Peak Area Trails Coalition promotes the development, maintenance,
and appropriate use of nonmotorized, 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.
Act! Publicize! Act! Publicize!
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:
- Organize volunteer work days.
- Publicize your volunteer work days.
- Plan "trail tours" (hikes) to acquaint people with their neighborhood
trails.
- Publicize your trail tours.
- Write articles about your vision for a trails network.
- Publicize your vision for a trails network.
- Write grant proposals and raise funds for trails.
- Publicize your grant proposals and funds raised for trails.
- Educate yourself about government funding for trails, and make sure
local officials are taking advantage of funding opportunities.
- Publicize government grants when they're received.
- Publish a newsletter on the trails vision, trails events, and trails
funding.
See the pattern?
--> ACT --> PUBLICIZE --> ACT --> PUBLICIZE --> ACT
--> PUBLICIZE ...
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 your image in the community. We in the Trails
Coalition publicize ourselves, our vision, and our activities at every
opportunity. News releases are issued for all trail tours, volunteer
projects, meetings, and plans of the Trails Coalition and our member
organizations. Approximately 850 copies of our newsletter are distributed
in the community every month. Our newsletter is as well-written and
well-designed as a newsletter from much larger organizations. We take
care to present a public image of a large, well-run organization, and
that effort has paid off.
Publicizing trails also means talking about them--to service clubs,
trail groups, environmental groups, clubs, agencies, brown-bag lunches,
friends, and family. Put toMarch 18, 2007oints, then set up appointments to talk to as many
groups as possible.
What to talk about:
Economic benefits. Trails are a good investment for the community.
They draw tourists, increase property values, and provide recreation.
Do your homework on this so you can convince the skeptical. Get a copy
of the National Park Service publication "Economic
Impacts of Protecting Rivers, Trails, and Greenway Corridors." It's
incredibly helpful, and it's free.
Trails etiquette. Explaining how to accommodate the various
types of trail users is an important part of building your coalition.
It also generates respect for your organization when they see that you
understand the problems on trails and you're doing something about them.
Recreation. Unlike most recreation amenities, trails are available
24 hours a day and are usable by individuals, couples, families, or
groups--without reservations. They're relatively inexpensive to construct
and are available to more people in more places than parks. They link
parks and other recreation amenities into one interconnected network.
Transportation. Trails serve double duty as transportation corridors.
Surveys show that over half the people would ride their bikes to work
at least some of the time, if safe trails were available. People with
disabilities, children, and those who don't drive cars can all use trails
for transportation.
Quality of life. Trails improve the quality of life. Businesses,
retirees, residents, and tourists are all drawn to communities with
trails. Quality of life is more than an intangible concept-- it's an
economic investment!
Memberships--How Many Do You Need?
"A membership in the Trails Coalition is like a vote for trails!" That's
what we tell prospective Coalition members. It means that people who
can't do volunteer work or donate large sums of money are still very
important, because they form the constituency that we need to raise
funds and influence policy.
To generate broad-based support, we established several types of memberships:
individual, family, business, and organizational. We set all of our
membership fees at very low amounts to make it easy to join. We don't
expect to pay our operating costs with membership fees; instead, we
find grants and large donations to do that.
How many members do you need to form a "constituency?" The Pikes Peak
Area Trails Coalition has 600 paying memberships within a community
of well over 400,000 people (including the greater metropolitan area
and outlying towns). We originally set our membership goal at 500 because
our advisors who know politics (ex-City Council members, for example)
suggested that 500 was the minimum number needed to affect public policy.
We have reached our goal and will continue to grow, but 500 memberships
seemed large enough to establish the reputation we wanted.
Six hundred members may not sound like a lot compared to 400,000 people.
Yet the Trails Coalition is viewed as a young but influential and well-respected
organization! Why? Two reasons.
One, the number of members in our member organizations. Our direct
memberships are only around 600, but the members of our 50 member organizations
total around 10,000--quite a multiplier effect!
Two, publicity! At the risk of repetition, it should be mentioned again
that we publicize our vision of a regional trails network and our organization's
work at every opportunity.
Establish a Good Relationship with Government
Employees
Why be nice to government employees? They're paid to work for citizens,
aren't they?
Besides common human decency, there are lots of reasons to work cooperatively
with government employees and government agencies. They have discretion
over state and federal government grants which you want to spend on
trails. They have a big influence over local land use policies which
will affect trails--park land easements can be used for trail corridors,
for example. In addition, even local governments employ a surprisingly
large percentage of the population--potential allies and coalition members.
Creating adversaries when you don't have to is foolish.
We have learned some valuable lessons about relationships with local
government agencies:
The agencies take orders from elected governing bodies-- City Council,
County Commissioners, etc.-- not your organization. To make changes,
you must first convince the governing body.
Don't adopt a hostile attitude toward agencies. If they haven't
done much for trails, it's probably because they haven't been asked
to do so by their bosses, the elected officials. Save your ammunition
for the big battles.
Demonstrate your cooperative attitude. You need to convince
the agencies that you are there to help, not hinder. Keep informed about
their budget problems and staffing shortages and discuss those issues
with them.
Be professional! Make sure all your written materials are very,
very well-written and proofread. Return calls promptly. Dress well for
presentations and meetings. You can't expect serious businesspeople
or government agencies to take you seriously otherwise.
Don't expect an agency to appreciate your organization right away.
Your trails group is new and unproven. The agency people have probably
dealt with several well-meaning but naive or incompetent nonprofit groups
who said, "We're here to help!" and brought nothing but problems. You
must prove that your group is capable and professional. You do this
by establishing a record of capability and professionalism. It doesn't
happen overnight.
Don't expect agency people to be your buddies. Accept the fact that
there will always be a certain amount of tension between agencies and
advocates.
Support the agencies. Forward information that could help them,
but don't inundate them with calls or letters. Praise and publicize
their good work and successes; downplay their bad work and failures.
Be patient. Agency people facMarch 18, 2007about. Ask what they're working on, and help them
when you can.
On the other hand,
Be persistent. Just because someone tells you "no" doesn't mean
you should take no for an answer. Talk to someone else; find an alternative;
find a compromise. If the issue is really important, go to someone higher
up in the hierarchy (but realize you're burning a bridge by doing so).
Expect fair treatment. Your organization is made up of citizens,
and you deserve prompt, professional responses to your requests for
action and information.
Fundraising
I'll bet you skipped right to this section! Most of us in the "trails
game" are more worried about fundraising than anything else.
If you're a beginner, you're probably either scared to death because
you don't know how, 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 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, decide what you want to accomplish. Do you want to build a
trail, lobby local government to build a trail, publish a newsletter,
and/or hire a staff person? Be specific.
- Educate yourself about fundraising. Read a couple of books on the
subject. Recruit a volunteer who has written successful proposals. Get
copies of a few well-written grants to use as models.
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, an excise 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
ISTEA 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 actually 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 needn't
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.
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.
Should You Hire a Staff Person?
To staff or not to staff? Our advice: do it. In the beginning, we tried
to operate as an all-volunteer organization. However, volunteers couldn't
follow up on leads or spend enough time on projects. We missed out on
important opportunities to influence trails policy or funding.
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?
The solution: You don't have to start out with a fully-funded, full-time,
permanent staff with benefits. Think creatively.
- Many foundations make grants for startup costs, or "seed money."
Can you find a volunteer to write grant proposals for startup costs?
- Chambers of commerce or government agencies might help with startup
funding, if your group impresses them as well-organized and professional.
- Some large companies and local government agencies actually loan
employees out for things like this!
- Nonprofit employees are often available on a part-time basis, without
benefits, especially while the organization is just starting out.
Recruit Trail 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--over 200 miles of trails. Our board and staff can't follow
up on all the opportunities for every trail, so we established a cadre
of Trail Champions.
A Trail 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,
- Organize trail tours to acquaint neighbors with neighborhood trails
- Contact homeowners and/or businesses along the trail 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.
Most of our Trail 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 Pikes Peak Area Trails Coalition has succeeded in creating a respected
trails advocacy organization, raising funds, attracting members. We
have done so by building a broad-based membership, sticking to one issue,
publicizing trails events and ideas, hiring a staff person, and recruiting
Trail Champions.
From the feedback we have received, our model of building a coalition
for trails advocacy seems appropriate for other areas. We invite comments,
advice, and questions.
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