PROTECT OUR WINTERS

Protect our Winters (POW) empowers passionate outdoor enthusiasts to help protect the places and lifestyles they love from the impacts of climate change. They are a community of athletes, scientists, creatives and business leaders, across the U.S. and Europe, dedicated to improving low-carbon access and advancing nonpartisan policies that protect the world for future generations. United by their love of the outdoors, POW is where the outdoor community comes together and takes action. Support from The VF Foundation this year helped advance POW’s efforts to elevate diversity, equity, inclusion and justice within the climate movement and fully integrate DEI values and goals across their programs, partnerships and organization. “Marginalized groups, communities of color and indigenous voices have historically been excluded from conservation and outdoor recreation conversations,” said Mario Molina, Executive Director of Protect our Winters. “With the support of The VF Foundation, we are actively working to highlight more perspectives and amplify voices from the communities who will be most impacted by climate change. We are adding underrepresented perspectives to our Alliances and developing new ways to support our ambassadors and amplify their work and voices.”

BUILDING THE OUTDOOR CONSERVATION MOVEMENT OUTDOOR ALLIANCE | USA

People who recreate outdoors are deeply connected to the places in nature that they love, and Outdoor Alliance protects those places by bringing together the voices of America’s outdoor recreation community. “The outdoor community’s engagement and activation on conservation issues has been transformative for the conservation movement,” said Adam Cramer, Outdoor Alliance CEO. “The pandemic made clear the need for all Americans to have access to safe and accessible outdoor experiences. We also knew we needed an even greater focus on equitable access, and a greater investment in both maintaining public lands and creating new green spaces where they are needed most.” With funding from The VF Foundation, Outside Alliance was instrumental in the U.S.’ commitment to conserve 30 percent of its land and water by 2030; reestablishing protections for Bears Ears and Grand StaircaseEscalante National Monuments; reversing rollbacks in Alaska and taking steps to restore NEPA, a core environmental law, and prioritizing equity on public lands through bills like The Outdoors for All Act. They also worked for the introduction of a historic package of recreation legislation.

2021 GRANT $25,000 2022 GRANT