"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much" said Helen Keller. At PennFuture, we collaborate with partner organizations to execute our work, we rely on our activists to amplify our work at the local level, and integral to it all is financial support from individual and institutional funding partners.   

 

PennFuture’s pro-environment agenda moved forward in 2018 with the help of partner organizations who we teamed up with in coalitions focusing on our top issues, including clean energy, methane, climate, Delaware River water quality and Chesapeake Bay watershed restoration. And while some diversity among the groups' goals is a good thing, it’s essential that as much as possible, these groups pull in the same direction. It’s gratifying to see what can happen when a coalition of national, regional, state and local groups representing advocacy, watershed restoration, land protection, recreation – to name a few interest groups - come together to create changes that protect our environment. By necessity, many of the organizations around the table in these coalitions also come together to push back against egregious legislation, such as the regulatory rollbacks that were attempted in 2018 and that are expected to return in 2019.

 

Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania worked with a host of other “c (4)” partner organizations, including Sierra Club, to help elect the most pro-environmental class of new state legislators in a very long time. Many of the c (4) groups also successfully worked for the re-election of Governor Tom Wolf.  

 

As we move into 2019, strong partnerships must persist. As the state affiliate of National Wildlife Federation, PennFuture enjoys an exclusive partnership in which both organizations leverage the other’s bases and access to national and state policymakers into a powerful alliance. This kind of power-building is essential to fighting the Trump Administration’s ongoing attacks on environmental protections and achievements. The latest assault is the Trump EPA’s rewrite of rules protecting the “Waters of the United States.” The Administration, with support from its partners – including  American Farm Bureau, National Homebuilders, National Mining Association and National Association of Manufacturing – plans to strip away protection from large segments of  watersheds, disrupting hydrologic functions needed for clean and abundant water, and for climate resilience. PennFuture’s partnership with National Wildlife Federation extends into our Delaware, Chesapeake and climate coalitions and campaigns. 

 

Here in Pennsylvania, the environmental community aspires to tackle some big issues in 2019. A resurging Growing Greener Coalition - a large group comprised of local, regional, and statewide conservation, recreation, and preservation groups – will be working with PennFuture and others to advocate for replenishing critical Growing Greener funding needed for land protection, watershed conservation, recreation and preservation.  

 

The very symbol of our partnerships, Pennsylvania Common Conservation Agenda, forged by 26 groups and carried forward through PennFuture’s Green in 18 campaign, will move into 2019 as a series of policy recommendations for the Wolf Administration. We are hoping the new class of pro-environmental state legislators making their way to Harrisburg will be the newest of our partners, allies and collaborators so that together, we can move forward exciting policies for Pennsylvania’s environment.

 

We invite you, our partner activists and supporters, to move into 2019 with us, lending your voices to our common causes, bringing leadership to your communities, and doing what you can to financially support the hard work of PennFuture and our partners.