Endangered Species Coalition Member Groups Application

Strategy Setting

• Create shared space through meetings, regular calls, and listserves for information sharing and strategy setting on ESA, wolves, and other species
• Lead meetings, publish materials, and create a shared space to define and articulate the environmental justice implications of biodiversity conservation

Campaign Implementation & Support

• Schedule meetings with high-level Administration officials and our member groups and prepare member group representatives for the meetings
• Provide support from our Washington, D.C. staff to advocate for endangered species issues in Congress, including assistance for lobby days
• Coordinate national, regional, and local campaigns to protect endangered species and habitat
• Coordinate joint endangered species events and activities on the ground via ESC’s regional field staff
• Assist local groups in bringing issues and concerns to the national level with access to national decision-makers and conservation organizations and by highlighting member groups’ work in our publications, like our Top 10 Report 
• Amplify our member groups’ reports, lawsuits, and other accomplishments via ESC’s social media and our website, (including posting member group press releases sent to [email protected] on our website)

Knowledge & Skills Building

• Share news and information on endangered species issues in Washington, D.C. and across the country
• Analyze and synthesize Endangered Species Act bills, policies, and funding
• Suggest text for electronic email alerts on urgent endangered species issues, with suggested actions to take, sample letters, talking points, etc.  
• Provide member-only trainings on issues such as endangered species issues, campaign skills, and Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI)       
• Partner with our member groups to advance our movement’s JEDI goals 
• Create citizen guides, factsheets and other materials to inform you and your members about important endangered species issues  

We live in a stressful era and are working hard to protect what we love with limited time and resources. Working together in a trusting relationship is the only way we will succeed. Your organization is a vital member of the Endangered Species Coalition. Member organizations and the Endangered Species Coalition promise to work together to save threatened and endangered species by advocating for wildlife, sharing information and expertise, and participating and partnering in one another’s endangered species related activities. The opposition has Fox News. We have each other. Together we can create a powerful echo chamber of our own.

Endangered Species Coalition strives to inform and mobilize our member groups, provide opportunities to engage on endangered species protections, and secure media that spreads the word about the important work our member groups undertake. Endangered Species Coalition creates proactive opportunities for collaboration via the: Top Ten report, Endangered Species Day, August’s in-district Stop Extinction Day, Youth Art Contest, as well as through active, regular, shared communications including listservs, bi-monthly conference calls and an expansive activist network.

The Endangered Species Coalition additionally pledges to support our member groups through sharing fundraising opportunities, organizing lobby days and congressional briefings, and engaging grassroots activists in joint ESA defense efforts and other activities.Endangered Species Coalition pledges to respond to member groups requests for resources and opportunities to the best of our capacity. These projects are done with the assistance from our member groups, to ensure mutual success and a more powerful movement!

In order to build trust, reduce frustration, and allow conversations that successfully serve our shared goals, our organizations will support open and constructive communications in a manner that promotes active listening, is honest and respectful, and supports creative problem solving. Endangered Species Coalition always welcomes ideas and suggestions for innovative and creative strategies from our member groups.

Our organization pledges to work jointly, within our capacity, with Endangered Species Coalition to uphold the mission to stop the human-caused extinction of our nation’s at-risk species, to protect their habitats, to guide fragile populations to recovery, and to safeguard the Endangered Species Act.

Furthermore, we pledge to jointly, within our capacity, safeguard the Endangered Species Act, a law that enables every citizen to act on behalf of threatened and endangered wildlife – animals, fish, plants, and insects – and the wild places they call home.

WHY: The Endangered Species Coalition believes that in order to truly protect our natural environment and biodiversity, the environmental movement must work in meaningful collaboration with all members of our society. All the world’s people are impacted by the loss of biodiversity and, therefore, must be included and have a say in how we respond, especially the frontline communities most vulnerable to environmental collapse. We know that our movement and our organization is stronger when we are unified and inclusive in our mission. Inclusivity means we will enhance our ability to attract people with cultural and historical differences to our board and staff. Incorporating diverse perspectives will enable ESC to face challenges in a more global, creative way. By working with diverse individuals, communities, and groups, ESC is open to new opportunities to continuously reassess historical and contemporary injustices. We remain conscious of areas where acknowledgement, growth, and change are necessary and attainable.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: The Endangered Species Coalition acknowledges that in order to effectively conserve the diversity of life within our nation, we must build a movement that represents and reflects all people within the United States. In order to do this, we must first acknowledge the wrongs of the past, and the inequitable impact of these wrongs on the present.  

We acknowledge the discriminatory practices perpetrated by society as a whole. In that spirit we acknowledge the systemic exclusivity of the environmental movement, and recognize that the impacts of environmental degradation disproportionately affect women, youth and people of color. We acknowledge the theft of millions of acres of sacred indigenous lands and the lands of people of color, including theft in the name of conservation. Finally, we acknowledge the ongoing impacts of historic racism and colonial culture that reside in our own organization.

Member Groups of the ESC may not practice any form of discrimination that violates federal, state, or local law, including, but not limited to discrimination related to an individual’s race, religion, color, sex, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, marital status, veteran status, family status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation or gender identity. Further, member groups may not tolerate sexual harassment of any type.