Justice Outside is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Transforming Who Shapes the Outdoor Movement
At Justice Outside, we resource grassroots leaders to share wisdom, co-create strategies, and drive collective impact. Through policy change, trust-based funding, and community mobilization, we’re transforming who has access to outdoor spaces, resources, and decision-making power.
Building a Better World
How We Do It:
Justice Outside has grown from facilitating outdoor experiences to addressing the systemic roots of environmental inequity through our Power-Building framework that consists of advocacy, funding, and field leadership.
Advocate
We amplify community voices to transform policies at local, state, and federal levels, creating pathways for collective action that changes who makes decisions about our natural world.
Fund
Our trust-based funding approach puts resources directly into the hands of community leaders who collectively define priorities and strategies for change based on their wisdom and lived experience.
Build
We're transforming the environmental movement by connecting grassroots leaders, fostering knowledge sharing, and building networks that enable collective action for systems change.
Our Impact in Numbers
186
Community participants engaged in our career development programs and community events in 2024
92%
Retention rate of our Rising Leaders fellowship, with 55 graduates across three cohorts
$3.36 million
Distributed in grants to 165 organizations in 2024
96%
Of grantee partners reported improved financial stability through our flexible, multi-year funding approach
Research that names the problem
The Nature Gap, co-authored with the Center for American Progress and Conservation Science Partners, measures nature loss across every census tract in the country. It shows that communities of color are three times more likely to live in areas stripped of forests, wetlands, and green space.
The report also features eleven Justice Outside grantee partners who are closing that gap from the ground up.
Our Impact in Words
“Justice Outside has played a significant role in my journey to find healing, connection, and joy in the outdoors as well as shaping me into the leader I am today. The tools and training Justice Outside provides creates a space for grassroots organizations and emerging leaders of color to dream bigger, engage more deeply, and be equipped to drive real, lasting change.“
– Francine Davis | Board Member, Rising Leaders Fellowship Alumx, and Monthly Donor
“The Justice Outside community and leadership have been instrumental in our work and growth, particularly in 2024. I am incredibly thankful for their ongoing support, which has been essential to our continued progress.”
– Elaine Holton of PHonk!Philly | Grantee
“I appreciate the self-reflection and regeneration of why I choose to be in my field of work. The connection with other cohorts and really great intention by all the presenters made this experience transformative.”
– Rising Leaders Fellowship Participant
“Trust-based funding is imperative to grassroot organizations.
We would be lost if we needed to have the typical structure that many other funders require.”
– Robin Roberts of Philly Gear Library | Grantee
Our Mission
To advance racial justice and equity in the outdoor and environmental movement.
We shift resources to, build power with, and center the voices and leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color because the health of current and future generations demands it.