Nine Years of Building the Conservative Environmental Movement
As we kick off our 10-year celebration, I am in awe of what a tiny group of college students has built.
In 2017, conservatives didn’t talk about the environment. The Sierra Club and NRDC dominated conversations about energy production, public lands, and most of all, climate change.
That didn’t sit well with a group of young conservatives who asked a fundamental question: if we aren’t conserving our natural wonders, what are we conserving?
So, on July 26, 2017, the American Conservation Coalition, ACC for short, was born following an early debut at the Western Conservative Summit.
From the start, ACC was a scrappy operation fueled by dedicated volunteers, countless coffee runs, and social media momentum.
Our goals were simple: get conservatives talking about conservation and energy. Show the establishment that young conservatives craved leadership on these issues.
As time went on, our ranks of volunteers, spread out across the country, grew. We spent hours and hours on FreeConferenceCall.com and were a virtual workplace before it was cool. We threw everything at the wall: flashy events, local petitioning, social media campaigns, and more.
The pandemic happened just as ACC was hitting its stride. We had begun hiring some of our volunteers for full-time, salaried positions. No more working 80 hours a week for free! But, the world had other plans. Still, we didn’t slow down, growing a nonprofit organization while others were forced to downsize. This unexpected growth was only proof that we were onto something. We were doing work that mattered, even at a time of deep uncertainty and fear around the world.
As lockdowns lifted and the world slowly reopened, we worked hard at ACC to continue our trajectory toward institutionalization. Frankly, it wasn’t a straight line. Political winds shift. Funding can be fickle. But, happy warriors are never deterred.
In the summer of 2022, we hosted the first-ever ACC Summit in Washington, D.C. For the first time, 300 young conservatives gathered, joining us for a three-day conference. This was truly a conference for young people, put on by young people. By the last evening, our team was exhausted, yet so fulfilled. We had done it. Imperfectly, sure, with many lessons learned for next time. But we did it.
Since that first Summit, we’ve hosted thousands of events across the country, from big national Summits to local service projects. I’m constantly impressed by the students and young professionals who dedicate their time and energy to building this movement with us. Our grassroots is not only why we do this work, but how we’re able to do it at all.
At the end of last year, we hit a major milestone: 100,000 grassroots members. Our work has been featured in countless media outlets, from national outlets like The New York Times to small local newspapers. It’s hard to comprehend how a concept conceived on a merged phone call more than nine years ago has turned into a cultural movement.
Not only has ACC grown from that little scrappy team of college students to a full staff of nearly 40 employees, but our lives have changed greatly. In addition to doing such important work together, we’ve achieved major life milestones together: marriages, graduate school, moving cities, adopting pets, and even welcoming more than 10 babies!
Becoming a wife and mother myself has only strengthened my conviction that conservative conservation leadership is essential, not just for my generation, but even more so for my son’s generation. Calvin has already gotten involved as ACC’s littlest intern.
This work is not easy. No one promised it would be. But it is worth it. As we kick off our 10-year celebration, I am in awe of what a tiny group of college students has built. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has played a part in ACC’s success. Every single person who has entered the arena with us has made their mark.
Our first decade is only the beginning. We are proud of the work we’ve done, but we recognize we’ve only scratched the surface.
Danielle Franz is the CEO of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC). She lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband and young son.
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