Colorado Rising is a statewide 501(c)4 non-profit organization that works to protect Colorado’s health, safety, wildlife, environment, and the future of our climate from the impacts of oil & gas development.

The organization was founded in September, 2016, as a small grassroots group and began laying the groundwork to run a statewide ballot initiative that would create safer setbacks from oil & gas operations.

In 2018, Colorado Rising led efforts to get Initiative 97/Prop 112 on the ballot. Initiative 97/Prop 112 aimed to create a mandatory minimum setback of 2500 feet for all new oil & gas operations away from homes, schools, hospitals, parks, playgrounds, open spaces, and water sources. In just a few short months, we mobilized hundreds of volunteers to engage in the monumental effort of gathering the minimum necessary number of signatures - at least 135,000 signatures from valid registered Colorado voters - to make the ballot. Throughout the signature gathering phase of the campaign, we faced an onslaught of spending and intimidation tactics by the opposition. Despite the odds, we gathered and submitted over 172,000 signatures to get Initiative 97 on the ballot.

Although we were outspent roughly 50:1(!) by industry opposition and lost at the polls by a mere ~5%, we realized we had made an impact by collecting many more than the minimum number of signatures required to make the ballot, and by generating over 1.1million votes in support at the polls!

Since then, we have expanded our work into community organizing to fight local oil & gas development projects, and created a c3 sister organization called Colorado Rising for Communities that includes a robust public education program, outreach efforts, and a litigation strategy to continue the critical work of protecting our homes, neighbors, communities, air, water and climate from the harms of fossil fuels.