Membership
Is your organization working in the Bay Area for healthy lands, people, and communities? Join us!
Your organization is invited to be a member of a large, diverse, and influential regional coalition. Not just because it can be fun and joyful (that’s important too!), but because we’re having an impact. Our members are collaborating in big and small ways for resilient lands that are integral to a thriving Bay Area and all people who live here.
Are you interested in becoming a member?
Great! We’d love to meet you.
Is your organization ready to renew your membership?
Great! Let’s continue our work together.
Send us an email at [email protected]
Whether you’re joining or renewing, let’s connect about how you can contribute to, participate in, and benefit from being a part of TOGETHER Bay Area.
What does it mean to be a member?
There are lots of ways to participate in and contribute to TOGETHER Bay Area. There isn’t one way, or a correct way. The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it.
Together we are securing significant and stable public funding that is equitably accessible and distributed.
As a TOGETHER Bay Area member, you and your colleagues can:
- Share stories and photos of your projects and programs to bolster TOGETHER’s policy work with state legislators and the administration. Here’s an example from 2022.
- Learn all about and practice “collaborative advocacy” which is our approach to advocacy. It means that we center relationships, collaboration, inclusivity, and joy. And it looks like this.
- Attend our annual Policy Summit to learn about timely topics, meet peers from around the region, and develop our annual policy priorities. Here’s the 2023 version of the Summit.
- Participate in advocacy days in Sacramento to meet with legislators, legislative staff, and administration leadership to build relationships, raise awareness, and communicate our coalition’s priorities. No policy experience is needed! And fun might happen!
- Learn more about policy and advocacy at learning sessions custom-designed for TOGETHER members.
- Incorporate TOGETHER’s policy priorities into your organization’s advocacy efforts to leverage the coalition’s asks.
Together we are building our capacity for Native American Tribal alliances.
As a TOGETHER Bay Area member, you and your colleagues can:
- Participate in the Right Relations program to learn, take action, and collaborate with colleagues to build alliances with local Native American Tribes and Native communities. Right Relations was designed specifically for TOGETHER Bay Area members in partnership with Redbud Resource Group.
- Participate in Going Beyond Land Acknowledgement trainings available throughout the year to expand your capacity for the exchange of resources, including land, power, knowledge, skills.
- Coordinate with fellow member organizations to take actions that strengthen Tribal sovereignty.
- Attend workshops, hear inspirational Native speakers, and meet Native colleagues at the annual Together Conference.
- Advocate for state funding that supports Tribal sovereignty and Native alliances.
Together we are building a resilient social network of practitioners and professionals
As a TOGETHER Bay Area member, you and your colleagues can:
- Receive discounted Together Conference tickets which grant you access to this.
- Receive members-only communications to stay connected and get involved. Delivered to your inbox every other Friday, you will learn information, get invitations to sign up, and maybe even smile or giggle.
- Access members-only field trips and events like Town Halls, policy learning sessions, funder information sessions, and more.
- Provide learning and professional development opportunities for junior staff, and networking opportunities for staff at all levels.
- Find the right candidates for your open job positions on our free and online Job Board.
- Get introduced to colleagues who have the experience, templates, or perspectives you need to solve that problem you’re working on. The TOGETHER team loves to make introductions!
Together we are conserving and stewarding 50% of Bay Area lands by 2050.
As a TOGETHER Bay Area member, you and your colleagues can:
- Use the Conservation Lands Network’s Explorer Tool to inform conservation decisions, and produce a report to make the case for funding.
- Share your organization’s conservation data with the Bay Area Protected Areas Database (BPAD) to track progress towards 50×50.
- Read and share the Connecting Urban Biodiversity report (or watch this!) to promote the importance of the wildlife that make their home in our cities and suburbs.
- Attend the Wildfire Data Working Group to learn from fellow data compilers, share information, and build our regional understanding of the impacts of fire on the land.
Our Collective Impact
Guided by our 2024-2028 Strategic Direction, we are making a difference today that will last for years to come. The regional coordination we’re doing is having an impact. Examples include:
Advocating for Regional Funding
- Successfully advocated with partners across the state for the $10 billion climate bond – Proposition 4 – on the November 5, 2024 ballot. We hosted members-only briefings, wrote op-eds, spoke to the media, and much more.
- Successfully advocated for $750 million for the State Coastal Conservancy in Proposition 4, which we identified with our members as a key policy priority for 2024.
- Built relationships with Bay Area legislators and partners across the state. This included multiple TOGETHER In Sacramento Days, a listening session with Assemblymembers, and other in-person and online events.
- Hosted a series of online Policy Learning Sessions to build our members’ capacity. All of our members – regardless of policy experience – were invited. Topics included Policy 101, Budget 101, and Relationships-Centered Advocacy.
Building Capacity for Tribal Alliances
- Expanded the Right Relations program with 3 cohorts of participants, including around 75 people from 22 TOGETHER member organizations. Designed specifically for TOGETHER Bay Area members with Redbud Resource Group, Right Relations is built around of learning, community, and action.
- Welcomed more Native Americans into the 2024 Together Conference and the 2025 Together Conference than ever before. Highlighted Native history and culture through keynote speakers, the emcees, workshops, field trips, and even a film screening.
- Provided learning opportunities for all of our members with free access to the Going Beyond Land Acknowledgements workshops hosted by Redbud Resource Group.
Conserving 50x50
- Measured the progress we’re making towards our regional goal of 50% conserved by 2050! Published the Conservation Lands Network 2.0 Progress Report which measures progress towards the goals, like 50×50, set in 2019 by the Conservation Lands Network 2.0.
- Expanded the thinking about land conservation by collaborating with the California Academy of Sciences to explore ways of integrating urban biodiversity data in the Conservation Lands Network 3.0 project. Check out this video!
- Coordinated the update to the Bay Area Protected Areas Database, in collaboration with GreenInfo Network, which will inform the state’s progress towards conserving 30% of lands and coastal waters by 2030.
- Increased the region’s capacity to make data-based decisions before, during, and after wildfires through our Wildfire Data Working Group.
Coordinating Regionally
- Convened over 460 participants at our annual TOGETHER Conference, a multi-day experience online, in person, and in the field. The 2025 conference sold out two months in advance, included 30 exhibitors, discussed curiosity and flying pigs, and received rave reviews for the 8 field trips held across the region.
- Showcased member projects at Climate Risk Reduction: A Showcase of Bay Area Solutions to a diverse audience, including state leaders, peers, and potential partners. Hundreds of people attended live, and more have watched online. A great way to highlight the work that our members are doing while advocating for Prop 4!
- Enabled our members to find the right candidates for open job positions, posting 500 opportunities annually on our free, online job board.
Dues and Expectations
Dues
This is a membership-powered coalition.
Your dues mean that TOGETHER Bay Area exists and thrives. Without our members’ dues, we do not have the funding or mandate to lead our programs and coordinate this diverse and powerful coalition.
Tiered membership dues mean we can more effectively center equity in our work.
We tier member dues based on operational budgets because the work we are doing demands the perspectives of members of all sizes.
Tribes and Native-led organizations are invited to join and renew at no cost.
Sliding scale
Memberships are renewed annually (ideally between September 1 – November 30 but we are flexible). Dues are based on your organization’s operating budget. Members select the dues level for their organization in partnership with TOGETHER Bay Area staff.
We need regional coordination more than ever. And we need TOGETHER Bay Area to be healthy and sustainable in order to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead. For this reason, membership dues are increasing by 10% for the 2025-2026 membership year. We have not raised dues since 2019, so this increase reflects less than a 2% annual increase over the past six years.
Dues are meant to bring you into the coalition, not keep you out.
If your mission aligns with ours, we want you to be a member. Our members are financially invested in TOGETHER Bay Area, which means that membership is more beneficial. We understand that for some organizations, paying the suggested dues level is difficult.
We will work with you to make it possible for your organization to join this coalition. Email us at [email protected] to start a conversation.
Expectations
There’s a lot going on at TOGETHER Bay Area, and a lot of different people are involved. Let’s be clear about what we expect of our members (since you’ve made it this deep in our website, we hope none of these will be surprising).
Organizationally:
- Pay annual dues
- Share our vision and align with our mission
- Commit to the give and take of collaboration, honoring the different roles every organization and every person can play in advancing TOGETHER Bay Area’s mission.
- Contribute to the coalition’s priorities in ways that make sense for your organization. Examples include but are certainly not limited to:
- Host a field trip for the Together Conference
- Develop an action plan while participating in the Right Relations program
- Enable staff to participate in a TOGETHER In Sacramento Day
- Share conservation data for the Conservation Lands Network
- Support a staff member to serve on TOGETHER’s board of directors.
Individually:
- Participate in TOGETHER Bay Area’s programs and events by embodying the coalition’s values (trust, equity, belonging, joy, learning, and hope)
- Be ready to contribute and to listen. Everyone is an expert. Everyone is a learner. We value both lived and learned expertise.
- Respect TOGETHER Bay Area members, staff, and contractors. This includes respect for others’ time, perspectives, and knowledge.
Questions? Ideas? We’d love to hear. Email us at [email protected] and a team member will respond as soon as possible.
Going beyond to invest in regional coordination
For some organizations, paying membership dues and sponsoring the Together Conference is easier to do at the same time. And some organizations have the capacity to go beyond membership and invest in regional collaboration in more ways. If this is you, here are some ways to step up in this time of challenge and division:
- Sponsor the 2026 Together Conference. Sign up by November 14 and be the first to learn about and register for the very popular field trips which often sell out.
- Become a founding sponsor of our new podcast, Togethering, all about how to bring people together for environmental solutions. We’ll highlight our members’ projects, and we’re looking for 2 sponsors to make it happen.
- Support TOGETHER’s response to the federal situation. Financial contributions can strengthen our capacity to conduct surveys and serve as a regional voice for the impacts our members are experiencing.
- Sponsor a TOGETHER intern. This coalition provides an outstanding opportunity for college and graduate students to learn about a wide range of topics. Help us offer paid internships for the next generation.
Interested in learning more about any or all of these opportunities? Reach out to Annie Burke at [email protected]