PEOPLE. PLACE. PROSPERITY.
COMMUNITY BUILDERS
YEAR IN REVIEW for 2016
COMMUNITY BUILDERS
HELPS PEOPLE
CREATE SUCCESSFUL,
PROSPEROUS
COMMUNITIES
THOUGH TRAINING,
INFORMATION, AND
ASSISTANCE.
TO OUR PARTNERS
AND FRIENDS
Looking back, looking forward. As we turn the page on our first year, I’m proud of our early progress. As we’ve been
building the foundations of a lasting organization, we’ve also been all over the West helping local partners build more
livable communities. How does that translate to on-the-ground impacts? It means more and better transportation
options, making it safer and easier for people to walk or bike in their communities. It means more diverse and resilient
local economies that are better able to withstand market and economic cycles. It means more people have pathways to
economic security and prosperity. It means stronger local businesses. It means more effective local leaders and more
engaged citizens. It means more vibrant and inviting neighborhoods
and downtowns. It means more efficient and sustainable patterns of
“Our efforts to build strong,
growth. It means healthier communities that can stand the test of
healthy and prosperous
time.
Like numbers? Here are some that help tell the story of our first year.
communities have never been
more important.”
Eleven. That’s the number of places—communities and regions—
we completed in-depth assistance this year. In each case, our team worked in partnership with local leaders to
identify ways to tackle specific community needs and challenges.
Over $6,000,000. That’s the amount of local funding that has been raised to implement recommendations from
projects we’ve completed this year alone.
Over 1,500. That’s the number of residents that participated in the One Valley Prosperity Project we completed with
partners in Gunnison County, Colorado.
Over 2,000. That’s the number of local leaders we’ve helped train since January, including over 90 that attended our
intensive, multi-day leadership trainings in Durango, Colorado and Idaho Falls, Idaho.
As I reflect on our progress this year, I’m also excited and humbled by the work ahead. This year we’re expanding our
technical assistance offerings to help communities and local partners build better places, launching new tools and
research to help local leaders proactively address issues like housing affordability and economic diversity, and launching
new trainings that will help teams of community leaders identify workable strategies to the challenges and opportunities
facing their communities.
WE ENVISION AN AMERICAN
WEST OF GREAT PLACES
AND PROSPEROUS
COMMUNITIES
Our efforts to build strong, healthy and prosperous communities have never been
more important. At a time of increasingly challenging and divisive national politics, it
is clear that communities will be at the center of solving many of society’s greatest
challenges. And it will be local leaders of all stripes that do the heavy lifting and
serve as the agents of change. We’re here to help them and look forward to working
with you to help them rise to the challenge.
Clark Anderson
Executive Director
YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Rising to the Challenge: Enabling Local
Change Makers at a Critical Time
With the nation’s economy continuing its upward trajectory, investment and development have returned to
communities throughout the Intermountain West. Communities are growing again. And with that growth
comes change.
Few factors will have greater influence on the people and places of the West—its future—than how
communities shape that change. Can we get it right this time? Or, are we destined to repeat the costly
mistakes of the past? Will we continue to grow in ways that are not fiscally or economically viable? Or can we
build communities and economies that stand the test of time?
Finding the answers to these questions represents the most fundamental challenge facing communities
throughout the West and the rest of the nation. And the reality is, we know enough to know that a
continuation of the past is not a viable option—not if we care about the people, places and prosperity of the
region.
We must do better and we can do better, but it won’t be easy. It requires changing how we plan and design
the development that shapes our communities. It requires rethinking how we grow our economies. It requires
new leadership and strengthening the partnerships and civic infrastructure that are needed to translate grand
visions into on-the-ground progress.
These are daunting challenges. The old way, which brought cheap development, fragile economies and
sprawling patterns of growth, stem from decades of outdated policies, investments and decisions that are
deeply rooted in many of the region’s institutions.
Yet progress is occurring. Forward-thinking local leaders are transforming communities into more livable
places, which is inspiring wider progress. Community Builders is part of this transformation. We provide the
knowledge, tools and support that local leaders need to chart a new path forward and accelerate progress that
results in strong, livable communities and sustainable local economies.
People, Place, Prosperity. It’s what drives us at Community Builders. Our work helps local
leaders and change makers strengthen and connect these key ingredients to build stronger
and more livable communities. Thanks to your support, we are making significant headway
and driving positive change in the following areas:
Place Value: Creating Place-Based Prosperity
Community Builders is helping change the way economic development is done. Built from our
Place Value research, our approach is based on growing local economies from the ground up. It
recognizes that conventional approaches to economic development—trying to attract large firms
from somewhere else—are expensive, ineffective, and often hurt efforts to build quality places. It
relies on building quality places that attract the talent driving today’s rapidly changing economy.
Read about our work in Gunnison County, Colorado, where we helped develop a one-of-a-kind
strategy to cultivate community prosperity.
Building Better Places
We work with local officials, developers, and other community leaders throughout the region
to build better places. It’s a big shift that’s about creating communities that can stand the test
of time. It means creating places people love. Places that attract investment and create lasting
value. Places that provide convenient ways for people to get around, and are healthy and
affordable. But better places don’t happen by accident—they are the result of vision, planning,
smart investments, and a commitment to action and follow-through. We are on the frontlines
of local efforts to shape better places throughout the West. Later, read about our work in Hailey,
Idaho and Eagle, Colorado as just two examples of our place-based approach.
Transportation For A New Economy
Great streets are the foundations of great places. Indeed, we cannot build better places or more
livable communities without improving our local transportation systems. Healthy local economies
need safe, transportation systems that connect the community and work for everyone. At
Community Builders, we are part of the growing movement of state and local leaders working to
create transportation systems that respond to today’s market and economic realities. Learn about
our New Mobility West initiative, which provides direct assistance, training and tools to help
leaders rethink how residents and goods move within their communities.
A New Era Of Leadership
We’re here to help. It’s why we exist. It’s what we do.
Behind every great project and every success story are leaders who saw the opportunity and
provided the fire that drives community action. But leadership, particularly at the local level, is
difficult. It takes vision, knowledge and the ability to build partnerships and find common ground.
We provide tools, training and assistance to support and inspire leaders so they can become
effective change makers in their communities.
Community Builders
On The Ground
ON THE GROUND
Our work with communities is
transforming modern approaches
to economic and community
development.
Butte, MT
Identified beautification strategies to
attract new investment between the
Central Business District and Montana
Tech University.
Quad Cities, ID
Created a shared vision for development
and improvements along the Highway
2/200 corridor.
MONTANA
Missoula, MT
Laramie, WY
Fostered a community-led vision to
improve circulation within the Brooks
Street corridor for motorists and
pedestrians.
Worked with stakeholders to craft
design solutions for street safety and
functionality of 3rd Street, as well as
pedestrian and bicycle mobility.
Hailey, ID
Identified locations to improve
pedestrian facilities, and beautify the
streetscape along Main Street.
IDAHO
Victor, ID
Fraser, CO
Identified strategies to create a vibrant
downtown with a cohesive sense of place
by increasing pedestrian circulation and
identifying development opportunities.
WYOMING
Identified strategic investments in the
downtown street grid and opportunities
for redevelopment of public buildings..
Central City, CO
Developed a capital improvements
plan to bring bicyclists and pedestrians
downtown by aligning budgets with
policy priorities..
Gypsum, CO
Worked with residents to create a sense
of place in downtown by addressing
housing challenges, economic conditions
and physical beautification.
Eagle, CO
Gunnison, CO
Developed a strategic plan of action to
enrich the lives of residents, and cultivate
community prosperity.
COLORADO
Helped the town shift from an economic
development strategy focused on
attracting large-scale developments to
creating “Place Value”—investing in key
local assets like the local river.
MAKING AN
A New Vision for Main Street in
Hailey, Idaho
Eagle, Colorado: The
Value of Place
Highway 75 is like many other highways throughout the west. It serves to
quickly move commuters and goods from one community to the next. But
as it passes through towns and communities, it often serves an additional
purpose: as the community’s main street. This dual role—main street and
state highway—frequently leads to competing priorities. Can it efficiently
carry both motorist and foot traffic? Does it help create the kind of place
where people want to spend time? Does it provide ease of access for all
potential users?
After the Town of Eagle, Colorado sent a team
to our Community Builders Leadership Institute,
they requested our help to advance their top
priority: creating a strategy for connecting
downtown Eagle to the Eagle River. Town
leaders recognized that each of these uniquely
contributed to the town’s economy, and saw
the economic multiplier effects that could result
by creating a stronger link between them.
After attending our Community Mobility Institute, local leaders in Hailey,
Idaho applied for and received technical assistance from our team to tackle
these questions. They wanted to make sure main street was safe. They
wanted to help businesses along the street succeed, creating a welcoming
atmosphere for visitors and residents alike. And
they wanted to apply these principles not
only to main street, but to many
of the key corridors in the
town.
We partnered with the town and a diverse
group of stakeholders to create the Eagle River
Corridor Plan. Gaining widespread support,
town leaders advanced a ballot measure to fund
key projects identified in the plan—including
the development of a river whitewater park,
which will serve as a regional attraction. The
measure passed easily with tremendous voter
turnout.
At a broader level, this project helped the
Town of Eagle begin to shift their thinking
and approaches to economic development by
focusing on “Place Value”—growing smarter
and investing in key local assets.
IMPACT
Training New Leaders
Solutions to the Housing Crisis
Leadership is essential to improving how we build our
communities and economies. That’s why we offer trainings
like the Community Builders Leadership Institute and
Community Mobility Institute—each bring together teams of
local leaders from communities throughout the region and
equip them with the skills and know-how to make lasting
change. Last year, our trainings engaged over 90 local leaders
from 12 different communities from Idaho, Colorado and
New Mexico. Over the course of a training, community teams
work together to create a clear action plan and a shared
commitment to carrying those priorities forward in their
community.
Housing is the fundamental human need. It shelters families,
providing warmth and refuge. It builds community and
neighborhood. People in all communities should have access
to quality, affordable housing—but many communities are
finding it difficult to provide. Lack of workforce housing in
resort communities makes it difficult for many people to live in
the same community they work. Fast growing populations in
other communities intensifies housing prices, squeezing people
out of markets they simply cannot afford. The rise of the ondemand home rental economy places additional burdens on
communities with already short supplies of housing. How can
communities respond to these issues? What tools are available
to address specific housing challenges
many communities now face? Our research
into the housing crisis will result in tools
and concepts that can be strategically
applied to these and other challenges.
Growing leaders
New Mobility West
Many communities are working hard to retrofit transportation systems, ensuring they
work well for all users. Our New Mobility West Initiative aims to accelerate this progress
and help communities create transportation systems that build better places. Last year we
worked with communities in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana to create streets
that are safe and walkable, and build more vibrant downtowns and Main Streets. Our
Community Mobility Institute training provided practical skills and tools to five Idaho
communities to help them address local transportation issues. We also partnered with
the Colorado Department of Local Affairs and Colorado Department of Transportation to
create “Colorado Downtown Streets”— a practical tool to help communities and DOTs
build streets that create great downtowns.
Hailey’s parklet
Following our involvement, the community immediately began to pursue
“quick win” projects to enhance the community. They built a “parklet”
on main street, an immediate success. They created a new trails map to
help people easily find their way through the community. And they are
preparing to tackle many more projects in 2017. Perhaps most significantly,
the community overwhelmingly approved an $800,000 mill levy to help
develop their trail and sidewalk network.
Cameron Ellis
Clark Anderson
Better streets, better communities
Designs for the river park
John Lavey
Kathryn Trauger
Jillian Sutherland
Matt Farrar
Spencer Bollacker
One Valley, One Prosperity
Working with communities throughout the West, we’ve had
a chance to see what it takes for communities to succeed.
We know it takes effective leadership, vision, strategy, and a
relentless pursuit of implementation. And we know that usually,
to tackle the big issues, success relies on regional partnerships
and collaboration.
We know these things, but the truth is, lining them up can be
very difficult. Our recent work in Gunnison County, Colorado is a
powerful example of what can happen when these things come
together.
In 2014, nine community leaders from Gunnison County
attended our Community Builders Leadership Institute. During
this three-day training, they discussed key challenges facing
communities in the Gunnison Valley: A need to diversify the
economy. A lack of affordable housing for residents. Natural
resources and recreation areas stressed by overuse. Surprisingly
high levels of poverty.
By the end of the training, this team—a consortium of local
officials, business leaders and key anchor institutions—realized
that solving these issues would mean working as a region.
They agreed to work together to create a regional vision and
strategy for community prosperity in the Gunnison Valley, and
form the partnerships needed to see the vision through to
implementation.
Over the next year, we worked with the partners behind OVPP to
engage over 1,500 people and ask four key questions: Who are
we? Where are we going? Where do we want to be? How do we
get there? They met in coffee shops. Bars. Schools. On the street.
In meeting halls. Over
60 volunteers worked
“The strategies
tirelessly to develop
that came from this
action plans—informed
by sound information
were important. But
but emerging bottom
the partnerships
up, from the voice of the
we developed were
community.
essential—they are
The One Valley Prosperity
what will allow us to
Project surfaced from
the recognition that, left
be successful now and
unaddressed, threats
over the long-term.”
facing the community
could fundamentally alter
- Jonathan Houck,
the economy and way of
Gunnison County
life. It was built on the
idea that partnerships
Commissioner
work. And it was built
on the idea that to
protect what people love about their community comes the
responsibility to shape change, not just watch it happen.
Not long after the training, the Gunnison team—which began
calling themselves the Community Builders Task Force—asked
for our assistance to take on this unique project, and from there,
the One Valley Prosperity Project (OVPP) was born.
“What I’m most proud of is how much effort we put into engaging the widest possible
spectrum of people that make up our community. This is truly a bottom-up plan based
on our community’s needs and values.”
- Pam Montgomery, Executive Director, Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley
Staff
Board of Directors
Clark Anderson - Executive Director
Jillian Sutherland - Program Director
John Lavey - Program Director
Kathryn Trauger - Operations Manager
Cameron Ellis - Creative Projects Manager
Matt Farrar - Project Manager
Spencer Bollacker - Project Manager
Leslie Bethel - President
Matt Sturgeon - Vice President
Jesse Silverstien - Treasurer
Tom Boyd - Secretary
Gary Toth
Thank You For Your Support
LOR Foundation
Gates Family Foundation
Katherine Borgen
Aspen Business Center Foundation
Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Colorado Main Street Program
Colorado Department of Transportation
University of Montana
City of Dover
City of Kootenai
City of Sandpoint
City of Ponderay
Town of Fraser
Missoula Redevelopment Agency
Missoula Urban Transportation District
Gunnison County
Freeport-McMoRan Company
Norris Design
Sonoran Institute
Financial Summary
January 2016 - September 2016
Community Builders became an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization on
January 1, 2016. These figures are for our first nine months in business.
Revenue
Foundation Grants
Contract Income
Contributions
Other
Expenses
$1,488,728
$46,643
$10,000
$2,328
96%
3%
<1%
<1%
$1,547,700
100%
Program
Operations
Org Development
$398,293
$93,276
$49,882
74%
17%
9%
$541,453
100%
THANK YOU
When you invest in us you’re investing in a stronger American West.
COMMUNITY
B UIL DERS
P E O P L E .
P L A C E .
P R O S P E R I T Y.
817 Colorado Ave, #200
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
970-384-4364
www.communitybuilders.org