Virga Foundation is proud of our grantee’s work and impact within the focus areas of Environmental Stewardship, Indigenous Sovereignty, Youth and Social Empowerment, and The Arts, and we are grateful for the opportunity to help support their efforts, and to learn from their expertise. Below are a few of the fine organizations we support.

Our portfolio of partners is voluminous and below is but a sampling of the efforts to date.

  • Atabey Outdoors

    Atabey Outdoors is a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded in 2020 in Phoenix, Arizona. We are the only BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) led organization providing outdoor adventures to BIPOC youth in the area. Atabey is unique in that currently, 100% of our Outdoor mentors and administrative team are Women of Color (WOC).

  • Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition

    In 2015 leaders from the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe founded the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. As a unique extension of each Tribe’s sovereign authority, The Coalition Tribes are unified in the effort to protect this landscape we call Hoon’Naqvut, Shash Jáa, Kwiyagatu Nukavachi, Ansh An Lashokdiwe, in our Native languages, all of which mean “Bears Ears.” 

  • Logo for Bears Ears Partnership featuring stylized mountains and the organization's name in bold text.

    Bears Ears Partnership

    The Bears Ears Partnership works to protect and build respect for the cultural and natural landscapes of the greater Bears Ears region.

  • Blackhat Humane Society

    A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 2000 near the Blackhat rock formation in the Tse Bonito area of the Navajo Nation. Blackhat works to rescue the over 200,000 abandoned and stray animals on the Navajo Nation and to spay/neuter the animals currently being kept as pets.

  • The Bridge Emergency Shelter

    At The Bridge Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, and Day Labor, we're committed to making a lasting impact in our community. Through a range of programs and initiatives, we work to empower and uplift those in need.

  • Close-up illustration of a butterfly with black wings, orange and white spots, set against a blue background.

    Borderland Restoration Network

    We partner to grow a restorative economy by rebuilding healthy ecosystems, restoring habitat for plants and wildlife, and reconnecting our border communities to the land through shared learning.

  • Buck The Trend Mental Wellness Forum

    Buck the Trend is a pilot mental health forum, run under the 501 c 3 nonprofit organization, Best Horse Practices Summit, for cowboys, farriers, trainers, and others in our horse community. It is a two-and-a-half day, all expenses paid workshop focused on skill-building and elevating the mental health conversation in our community.

  • Chikumbuso Project

    We are a grassroots nonprofit organization in Ng’ombe, Zambia, building brighter futures for the women and children by responding to immediate community needs and building long term resilience through education, micro-enterprise, skills training, and asset-building programs.

  • Companeros Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center

    Compañeros is a grassroots organization dedicated to the mission of empowering immigrants and their families through resource navigation, education, legal services, and community engagement in order to achieve the vision of a diverse, empowered and liberated community of immigrants thriving in Southwest Colorado.

  • Community Organized Relief Effort

    Founded after the 2010 Haiti earthquake by Sean Penn and Ann Lee, CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) is a global humanitarian organization that responds to disasters around the world. We deliver life-saving resources in the immediate aftermath – and empower communities to be self-reliant in the long run.

  • Cortez Cultural Center

    The mission of the Cortez Cultural Center is to provide programs that enrich the lives of our community and its visitors by increasing cultural awareness, promoting the arts, and educating about the area's history, diversity and natural environment.

  • Cycle Kids

    CYCLE Kids is dedicated to helping children build a strong foundation for physical and emotional health so they can succeed in school and in life. We work with schools in underserved communities to ensure every child has the chance to grow with confidence, resilience, and a sense of possibility.

  • Dancing Spirit Center for the Arts

    Our mission is to provide a community arts center that enhances creativity and fellowship; that promotes the education, appreciation and enjoyment of the arts; and that celebrates the cultural heritage of our population.

  • Deer Hill Foundation

    For over 40 years, Deer Hill has created opportunities for youth to authentically connect with self and others through wilderness and reciprocal service learning experiences, providing transformative programs that inspire holistic youth development.

  • Dolores Public Library

    Your community source for knowledge, personal growth, and opportunities for lifelong learning.

  • Dolores River Boating Advocates

    Dolores River Boating Advocates protects and enriches the recreational and ecological values of the Dolores River through advocacy, stewardship and education.

  • Dolores Rotary’s Boggy Draw Beatdown Mountain Bike Race

    This annual race for charity is presented by the Rotary Club of Dolores, a non-profit organization made up entirely of volunteers, where all proceeds go to help the community with children's programs, scholarships, and youth leadership opportunities.

  • Dolores Watershed Collaborative

    Our mission is dedicated to fostering comprehensive resilience across forests, watersheds, communities, and ecosystems at a landscape scale, through collective efforts that are designed to enhance both ecological integrity and community adaptive capacity in the face of profound environmental changes.

  • EV Loves NYC

    EVLovesNYC is committed to ensuring food security and fostering well-being among all NY community members by strategically distributing healthy, nutritious meals directly to those most in need.

  • Flower Hill Institute

    A Native-owned, community-directed nonprofit. Our objectives include preserving and enhancing cultural resources, preparing youth to inherit leadership, improving economic self-sufficiency, agriculture, food sovereignty and security, and improving outcomes to climate change.

  • For Pets’ Sake Humane Society

    Since 1987, For Pets’ Sake is a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to comprehensive animal welfare, supporting both pets and their owners within the Montezuma & Dolores Colorado Counties through a variety of essential services.

  • Forge Project

    Forge Project is a Native-led non-profit organization whose mandate is to cultivate and advance Indigenous leadership in arts and culture.

  • Four Corners Food Coalition

    The Four Corners Food Coalition is dedicated to supporting equitable, community driven, and localized food systems.

  • Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency

    At 4CORE we are dedicated to empowering our community through sustainable practices and innovative energy solutions. By fostering a culture of sustainability, we strive to create a healthier, more resilient future for our region.

  • Four Corners Rising

    4CR is a Navajo-led organization dedicated to fostering healthy, thriving Navajo communities in Northwestern New Mexico. We build trusted partnerships with Navajo community and chapterhouse leaders, supporting their identified chapterhouse development projects as mechanisms for community growth. Augmenting local capacity, 4CR provides essential planning, technical assistance, and financial resources to ensure successful project implementation.

  • Fujill Circle Everest Expedition 2022 badge with mountain silhouette and a hiker in a canyon.

    Full Circle Expeditions

    Full Circle Expeditions inspires, motivates, and globalizes the connection to nature by providing accessible pathways into outdoor activities and industry opportunities. Through education, public speaking, and expeditions, we cultivate inclusive spaces where individuals feel represented, supported, and empowered in their outdoor journeys.

  • Fundamental Needs

    Fundamental Needs is specifically designed to address critical resource shortages within underserved communities through deeply collaborative and community-driven engagement.

  • Illustration of the Grand Canyon with cliffs and a river running through the canyon.

    Grand Canyon Trust

    The Grand Canyon Trust is a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to safeguarding the wonders of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau while supporting the rights of its Native peoples.

  • Great Old Broads For Wilderness

    Great Old Broads for Wilderness is a women-led national grassroots organization that engages and inspires activism to preserve and protect wilderness and wild lands.

  • Good Samaritan Food Pantry

    Good Sam’s Food Pantry, a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, serves as a vital resource dedicated to alleviating food insecurity within its community. The organization is committed to providing essential food assistance to anyone in need, while simultaneously striving to ensure all community members have equitable access to healthy food and supportive connections.

  • Line art logo with mountains, clouds, crescent moon, spiral sun, and a building, with the text 'Heritage Lands Collective' below.

    Heritage Lands Collective

    Heritage Lands Collective, an Indigenous-led 501(c)(3), collaborates with Tribal, Indigenous, and other heritage communities to return, restore, preserve, interpret, and celebrate their ancestral lands. Our primary goal is to center Indigenous knowledge, vision, and community in all forms of land management.

  • The Hopi Foundation

    Our mission is to promote self-sufficiency, proactive community participation, and local self-determination by empowering the Hopi community through the principle of "Help People Help Themselves," embodying the Hopi teaching of "Itam naapyani."

  • IInah Institute

    IINÁH (ee-nah) is a dedicated initiative for indigenous cultural preservation, teaching indigenous lifeways through physical and virtual spaces. It engages native youth, communities, and sincere non-native learners worldwide via community-based learning events, service learning, endangered animal husbandry, and online educational platforms.

  • Indian Country Grassroots Support

    ICGS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit comprised of experienced retired Navajo Nation judges, law professors, and advocates, the organization focuses on making complex federal, state, and tribal laws comprehensible to Diné community members to empower informed decision making.

  • Indigenous LIfeways

    Our mission is to restore the health and balance for all people and our environment by utilizing traditional knowledge and wisdom, respectful land-based practices, ceremonies and a deep understanding of the dynamics and peoples of our communities.

  • KSJD Community Radio & The Sunflower Theater

    The Sunflower Theatre is a program of Community Radio Project (CRP), Inc., a 501c3 non-profit and licensee for KSJD Community Radio based in Cortez, Colorado. The mission of the organization is to inform, entertain and empower the people of the Four Corners Region with arts, culture and public media service.

  • KSUT Tribal Media Center

    KSUT operates as an independent, non-profit public media organization, comprising Four Corners Public Radio and Tribal Radio, whose primary mission is to serve the surrounding Four Corners areas through dedicated Native American programming.

  • Lost Canyon Bike And Skate Park

    A non-profit organization dedicated to developing an outdoor all-wheel recreational facility in Dolores, CO featuring a combination of a modern skate park, a dedicated bike park, and an asphalt pump track, distinguishing it as only the eighth hybrid park of its kind in the United States.

  • Make The Road New York

    Make the Road New York builds the power of immigrant and working-class communities to achieve dignity and justice through survival Services, transformative education, community organizing & policy innovation.

  • Red background with large white text reads 'Mancos Common Press'.

    Mancos Common Press

    The Mission of the Mancos Common Press is to establish the historic Mancos Times-Tribune building and its extension as a center for education, the Printers Art, and as a catalyst in cultivating a thriving community.

  • Mancos Gear Share

    The MGS is a nonprofit, community-sponsored project dedicated to creating opportunities for local families, youth, and groups that have been historically underrepresented and underserved to experience outdoor spaces and activities.

  • Media Justice

    MediaJustice builds power to challenge how corporations and governments use media and technology to shape our collective future.

  • Montezuma County Heritage Museum

    Our mission is to educate, enrich and inspire Montezuma County residents and visitors through the preservation, presentation and interpretation of the region’s rich and diverse history.

  • Logo of the Mount Tezuma Land Conservancy featuring a mountain, green fields, red soil or rock formations, and a blue sky with stylized clouds.

    Montezuma Land Conservancy

    Montezuma Land Conservancy (MLC) is an innovative land trust working to protect lands and connect community to our natural world in beautiful Southwest Colorado.

  • Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project

    MORP seeks to accomplish its vision of southwestern Colorado being renowned for an orchard culture and economy based on the legendary quality and diversity of Montezuma Valley Fruits through preservation, education and outreach and cultural and economic revitalization.

  • Moxiecran Media

    Moxiecran Media is a full service production company specializing in natural resource education, documentary film and photography, unpacking the complexities of our built and natural environments through visual journalism & multimedia production.

  • NACA-Inspired Schools Network

    NISN supports leaders in Indigenous communities to develop a network of schools providing rigorous academic curriculum aimed at college preparation while also promoting Indigenous culture, identity, and community investment.

  • A circular logo with the text 'Navajo YéS' around the top. The design features a black tipi tent, a campfire, mountains, a bridge, water, and a sunset in the background.

    Navajo Yes

    Our mission is to promote community wellness, lifelong fitness and youth empowerment in communities across Dine’ Bikeyah.

  • Outdoor Afro

    Outdoor Afro celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature. Our national not-for-profit organization reconnects Black people to our lands, water, and wildlife through outdoor education, recreation, and conservation.

  • The Pinon Project

    The Piñon Project Family Resource Center strengthens our community by providing comprehensive services for children and families.

  • Reaching Out To Community & Kids (ROCK)

    Our mission is to build a healthier, stronger, and more prosperous community by providing food relief, youth and family enrichment, and community events.

  • Logo for the River Radius Podcast with a wave design and text in blue and dark teal

    River Radius Podcast

    A podcast that works to capture the culture of those running rivers, working on and with rivers, using water from rivers and conserving the quality of rivers.

  • Saigon Children’s Charity-USA

    We provide financial support to proven and trusted organizations working on the ground in Vietnam to serve the educational and career development needs of disadvantaged students, their families and their communities.

  • Southwest Memorial Hospital Foundation

    Our mission is to provide the highest quality health care to the Four Corners community by bringing excellence, value and service together to promote, improve and restore health.

  • Tonizhoniani

    Our Mission is to protect the water of Black Mesa from industry use and waste. We work to bring power back to our Indigenous communities impacted by coal. Our work is rooted in protecting our water—Tó bee iiná. Water is life.

  • UK Med

    UK-Med is a frontline medical NGO, saving lives in emergencies. When health services are overwhelmed by disasters, disease outbreaks or conflict UK-Med gets expert health staff to where they’re needed fast. UK-Med helps health staff worldwide prepare for future crises.

  • Vera Institute of Justice

    Vera is a national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders to end the criminalization and mass incarceration of people of color, immigrants, and people experiencing poverty.

  • Wildlife At Risk

    Wildlife At Risk (WAR) is dedicated to the long-term conservation of Vietnam’s threatened biodiversity. It aims to combat the illegal wildlife trade and promote the conservation of endangered species and their habitats.