SPIRIT of the Front Range is a backbone nonprofit
supporting local resilience and bioregional regeneration.
We care for what we share.
We belong to more places than we have names for.
Here in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, we live in our homes, within our different neighborhoods, and we also live in an ecology, in a bioregion, in a watershed. We drink from an aquifer shared by every being around us. The mountain air we each breathe knows nothing of county lines. Sharing this place, we are all connected to each other through the lands that hold us here.
If you live on the Earth, you are sharing a home.
Core to the philosophy of SPIRIT of the Front Range is the recognition that the most meaningful unit of collective life is not the county or the state; it is the bioregion. The bioregion is the living landscape that we share, defined by watershed, ecology, and the human and other-than-human communities nested within them.
We are not separate from the natural world all around us. Nature is what we are, just like a forest, a high-mountain desert, or a wetland ecology. The wellness of the places we call home, and of all those residing there, is determined by the ways in which we steward and care for this home — this land, this air, these waters, our neighborhoods, our kin.
“Our mutual relationship to where we live implies our mutual responsibility for that place. This relationship cannot be enclosed because it is, by definition, a commons.
The bioregion exists as a shared ecological context that shapes and sustains all life within its boundaries. Any attempt to privatize or control this relationship fundamentally misunderstands the nature of biological identity.” — Benjamin Life
SPIRIT is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit building the connective tissue for bioregional coordination along Colorado's Front Range.
This institution exists to serve the Commons, not to perpetuate itself. We are a nonprofit that acts as the vessel that interfaces with the existing world of foundations, governments, and formal partnerships. We are a transitional stewardship team handling the institutional work: education and programming, grant management, fiscal sponsorship, and legal operations.
This programming and organization aims towards the establishment of the Front Range Commons.
The Front Range Commons
The FRC is a proposal-in-formation for a decentralized, member-governed network dedicated to cultural and ecological stewardship, and community-led resource allocation. The FRC intends to be a space where anyone can contribute, propose projects, share resources, and participate in organizational governance.
-
(noun): A geographically and hydrologically defined area characterized by distinct ecological features that together form a coherent biocultural home.
A geographically and hydrologically defined area characterized by distinct ecological features that together form a coherent biocultural home. The Front Range is one: a long, narrow corridor where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains, defined by its watersheds, its transitional ecologies, and the communities that call it home. -
"The Commons" points to the living realities of shared place — the commonality of the ecologies and resources for which all residents of a place share responsibility, and on which all residents depend. It is not an abstraction. It is the water you drink, the air you breathe, the soil that grows your food, and the relationships that sustain your community.
-
A Bioregional Commons recognizes the wellbeing of human and natural systems (neighborhoods, watersheds, ecosystems, soil) as shared resources that the people who live in and depend on that land collectively steward.
-
Bioregional Commoning is a living movement that roots in place. That’s what makes it radical, from the Latin (radix – “root”). It is rooting and growing.
Commoning on a bioregional level directs our attentions and energies to where we can directly relate to the consequences of our stewardship, labor, and care. You cannot fork a watershed. You cannot exit a wildfire. We are in this together, and the only question is whether we build the relationships and tools to coordinate well.
Communities around the world are developing similar models — from Catalonia to Cascadia to the Great Lakes. What makes the Front Range Commons distinctive is its grounding in a specific place with specific relationships, and its partnership with SPIRIT that allows it to interface with the institutional world while maintaining the autonomy of its members.
We believe the next generation of civic infrastructure will not come from legislatures or Silicon Valley. It will come from communities that learn to govern their shared resources with care, creativity, and mutual accountability.
Our interdependence is the basis of our mutual responsibility for care and reciprocity.
WHY WE AREWe know the way is together.
SPIRIT exists to empower, weave, and coordinate a distributed movement of local leaders engaged in economic re-localization, indigenous revitalization, neighborhood resilience, and bioregional regeneration. By lifting up and connecting existing regenerative initiatives, projects, organizations, and communities, SPIRIT serves as connective tissue for the bioregional movement on the Front Range.
We work for the Front Range Commons by building shared infrastructure, creating community-led grant-making rounds, and making regular rhythms of convening to nourish and connect the tenders of this place. Eventually, the Board of SPIRIT, we pray, will be comprised of indigenous leaders, elders, and devoted civic stewards who represent the demography of this bioregion.
Remembering our embedded belonging to the living world invites us to reimagine our social, cultural, and economic systems in accordance with ecological webs of relationships.
Four pillars to activate the Front Range Commons
ALLOCATION
Flowing resources to projects that regenerate our bioregion through quadratic funding for projects and mutual aid.
COORDINATION
Providing tools for coordination, collaboration, distributed decision-making and treasuries.
CULTURING
Fueling culture and ethics through gatherings, skill-shares, and trainings
BELONGING
Fostering a shared bioregional identity and facilitating exchange with other bioregions.
WAYS TO CONNECT INLive and Upcoming Programs
SPIRIT's programs create living pathways into bioregional participation and real connection with heart-led humans who are ready to grow into real local stewardship together. Check our calendar for dates for Solidarity Suppers, Commons Teach-Ins, and Neighborhood Resiliency Programs.
Other ways to Get involved.
Learn more about becoming a founding member of the FRC, how to join working groups, and share what you know.
SUPPORT THE WORKFunding the Commons
SPIRIT of the Front Range is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your financial contribution supports programming, community-led allocation rounds, and the shared infrastructure that makes a flourishing bioregion possible.
Every donation moves toward a more resilient, more connected Front Range — through Commons Teach-Ins that open understanding, Solidarity Suppers that deepen relationship, Neighborhood Resiliency Programs that build real preparedness, and Regenerative Project Allocation Rounds that put resources directly in the hands of the communities doing the most vital work.
Feeling inspired? Let’s weave.
Inquiries. Projects. Partnerships. Knowledge. Questions?
We would love to hear from you.