Association of Partners for Public Lands
Engaging the public in caring for our nation's natural and cultural resources

Vision:

Through the vital network of partnerships advanced by the Association of Partners for Public Lands (APPL), we work for the day when all people share the joy and inspiration of our natural world and collective heritage.

Values, Our Guiding Principles:

Public lands are essential to our health and soul as a nation.

• We recognize and promote the rich diversity of America’s public lands and the unique cultural and historic connections of all people to these places.
• We regard caring for our public lands as a shared responsibility.
• We believe that fostering an informed and educated public leads to responsible actions.

Nonprofit partnerships are indispensable to public understanding and stewardship of our nation’s public lands.

• We uphold and advance the knowledge, leadership, civic engagement, and philanthropic capabilities of nonprofits.
• We value the resiliency and adaptability of nonprofit organizations as partners with public agencies.
• We celebrate the passion, commitment and dedication of our nonprofit members and partners.

We model the values we seek to instill in all public lands partnerships.

• We are committed to inclusiveness and are strengthened by the collective impact of many voices that share a common purpose.
• We are engaged in involving the next generations of leaders in our efforts.
• We bridge tradition with new ideas, maintaining our relevancy through efforts that our visionary, educational, adaptive and collaborative.
• Our work is characterized by communication, transparency, and accountability.

Organizational Mission:

The Association of Partners for Public Lands (APPL) fosters stewardship and appreciation of public lands and historic sites through effective partnerships. This is achieved through three areas of program emphasis:

Capacity Building enhances the capabilities of APPL’s not-for-profit member organizations and public lands agency partners to achieve mutual missions through the delivery of training, consultation, and educational resources. Our goal is to provide each of our member organizations and agency partners with access to the tools and the resources to achieve peak performance. As a result, APPL members and partners carry out their work in productive relationships that are characterized by a high degree of mutual understanding, shared goals, and effective communication.

Government Relations provides timely input to key decision makers on policies and practices that impact APPL members’ abilities to achieve organizational and agency missions. We advocate for the value, benefit, and sustainability of not-for-profit partnerships in achieving public lands agency missions. As a result, APPL members become engaged in and benefit from representational efforts focused to their purpose and functions. Agencies seek APPL input on policies and practices regarding partnerships with not-for-profit organizations.

Information and Dialogue provide relevant, timely and directed communications with and between APPL stakeholders, including members, agency partners, vendors, and other like-mission organizations. Our goals are to provide our membership and agency partners with up-to-date, factual, and useful information; and to engage our membership in productive dialogue with one another and with partners at the decision-making level. As a result, APPL members are informed and meaningfully engaged in discussions and decision-making. Agencies look to APPL as an informed resource, providing a not-for-profit partner’s perspective.

Each of these program areas are reinforced by the following strategic priorities that will ensure the achievement of our vision in a manner consistent with our values, and supported by adequate financial resources:

• Diversity and Generational Inclusiveness
• Collaborative Stewardship
• Marketing and Public Awareness
• Membership
• Governance, Operations and Finance

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