invest in youth

About CoalitionWILD

CoalitionWILD has a 9-year history of producing knowledge and capacity-building initiatives, delivering mentorship programs, and supporting youth-led projects to over 1,500 emerging leaders in 120 countries.

CoalitionWILD was born in 2013 at the 10th World Wilderness Congress from the recognition that youth leadership in conservation is an untapped potential for positive change. The initiative was originally designed as a volunteer movement to connect rising leaders passionate about the planet, but we quickly realized that to create meaningful change, young people needed to be equipped with skills, knowledge, and opportunity to take action where it is needed most – at home.

We began taking an action-focused role in youth development in 2015, and continue to facilitate youth leadership through mentorship, providing capacity building opportunities and upskilling programming, and amplify the voices of youth through network connections and storytelling.

CoalitionWILD’s evolution is driven by listening to the needs of the youth we work with, and is shaped by the personal experiences of our youth-team, youth-board, and youth-organizational partners.

We believe young people are the change-agents our planet needs to be a healthy and thriving home for all life.

Young people are more connected, more ambitious, and more impatient than ever before. Armed with a desire to not only want a better future for the planet, but to be a part of the effort it will take to create that future, youth are searching for opportunities to be actively engaged in designing the solutions they seek and using their voice. But taking that first step into leadership is difficult and often isolating and intimidating work. That is where we come in.

CoalitionWILD is building a powerful, globally connected community of emerging leaders to transform the planet through youth-driven solutions. We work to create lasting youth leadership for the planet through capacity building initiatives that produce youth-led action, benefitting both the environment and local communities.

Through working with youth on issues they are passionate about and providing the supportive space for taking risks and attempting new ideas, CoalitionWILD is ensuring that we are not just providing the tools needed to create action, but are imparting in these young leaders the belief that they know how to use those tools best.

Our Mission

CoalitionWILD connects and equips the world’s young change-makers to tackle our planet’s greatest conservation challenges.

Our Vision

A world where younger generations are respected, valued, included, and supported to be active leaders and agents of change in creating a better future for the planet.

Our Mentor

CoalitionWILD is proud to be an official project of the WILD Foundation (WILD), a 501(c)3 organization that has worked internationally to connect and protect people, wildlife, and wild places for over 40 years. WILD’s mission is to protect and restore at least half of Earth’s wild nature to help create the best world possible. It does that by following an approach to conservation that counters the root causes harming nature, which include a lack of respect for Earth’s wildlife and wilderness, and lack of coordination for their protection.

WILD Foundation Logo White
Nature Needs Half Logo White

Our Guiding Principle

Nature Needs Half is an international coalition of scientists, conservationists, non-profits, and public officials working to protect 50% of the planet by 2030. CoalitionWILD supports the Nature Needs Half vision as a member of the coalition and publicly declares its support for a respectful relationship with nature by building momentum for change. Why 50%? And when is it more effective and efficient to protect something: Before or after it has been destroyed?

Our Partners

CoalitionWILD has a 7-year history of producing knowledge and capacity building initiatives, delivering mentorship programs, and building communities in 120 countries to over 1,200 emerging leaders. This wouldn’t be possible without our many partners. These are just some of them.

Conservation Optimism Logo
Worldrise
UN environment programme
Global Youth Biodiversity Network
Capture & Release
World Commission on Protected Areas
Youth 4 Nature
Reserva The Youth Land Trust
Nature For All
Keystone Species Alliance
World Rainforest Day
Youth For Our Planet
Earth Advocacy Youth
The Iris Project
youth for ecocide law logo