Unfunded but Unrelenting: Trail Stewardship Without Grants, Recognition, or Profit

Webinar Outline

Trail stewardship conversations are often dominated by nonprofits, agencies, and grant-funded coalitions, leaving for-profit entities in a difficult position. Even when they do have a seat at the table, their contributions are often undervalued or misunderstood. 

In this candid and thought-provoking session, John Lacroix, Race Director of the Human Potential Running Series (HPRS), shares what it’s like to be a mission-driven for-profit business doing trail work and advocacy, without access to grants, and often at a financial loss. While other groups bring hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding, John brings something different: people, purpose, and persistence. 

With over 3,100 volunteer trail work hours organized through HPRS and more than 400 hours of personal contribution, John offers a grounded model of stewardship rooted in sustainability, not scale. His approach asks: What if doing the work well mattered more than growing it fast? What if community care, consistency, and direct action counted just as much as fundraising? 

This webinar challenges assumptions about legitimacy in the trail space. It highlights the overlooked role that for-profit entities can play in building resilient, land-first stewardship systems, without chasing dollars to prove their worth.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the structural and cultural dynamics that undervalue for-profit contributions to trail stewardship and advocacy.
• Examine a real-world model (HPRS) for community-powered trail work that operates outside of grant-funded systems.
• Explore how sustainability, consistency, and place-based purpose can offer an alternative to growth- and grant-driven stewardship models.
• Identify practical ways to better include and leverage for-profit expertise, capacity, and on-the-ground commitment in future trail planning and partnerships.

Trail Competencies

• Project Planning and Design
• • Stakeholder Engagement

• Program Administration
• • Funding/Grants
• • Partnership and Collaboration

Relevant Trail Types

General. All trail types are relevant.