CWA Blog Archive-Nonprofit Member Spotlight Access Fund

Nonprofit Member Spotlight Access Fund

Pdf Summary

This nonprofit spotlight highlights the Access Fund and CWA Dual Membership Program, launched the previous May to help gyms more easily educate climbers on transitioning into outdoor climbing. The program is framed as a way for indoor facilities to help ensure both indoor and outdoor climbing are protected for generations to come. By supporting it, gym owners, operators, and instructors gain access to educational resources on climbing ethics from Access Fund, described as a vibrant community dedicated to conserving the most threatened climbing areas. The article situates this within the CWA's broader philosophy about the climbing community's diversity. It emphasizes that there are no one-size-fits-all categories in climbing, the community isn't just single-location commercial gyms or multi-state companies, not just wall manufacturers or hold sculptors, but a dynamic community serving all members of the industry. As the industry has grown in popularity, the CWA wanted to highlight important work being done by the nonprofit community to support indoor climbing's development. That includes both organizations forging partnerships between the indoor and outdoor worlds, like Access Fund, and those dedicated to building a more diverse, accessible, and open climbing community. The throughline is that the indoor and outdoor climbing worlds are interconnected, and that gyms have a role in stewarding outdoor climbing's future by educating the climbers they introduce to the sport. Through the Dual Membership Program, the CWA and Access Fund make it easier for gyms to teach climbing ethics and conservation, helping ensure that as indoor climbing funnels more people toward the crag, those climbers understand how to protect the outdoor areas they'll visit. The spotlight positions Access Fund as a key nonprofit partner and frames supporting outdoor conservation as part of the responsibility that comes with being the sport's primary entry point, protecting climbing access, indoor and outdoor alike, for the future.

Asset Caption

A nonprofit spotlight on the Access Fund and CWA Dual Membership Program, which helps gyms educate climbers on transitioning outdoors and on climbing ethics. It frames indoor and outdoor climbing as interconnected, giving gyms a role in conserving threatened climbing areas as they funnel newcomers toward the crag, protecting access for generations.