The focus of our Conservation Excellence grants has shifted to address changing needs within the conservation community. Our redesigned program strives to foster exploration of complicated issues — i.e., oil and gas development on conserved lands, orphan easements, water, amendments — via pilot projects and/or research so that the conservation community can begin searching for potential solutions. Projects will fall into one or more of four main categories that cover the major challenges and issues: Policy, Standards and Education, Community Engagement, and Stewardship and Long-term Sustainability. Each grant request is limited to $100,000 so that GOCO can spread funds among a variety of projects across Colorado.