On Friday, December 5, 2025, family, friends, civic leaders, and community members came together to celebrate the life of State Senator Faith Winter. People shared how she inspired and helped women get elected to office, and how she ‘moved mountains’ to pass measures to ensure Colorado workers had access to paid family and parental leave and dozens of climate and conservation priorities to clean our air and water.
Gov. Jared Polis said Winter leaves a legacy of “fearlessness and of giving back” (source). She deeply cared about the community and fought for climate protections, working families, and gender equity.
Those who knew her spoke about how she carried her values into every committee room and every debate. She was known for her compassion, her courage, her fairness, and the belief that the government’s job was to lift people up. She was remembered not just for mentoring women, but for championing them – working hard to open doors and encouraging them to take on leadership roles. Faith took risks on others and refused to let hard moments stop forward progress.
After the memorial service, several long-time colleagues of Faith gathered and realized that they all had been thinking about ways to honor Faith. This conversation sparked the idea to create a fellowship that would continue her legacy of climate and conservation progress while also creating the type of career opportunities for women that she had devoted much of her career to advancing. Peter Kirsch, board chair at The Denver Foundation and founding partner at the law firm Kaplan Kirsch LLC, who was part of the conversation, offered The Denver Foundation’s expertise in establishing and housing the fund.
From that idea, the group formed the Faith Winter Climate and Conservation Fellowship Fund.
“Senator Winter was a friend and partner in fighting for policy change on the most pressing issues facing Colorado. This fund will ensure that we continue in Faith’s footsteps to take bold actions to improve our transportation system and tackle the climate crisis. We need more compassionate and aggressive fighters like Faith, and the fellowship will help grow the next generation of fighters,” said Kirsch.
About the Faith Winter Climate and Conservation Fellowship
The group agreed the fund will be used to support a two-year position at a Colorado climate and conservation organization, intended for early-career women. The fellowship will train and inspire emerging leaders to take on greater responsibility in the environmental community, equip them with the advocacy skills Faith used to drive social change, and build their network.
It will create an opportunity for the type of investment and mentorship that Faith both benefited from early in her career and that she paid forward to support the career trajectory of many others.
Faith got her start as an organizer in the environmental movement—first as an intern with the Colorado Environmental Coalition and then training with Green Corps to hone her grassroots skills before landing at EnviroCitizen. As her career progressed, the foundation she built in her early years shaped her commitment to organizing and building the relationships needed to bring about change.
The inaugural fellowship will be housed at Conservation Colorado, where Faith served as program and political director at a formative time in her career. Then, every two years, the advisory committee will oversee an application process to determine the host organization for the next Fellowship.
By strengthening local nonprofits, advancing Colorado’s climate leadership, and developing the next generation of community organizers, the program amplifies Faith’s legacy while building lasting impact for years to come.
“Faith and I worked side by side in our early years in the environmental movement, and her grit was evident from the start—she rolled up her sleeves on the hard things, like community-level organizing, when others would step away. It was transformative for her—as it is for anyone—to work with and be mentored by colleagues who shared her commitment to building relationships and networks for change. I’m excited for this fellowship to extend her legacy by creating opportunities for the next generation of women leaders in Colorado to be mentored within advocacy nonprofits committed to building lasting power through organizing,” Pam Kiely, inaugural advisory committee member.
The initial goal is to raise $1.5 million to support a decade of fellows who will organize in support of Colorado’s national climate leadership. Please note that contributions to or sponsorship of this 501(c)(3) fellowship fund are tax-deductible. Learn more here.
To learn more about opening a legacy fund, contact our team at information@denverfoundation.org or 303.300.1790.
