American Farmland Trust
Working nationwide to protect farmland from suburban sprawl -- by working with individual farmers and communities, and by promoting better public policies at the local, state and federal level, and by educating the public. 

American Planning Association
APA is a non-profit, public interest organization representing 30,000 practicing planners, elected and appointed officials, and citizens involved in urban and rural planning  issues. APA's members believe that sound planning is essential to meeting our nation's economic, environmental and community development needs. Sixty-five percent of the members work in state and local government agencies, helping citizens define the kind of community they want to live in and developing policies, plans, and land use regulations responding to those desires. APA is working with the other organizations to disseminate "best practice" techniques for encouraging citizen participation, reforming state and local planning  frameworks, and promoting sustainable development patterns. 

Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy
The Center has special expertise on regional governance issues and seeks to shape a new generation of urban policies that will help build strong cities and metropolitan regions.  In collaboration with leading scholars and practitioners nationwide, the Brookings Center is launching a series of original research and policy projects to help inform national debates and
provide practical policy options for key decisionmakers. 

Community Rights Counsel
Community Rights Counsel (CRC) is a non-profit, public interest law firm established in 1997 to assist local communities in protecting the public interest through appropriate land use controls.  CRC provides strategic assistance to local government attorneys in defending smart growth controls, environmental safeguards, and other community protections. CRC also conducts litigation workshops, helps local governments secure amicus support, and, in critical cases, provides free representation to state and local governments. 

The Conservation Fund
Through a range of activities, The Conservation Fund is involved in sprawl-reduction and community revitalization and has protected 1,400,000 acres of land, sponsored regional conferences on the sustainable use of land, promoted efforts to revitalize the Land and Water
Conservation Act and has provided more than 250 grants and loans for greenway and trail projects that enhances the livability of communities. 

Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI)
EESI has been involved in smart growth issues since 1995, focusing on the federal role in creating and perpetuating the sprawl problem.  EESI conducts cngressional briefings and other activities to inform Members of Congress and other federal policymakers about the adverse environmental, economic and social consequences of sprawl and federal policy options to
encourage smart growth at the state and local level.  EESI has emphasized the relationshiop between federal transportation and water policies and smart growth. 

Environmental Law Institute (ELI)
ELI operates an on-going collaborative program devoted to promoting the sustainable use of urban, suburban, and rural land at the state and local levels. The objective of ELI’s Sustainable Use of Land Program is to encourage land use and development patterns that help preserve natural resources, support community, and ensure lasting economic vitality. The Institute works in collaboration with state and local partners to formulate and implement options for overcoming barriers to sustainable land use found in local, state, and federal law. ELI develops creative alternatives to promote vibrant communities with sound economic, environmental,  transportation, and public infrastructure policies. 

National Council for Urban Economic Development
CUED's mission is to develop and revitalize communities.  CUED promotes strategies and disseminates information to its  largely public-sector membership to aid in urban revitalization efforts. 

National Neighborhood Coalition
The NNC is an umbrella organization of national nonprofits, networks of community, neighborhood and faith-based organizations and other advocates who are committed to promoting socially and economically healthy, vibrant neighborhoods. 

National Main Street Center of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
The Main Street Center helps communities to rebuild the economic strength of their traditional commercial districts.  The Center helps communities build strong partnerships, develop an in-depth understanding of the regional economic opportunities, and capitalize on the unique
environment their historic commercial buildings provide. 

National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust provides information, technical assistance and advice to organizations and individuals working to preserve their communities and avoid urban sprawl. Concerned with the community disinvestment  NTHP has conducted a wide variety of activities that include promotion of federal  transportation and tax policies that encourage community revitilization
and the rehabilitation of historic houses. 

National Wildlife Federation
The National Wildlife Federations smart growth policy framework protects and restores wildlife threatened by sprawl. Their Smart Growth and Wildlife campaign advocates for land use policy reforms at the federal, state and local levels for the benefit of imperiled wildlife.  Working in  coalition with other smart growth advocates, NWF will work to improve environmental laws, to increase conservation funding, to develop mechanisms for targeting conservation funds toward protection of the most imperilled habitats, and to re-route government subsidies away from
developments that would destroy imperilled habitats to more thoughtful developments. 

Natural Resources Defense Council
Through a range of projects, NRDC is extensively involved in fighting the negative impacts of urban/suburban sprawl in cities and towns across the country.  NRDCís multidisciplinary approach to sprawl can be summarized in three primary categories - influencing metropolitan growth patterns, reducing damages to the natural environment, and strengthening our cities. 

The Northeast-Midwest Institute
Formed in the mid-1970's to address regional approaches to restoring environmental and economic vitality to the 18-state region, the Institute has become a leader in linking sustainability with economic development through its brownfield, smart growth, and energy efficiency programs.  The Institute's Urban Environment Program explores the impacts of federal programs and policies at the local level, and educates key constituencies in its states and through the Northeast-Midwest Congressional and Senate Coalitions.  Program staff have published a number of reports, case studies, and legislative summaries and matrices on the subjects of brownfields and smart growth. 

Scenic America
Scenic America is a national nonprofit membership organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing the scenic character of America's communities and countryside. Scenic America's Smart Growth/Scenic Stewardship initiative helps state and local activists protect the natural beauty and distinctive character of their communities with technical assistance on          billboard and on-premise sign control; place-sensitive highway design; design review; scenic byways programs; and cellular tower siting, tree preservation ordinances; scenic resource identification, including using GIS mapping; and ridgeline protection.  Scenic America produces a full range of publications on preserving scenic beauty, open space, and quality of life
that contribute to our environment and economy. 

Smart Growth America
Smart Growth America is a new coalition promoting a better way to grow; one that protects open space, revitlaizes neighborhoods, keeps housing affordable, and makes communities more livable.  Smart Growth America is a coaltion of many local, statewide and national organizations already involved in smart growth. 

Sierra Club
The objective of the Sierra Club's  national Challenge to Sprawl Campaign is to provide materials, winning campaign strategies, training and funding to better equip Sierra Club volunteers and staff to change sprawling suburban development patterns faced by their communities. Challenge to Sprawl activists are making use of high-profile approaches which are easy to reproduce in areas across the country: These include grading public officials on sprawl-related votes and crafting local "Sprawl Costs Us All" reports which document the economic costs of sprawl. 

Smart Growth Network
The Smart Growth Network encourages development that is environmentally, fiscally, and economically smart and helps create national, regional and local coalitions to support smart growth.  The Smart Growth Network's partners work with the US Environmental Protection Agency's Urban and Economic Development Division on outreach programs, technical assistance, research, publications, and other collaborative projects. 

Surface Transportation Policy Project
STPP promotes open, accessible, planning processes regarding transportation policies, and transportation  investments that achieve environmental, economic, and social equity principles.  STPP played a major role, and is very knowledgeable about, the federal intermodel  Surface Transportation Efficiency Act and TEA 21 on federal highway policy. 

Trust for Public Land
The Trust for Public Land practices a unique blend of market-based entrepreneurial conservation.  TPL works in collaboration with communities and organizations around the country to bring private land into public ownership and to help create parks, greenways, riverways and to protect those traditional landscapes that define the character of where we live.  TPL helps communities acquire endangered open space, create urban parks and promote bond issues to purchase open spaces.