Want to Help Fix Your Local Hiking Trails? Now There’s an App for That

A new platform launching this month aims to connect hikers and other trail users with the teams who steward their favorite areas. Trailfunds, founded by a group of Colorado-based hikers, will make it easier for users to donate and learn about local nonprofit organizations and their efforts to maintain, repair, and otherwise champion trail systems in their purview.

“What we’re really setting out to provide is a way to connect people to the nonprofits that basically support them in the outdoors,” says Chris Rizzo, head of product at Trailfunds.

Trailfunds will feature a location-based notification system to engage hikers wherever they go. When a user is in proximity of a trail in the Trailfunds system, the app will notify them what organization stewards that trail, provide updates on any recent or ongoing trail projects in the area, and prompt them to donate, join a mailing list, or even volunteer. The hope is that Trailfunds will bring hikers, runners, bikers, and other trail users closer to the organizations that support them, even when they visit trails far from home. It will also allow nonprofits to extend their reach to users outside of their membership bases and local communities.

Rizzo says he feels there’s a disconnect between trail users who want to contribute and the resources for them to really help. He and his team aim to bridge that gap.

“What we’re giving trail orgs is a platform to talk about what they do and then hopefully receive donations from some of the trail users,” he says.

Rizzo also says Trailfunds will be a “one stop” where hikers can “see where they are, who’s doing work in the area, what they’re doing, and supporting them.”

As trail nonprofits and maintenance crews suffer massive defunding under the Trump administration, the Trailfunds mission is all the more prevalent.

“With all of this defunding, trail maintenance is always at risk of taking a backseat, and that’s really where we want to make sure that these orgs are kind of supported,” says Rizzo. “Once you start to look at what it takes to really build and maintain a trail, it’s an astonishing amount of man hours, and we just want to try and ease the burden there and give people a chance to really contribute.”

Rizzo hopes that Trailfunds will facilitate the outdoor community as a way to pool money and resources in a collective effort to protect public lands. The team envisions a future where they can eventually grow beyond the world of trail stewardship to serve search and rescue teams, wildfire prevention efforts, and other projects that support outdoor recreation.

“There’s a huge opportunity to connect people with a lot of these organizations that do great work across the state of Colorado and and beyond, but that also provides the ability to get involved in multiple different ways,” Rizzo says.

The app, which is in beta testing at the moment, will roll out locally to Colorado users over Memorial Day weekend. Trailfunds plans to eventually serve a nationwide network of trail users and stewardship organizations.