In its fifth decade, Aspen Community School was on the brink of being a school without a schoolhouse. They had just eight months to meet a challenge grant: raise $4.9M or lose $9.1M on the table.

The urgency of climate change begs a question: How do you get people’s attention in a way that moves them to action? That’s the dilemma the nonprofit Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) faces each day in its mission to create a carbon-free, net-zero energy future.

Just two months before the election, Aspen City Council authorized a ballot measure to lift the cap on funding for arts and culture from the Wheeler Opera House’s real estate transfer tax. The stakes were high, the shot was long, and the timeframe was short.