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The affiliate network

Keep America Beautiful Affiliates Are The Backbone of Our Work

A nationwide network of community-based organizations that clean, green, beautify and restore the places they live.

Are you looking for a local event or affiliate, or do you want to organize your own event?

Don’t have time to sign up for an upcoming volunteer event, but still want to make a difference?

The Keep America Beautiful Affiliate network is The Backbone of Our Work

700 strong, our nationwide network of affiliates works hard every day to clean, green, beautify and restore our nation.

What do affiliates do? Each and every year, affiliates:

Organize millions of volunteers

Educate hundreds of thousands of students and citizens

Plan and organize thousands of cleanup, recycling, beautification and restoration events

Partner with hundreds of local companies and organizations helping to clean, green, and beautify communities everywhere

Provide priceless work to clean and protect our waterways, roadways and open spaces

Who Are KAB Affiliates?

Keep America Beautiful is proud to be one of the premier civic organizations in the United States. Our volunteers work through a network of community-based organizations called affiliates.

These affiliates range from small, community-run organizations, all the way up to large state-wide organizations, municipal governments, and corporate partners. All of our affiliates work together with a common purpose, combining education with hands-on stewardship to address the needs of communities on an intensely local and effective level.

Shared purpose and values

Shared purpose

The purpose of KAB is to inspire and educate individuals to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment.

Shared beliefs

We believe we are better together.

  • Diversity and experience are our strengths By working together and actively leveraging the vast set of experiences, expertise and viewpoints across the KAB network, we will accomplish more and accomplish better.

Shared values

Proactive collaboration.

  • Anticipate who to involve to get to a better solution and who else would benefit from the sharing of information, considering impact across the network
  • Create atmosphere where all individuals can thrive, contribute and be respected

Open, transparent and timely engagement

  • Discussion and debate are welcome
  • Active listening, seeking to understand
  • Timely and direct feedback in the moment

Aspiration, Hunger, Humility

  • Shared desire to achieve something greater than any of us can accomplish on our own
  • Roll up our sleeves to get the job done. Do what we say we are going to do.
  • Learn from errors, ask for help and forgive mistakes
  • Acknowledge different viewpoints that went into a decision and then championing collective work moving forward as “we decided”
  • Recognize and celebrating when someone else supports something that is not ideal for them individually but is in the best interest of the whole

Integrity

  • Do the right thing to achieve our shared purpose.

Affiliates In Action: Formula for Success

Since 1953, our organization has provided a replicable framework for neighborhoods, municipalities, and organizations across the nation who seek to End Littering, Improve Recycling and Beautify America’s Communities.

Using the fundamentals of the field-tested, time-proven Keep America Beautiful Model for Change System, our affiliates reach deep into communities to effect meaningful, positive and lasting change. This change is accomplished by delivering innovative, locally-focused programs that address individual community needs.

Our network of affiliates engage volunteers and promote local action, unlocking the potential in every local community.

Here are just a few examples of our amazing affiliates in action:

April 2023 Affiliate of the Month – Keep Coral Gables Beautiful

April 5, 2023 · McCall Vrydaghs

STAMFORD, Conn. (April 5, 2023) – Keep America Beautiful® is proud to announce the April 2023 Affiliate of the Month – Keep Coral Gables Beautiful in south Florida. In this KAB initiative, we feature the great work being done in our network of 700 certified affiliates. Like our March Affiliate of the Month, Keep Indian River Beautiful, they are being recognized for the Innovation Award they received from KAB in 2021. The Keep America Beautiful Innovation Award salutes affiliates that have created innovative partnerships and programs to further the mission of Keep America Beautiful. Keep Coral Gables Beautiful received the award for the modern way they conducted their Litter Index. The Litter Index uses a comprehensive annual assessment to gather data to assess the overall appearance of communities using quantifiable indicators such as litter, illegal signs, graffiti, and more. Q&A with Keep Coral Gables Co-Executive Directors Solanch Lopez and Matthew Anderson Tell us about the staff and volunteers at Keep Coral Gables Beautiful. Solanch LopezI knew of Keep America Beautiful and the affiliate network from my time interning at another city that had an affiliate. During this time, I saw everything that they were doing there; a little light bulb […]

KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF 2022 NATIONAL AWARDS

January 9, 2023 · McCall Vrydaghs

STAMFORD, Conn. (January 9, 2023) – Keep America Beautiful®, the nation’s leading community improvement nonprofit organization, has recognized 26 community organizations and individuals through its 2022 National Awards program. The Keep America Beautiful National Awards program celebrates the work of its nearly 700 community-based affiliates, millions of volunteers and participants, and corporate and community partners for their commitment to end littering, improve recycling, and beautify America’s communities. Winners were selected in the following categories: Individual Achievement Awards: Lady Bird Johnson Award Innovation Awards:  State and Local Affiliate Innovation AwardsState Agency Partnership Recognition Awards“Congratulations to the affiliates, state agencies, and individuals in the 2022 award group. You are the leaders of our work to clean, green, and beautify communities across America and the heart of our movement,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO, Jennifer Lawson. “Each awardee represents hours of service and commitment, willingness to try new things and invest time, talent and resources to do the work that translates into stronger and more vibrant communities. Your leadership is ours to follow and we are grateful.”Liz Davis is the recipient of the Keep America Beautiful Lady Bird Johnson Award. This award is a gender-neutral recognition for an outstanding volunteer. Named […]

COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY UNITE TO STOMP-OUT AND RECYCLE CIGARETTE LITTER IN HONOR OF AMERICA RECYCLES DAY

November 15, 2022 · McCall Vrydaghs

TerraCycle and Local Keep America Beautiful Chapters Team-Up to Beautify Spaces & Recycle the World’s Most Littered Item while Earning Donations for Nonprofits TRENTON, NJ (November 15, 2022) – In recognition of America Recycles Day, TerraCycle, the world’s leader in the collection and recycling of complex waste streams, has joined forces with local chapters of the non-profit, Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s largest community improvement organization, to collect and recycle the world’s most littered item – cigarette butts. TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Free Recycling Program invites community organizations, nonprofits and local municipalities to place cigarette butt collection receptacles in highly-trafficked areas to collect cigarette waste while beautifying their neighborhoods in the process. Keep America Beautiful offers grants to local KAB chapters, non-affiliate NGOs, municipalities, etc. for the purchasing of these receptacles and gives them the capability to conduct cigarette litter assessments and launch consumer messaging campaigns. As an added bonus, $1.00 is donated towards Keep America Beautiful’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program for every pound of cigarette waste collected. Below are highlights from some of the most prolific Keep America Beautiful chapters that are participating in the cigarette recycling program: ● Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful – As part of implementing a statewide litter […]

KAB Volunteers By The Numbers

Last year alone, over 400,000 hard-working volunteers logged more than 2.9 Million volunteer hours over the course of over 60,000 events. What did our combined service to our communities accomplish?

69,689,184 POUNDS

Of litter and recycling collected

146,647 acres

Cleaned of litter

59,874 MILES

Of streets, roads, and highways cleaned and beautified

7,461 MILES

Of rivers, lakes, wetlands and shores cleaned

31,899 TREES

Planted, helping to restore communities

The network

700 strong, and intensely local

700

Affiliates nationwide

Source: Keep America Beautiful (kab.org/about/affiliate-network)

Three ways in

A large group of Keep Albuquerque Beautiful volunteers in yellow Cleanup Month shirts holds shovels and rakes in front of a city dump truck, mountains behind them under a clear desert sky.

Find your affiliate

Search by place and connect with the Keep America Beautiful affiliate leading action in your community.

Eight Keep Oklahoma Beautiful volunteers stand beside a tall pile of filled black trash bags on a gravel path at a wooded lakeside.

Become an affiliate

Bring the Keep America Beautiful framework to your own community, backed by the national brand, training and network.

A volunteer in a neon-yellow Keep America Beautiful safety vest, the three-trees mark across her back, raises both arms toward a pickup bed loaded with bagged litter, a discarded tyre and scrap pulled from a rural roadside.

Act on your own

No affiliate nearby and no time to wait? Start where you are — the Individual Action Center is built for exactly that.

Find the people already doing this near you

Search by place and connect with the affiliate leading action in your community.