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Colorado League of Charter Schools
Advancing Charter School Equity Through Member Education and Advocacy Communications
Challenge
Despite serving nearly 16% of Colorado’s public school students, charter schools have long faced stark funding inequities when it comes to school facilities. When school districts put bond measures before voters, charter schools were routinely left out of the planning process.
Charter families pay into these local tax measures alongside their neighbors, yet their schools frequently saw none of the benefit. That’s why the Colorado League of Charter Schools (the League) — the statewide membership organization representing Colorado’s charter school community — made securing equitable facilities funding a top advocacy priority for the 2026 legislative session by championing Senate Bill 145, which would require school districts to meaningfully include charter schools in the bond planning process and give voters clearer information about how funding decisions are made.
The League’s inside-the-Capitol strategy required a coordinated, nuanced approach led by its government affairs team. GroundFloor Media’s (GFM) role was to build the narrative foundation and to ensure the League’s members — charter school leaders, educators and families across Colorado — understood the issue and the stakes while building broad community support for change.
Sample Fact Sheet
Approach
GFM developed an integrated member education and awareness strategy designed to keep the charter school community informed and engaged on the bill and its importance, while reinforcing the League’s role as a credible, effective champion for Colorado’s charter schools.
Our work began with developing core messaging and a fact sheet for lawmakers, delivered as a desk drop at the start of the 2026 legislative session to establish a clear, compelling narrative around charter bond fairness from day one. We then created a “Stand Up for Fairness” toolkit to equip member schools with everything they needed to share the story within their own communities, including downloadable graphics for social media, websites and emails, newsletter copy, and social media post suggestions paired with campaign assets.
To bring student voices into the campaign, we filmed youth video testimonials at the League’s Advocacy Day at the State Capitol, capturing charter students speaking directly about what their schools mean to them and why fair funding matters. These were edited into short-form cutdowns optimized for social media. A targeted Meta advertising campaign ran for six weeks, using the toolkit graphics and youth testimonials to reach League members and broader community audiences and drive awareness of SB-145. A second round of ads featured quotes from school leaders who testified about the importance of the bill, adding credibility and reinforcing momentum as the legislation advanced.
School Toolkit
Sample social media graphics
Sample youth video testimonials
Results
The strategy successfully kept the League’s membership informed and connected to the advocacy effort throughout the session, while building the external narrative that supported the government affairs team’s inside-the-Capitol work. Campaign highlights include:
190,836
Impressions generated over the six-week paid media campaign
1,654
Clicks to the SB-145 landing page with more information about the bill
1.73%
Click-through rate on youth video testimonial ads, above industry benchmarks for similar campaigns
Broad member reach through the Stand Up for Fairness toolkit and distributed content across the League’s network
Most importantly, SB-145 passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed into law by Governor Polis in May 2026.
The campaign celebrated the win with a capstone op-ed in the Aurora Sentinel, authored by the Principal of Aurora Academy and offering a powerful, community-sourced voice to put a human face on what the legislation means for real students and families.
