Hello and Happy FRIDAY to everyone! Is it just me or did this week also fly by?
I was thinking recently after different conversations with people how there are always things going on behind the scenes that we are not always aware of. Then I was thinking that there is A LOT going on at Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates (CHWHA) that maybe all of you are not aware of. I thought today would be a good day to invoke a brainstorming session with all of you.
I have said this before and it is worth repeating, as we were setting up our non-profit, our non-profit lawyers instilled in us that non-profit organizations belong to the communities they serve. We strive to be transparent with all of you and listen to your thoughts, ideas and concerns.
Now that the legislative process is over and we have an answer to our extension to this comment period, I have spent the better part of today working on ways to spread the word about these horses and the comment period.
Here are some things we are already doing. We also welcome your thoughts and suggestions.
- Our billboard is STILL up. This comes at a cost to CHWHA of $975 per month. American Wild Horse Campaign has a separate billboard up in Dickinson to help raise awareness.
- We are in regular contact with our legal team, and they are hard at work on our comment letter. We are happy to announce that American Wild Horse Campaign will be submitting their comment letter jointly with Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates. They have also agreed to pay the legal expenses for this comment letter. We are thankful to them for continuing to fight with us!
- Today we created several of these graphics. They will post on our Facebook page at least twice a day through November 24, 2023:
- Some of these graphics have also be sent to our Dickinson Area Chamber of Commerce. They will send them out in their weekly emails every Tuesday from now through 11/21/2023 to reach over 1,000 businesses/organizations and people in our local community.
- We are getting the cost to run these as ads in the Dickinson Press for the next 4 weeks.
- Facebook and Instagram ads were created with these graphics. A new ad will run every week through 11/24/2023.
- We started our video ads this week. We created an ad with the wide screen version that is running on Facebook and Instagram. We also took the mobile version and created a “reel” that we boosted. As more videos are released to us, we will create additional ads.
The results so far are great – AND it has ONLY been 3 days!!:
- We ordered 5,000 stickers to pass out over the next week and also to send to followers who have requested them.
- We will pick up our FACT sheets today from our local printer. These will be passed out over the next week, mailed to our followers who requested them and will be on hand at stores in Medora.
- TOMORROW – 10/28/2023 – we will be at the Rough Rider Hotel in Medora for their 1st ever Trunk or Treat! We will be passing out candy, stickers and flyers to help raise awareness about the TRNP wild horses!
- TUESDAY – 10/31/2023 – we will join over 70 businesses in Dickinson for their annual “Trunk or Treat”. They are expecting about 3,000 kids and their parents to come through. We will have candy, stickers and flyers to pass out.
- We will pass out our FACT sheet out to businesses in Medora and Dickinson. The Chasing Horses store has been a hub for information on this process. All of our promotional materials are also available to be picked up there as well for anyone interested (please message us ahead of time to make sure we are there and that we have what you want).
- We are in the process of updating our brochure.
- We will be advertising in local horse expos programs this fall/winter.
- We remain in communication with the local press to help keep the horses in the news.
- We are utilizing our membership with the North Dakota Newspaper Assn. which allows us to send out press releases to every newspaper in North Dakota once a month.
- We continue to host our Horse Talks and participate in Zoom events/podcasts with other advocates to help spread the word! We are hosting one tonight – have you registered? We will also have information soon about a NEW Horse Talk with Craig Downer!
We are sharing this with you today to #1 – let you know where your donations are going and #2 – to honestly brainstorm with all of you on what else we could do to help raise awareness about these historic wild horses? We have been engaging over 100,000 people through all of our social media channels and website over the last couple of months. That means there should be over 100,000 different ideas brewing in your heads! If you come up with anything, please let us know! You can share your thoughts as a comment on our blog, on our social media posts or email us at info@chwha.org.
All of this advertising and different membership fees also come at a cost. We wanted to let you know where your donations to CHWHA are going and we also hope that you will continue to support our efforts! There are several ways that you can donate listed on our website: https://chwha.org/support-chwha/. As a 501(c)3 organization, your donations are 100% tax free!
We will also be holding another silent auction November 24-Decemeber 3, 2023. We are looking for items for our silent auction! You can donate your item(s) here: https://chwha.betterworld.org/donate-an-item You can also view items that will be part of the auction (so far) here: https://dashboard.betterworld.org/auctions/34969/items
Thank you again for your support and we look forward to your feedback!
