Hello and Happy Thursday to everyone!

In our quest to be as transparent as possible with our followers, we have to be honest, we need your help!

While we ARE making progress in our quest for the proper management of the wild horses that call Theodore Roosevelt National Park home, staying on top of day-to-day happenings has become a full-time job and a half.  We have a very small board and honestly, not enough hours in our days!

We do have the benefit of some amazing volunteers that are helping us with our marketing projects.

Someone asked a question in an email, and I thought I would share our answer with all of you.

For those who do not know, the person who writes these blogs is me, Chris Kman, the president and co-founder of Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates.  I have been doing the bulk of the work for this organization since we started.  This organization was co-founded by me and my husband Gary Kman in 2021. 

In addition to this nonprofit, we also have a small business right down the street from the park in Medora, ND.  Our physical store has become a hub for sharing information about the current plight of the wild horses that call the park home.  The store has been critical in our success for the support we have received in our efforts to stop the eradication of this herd.  We anticipate that it will be equally important as we move forward to gain much needed state and federal support for these horses. 

Our biggest struggle continues to be funding.  We are not alone, nonprofits everywhere are seeing a decrease in donations this year.  The truth is, we have A LOT of work ahead of us, and it takes money to make these things happen. 

How you can help:

1. Share our social media posts.  If you are receiving this information via email, you can find a sharable link on  our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ChasingHorsesWHA
2. Please support us this Giving Tuesday!  Giving Tuesday is a National Day of Giving.  We have raised $4,000 in matching funds for Giving Tuesday!  What that means – for every $1 you give between now and December 3, 2024 – up to $4,000 – is AUTOMATICALLY DOUBLED!!!  All donations received between now and December 3, 2024, will go toward our Giving Tuesday goal.  You can make your Giving Tuesday donation here: https://secure.everyaction.com/cBmDbRA6cUuzERpShcQOCg2
3. If you would like to make a donation to increase our Giving Tuesday matching fund, please email us at info@chwha.org. 
4. We have another silent auction coming up December 1-8, 2024!  How you can help: You can donate items for this auction.  Items can be donated here: http://chwha.betterworld.org/donate-an-item?_gl=1%2Arz0t4m%2A_gcl_au%2AODIwOTE4MzI0LjE3MjU2NDc1NDguMTYyMjkwMTE5MC4xNzMyMTUzOTMxLjE3MzIxNTM5MzE.%2AFPAU%2AODIwOTE4MzI0LjE3MjU2NDc1NDguNzA4NjExMjIwLjE3MzA2ODE3NzEuMTczMDY4MTc3MA..
   You can also see the items we currently have to bid on here: http://chwha.betterworld.org/auctions/2024-winter-silent-auction?_gl=1%2A2fzvpn%2A_gcl_au%2AODIwOTE4MzI0LjE3MjU2NDc1NDguMzU3Nzg3NjgyLjE3MzIyMjM5MTguMTczMjIyMzk4Nw..%2AFPAU%2AODIwOTE4MzI0LjE3MjU2NDc1NDguNzA4NjExMjIwLjE3MzA2ODE3NzEuMTczMDY4MTc3MA..
   New items are being added all the time, so be sure to check back!
   Money raised during this auction will go toward our Giving Hearts Day matching fund.  We need to raise a minimum of $3,000 for this fund and have set a matching funds goal of $5,000!  Giving Hearts Day is February 13, 2025.  I will talk more about this in a separate post later.

So, what are we doing with all of this money we are trying to raise?

Good question!

1. The bulk of the money we are trying to raise will go toward the state and federal legislation we are working on with Bice Policy Group.  We estimate these costs to be $20,000. 
2. Legal bills.  We just paid $1200 to Eubanks and Associates for our consultations with them about the October roundup and for the letter they sent to the park during that time.  We will have a bill coming from them for the FOIA request they sent.  We also plan to meet with them to strategize on the next legal steps we should consider.  We estimate these costs to be $2,000-3,000.
3. Website upgrade.  We have spent the last couple of years adding A TON of info to our website.  For 2 long years, our focus has been on saving the horses.  The work that now needs to be done to our website is extremely time consuming.  We have hired someone to do that work for us.  Jen has been hard at work, but still has some work to do.  Please do look through our website to see the amazing work Jen has done so far: www.chwha.org Many of you have requested and Jen will be adding a store to the website where you can direct order CHWHA t-shirts and more.  Keep checking back for more updates!  Jen has also been creating reels for us.  We got away from this because of the roundup and trip to DC, but we will begin sharing these again next week.  The cost of Jen’s work is estimated to be about $2,000.
4. If you look at the Get Involved page on our website, you will see some of the long and short-term plans we are working on.  To help us meet these goals, we are also working on securing grants.  We have found that grant writing is a job in and of itself!  We completed a couple of grant applications but the problem we have is that we need grant help specifically for lobbying and legal fees.  Many do not cover those expenses.  This is something that requires more to learn than my brain can handle at this time.  We received a recommendation for a grant writer and our board approved the monthly expense of $825 per month for someone who knows more about this than we do to take that job over. 
5. We also have basic day-to-day operational expenses like website fees, office, printing and postage expenses, PO Box fees, etc. 

As a reminder, no other organizations are helping us financially as we continue to do 100% of the leg work needed to get proper management for the TRNP wild horses. 

In addition to the TRNP wild horses, many of you have asked us to take what we have learned and apply it to wild horses on the western range.  We have gladly offered our assistance to other individuals and organizations helping other wild horses.  We work closely with people like Heather Hellyer at Save Our Wild Horses.  There are some exciting things that we are working on that we know you will be excited about!  We hope to have some updates for you soon!

I am still playing catch up from our time in DC.  We also have a couple of virtual meetings tomorrow and are setting up more for the week after Thanksgiving.  I will have an update and some calls to action for ALL of you next week so be sure to check back!

The bulk of my time at the moment has been working on our state legislation.  I will discuss that next week as well.  Our legislation is in legal counsel, and we have a meeting with one of our legislators on Monday to answer some questions that have come up.  We are also working on getting an appointment with Governor Armstrong’s team to discuss this legislation and our advocacy for North Dakota’s only wild horse herd.  You will remember that he promised us while he campaigned to give us the same support we have received from Governor Burgum. 

In addition to legislation, I also have regular meetings with our grant writer, Jen, our web designer, along with Heather and other advocates. 

If you are interested in volunteering for us in any capacity, please use our Giving Hearts Day volunteer application form.  Please let us know how you would like to help!  You can submit your volunteer application here: https://app.givingheartsday.org/?_gl=1*rtsn9c*_gcl_au*ODI2NzE5NzIuMTczMDkwNzY4OQ..#/charity/1669

We hope that this answers some of your questions.  We aim to be as transparent as we can be, so if you have questions, don’t hesitate to email us at info@chwha.org For obvious reasons, there are some legal and legislative things we cannot discuss ~ yet. 

Thank you for your continued support!

---