TO PROTECT AMERICA'S ENDANGERED LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY BREEDS FROM EXTINCTION.

The Livestock Conservancy focuses our efforts on the 150+ most critically endangered farm animal bre

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Discover, secure and sustain 150+ heritage breeds of livestock and poultry to ensure their survival and chart a pathway of population growth for each endangered breed.

Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.

Goal Two: Strengthen relationships, professionalism, and organizational health with heritage breed associations made up of the front-line heritage breed stewards across America for greater conservation impact.

Goal Type: New program(s) based on observed changes in needs among our constituencies/communities served.

Describe an investment in leadership

Capacity building is a continual process in healthy non-profits. Fundraising capacity expanded significantly for our small organization when we hired our first staff fundraiser in 2019. We are building on this success through the establishment of a Planned Giving program. Leadership development in the past year has enabled the Development Director to add specific skills in launching the identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of estate gifts. Leadership development is also expanding opportunities for endowment growth and securing assets to add a much-needed Program DIrector to our small staff. Programmatic work is the heart of our mission focusing on the conservation programs that save rare breeds. Investing in the leadership skills of our Development Director generates the revenue to accomplish our mission and provides guaranteed income streams in perpetutity with high return predictability.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

We use education and outreach to increase the number of rare breed stewards while providing tools for them to be effective and successful. We develop and maintain strategic communication partnerships that align with our programs. Breed research and the growth of registration services are just two examples of specific initiatives that support this unique community. We also leverage partnerships in culinary and fiber arts organizations such as Heritage Foods USA and the Parsons School of Design. We use a wide variety of science-based conservation tools to locate, document, track, promote, and save breeds at the highest risk of extinction. For example, our staff established the first gene bank to store genetic material from rare breeds and give their farmers and ranchers access to stored semen. Today, that gene bank exists via our partnership with the USDA's National Animal Germplasm program.

Two opportunities have arisen in the past year to document the history of North American livestock in indigenous and early Hispanic communities. We have begun working with archaeologists at Choctaw sites in Tennessee and the San Diego Presidio in California. The Conservancy is assisting with comparing the DNA of fossilized bones of chickens and pigs to their modern descendants. We’ve learned at least two varieties of chickens were present at the San Diego Presidio more than 150 years ago, including both bantam and standard varieties. They have been further documented in artwork from the area. Today’s Heritage breeds are indeed living history. Many breeds on our CPL are represented by multiple breed associations or registries, often with conflict between them. In the past year, staff received professional mediation certification in our growing commitment to expanding services and training. By offering this service, our goal is to equip breed associations with the skills and tools to work past their differences to unite for the good of the breed. To meet the critically important need of objective, timely, professional Heritage breed registration, we recently announced the launch of registry services. The first breed association to take advantage is the Leicester Longwool Sheep Breeders Association. We are excited to provide online registration and animal transfers through our Grassroots software system. This service will also allow registrants to access pedigree information online or via their smartphones for ease of use in the field. Six of the eight registries already managed by the Conservancy have been transferred to the new Grassroots software purchased with grant monies. The Emergency Response Fund launched at the beginning of the COVID pandemic has supported Cleveland Bay horses, American Mammoth Jackstock donkeys, and Navajo Churro sheep due to income loss from the pandemic and lingering drought in the Southwestern United States.