The American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) is a national nonprofit organization fighting to ensure the future of America's iconic wild horses and burros and the Western public lands where they roam. Our public awareness and education campaigns, advocacy work at the federal and state levels, and humane management, land conservation and habitat restoration projects aim to protect and conserve these iconic American wildlife species that are an integral part of the landscape of the West.

Our vision is true legal protection and conservation of America's wild free-roaming horses and burros in self-sustaining populations living in ecological balance with other wildlife species in healthy habitats on our public lands.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Drive Change Through Awareness: AWHC is the leading voice for wild horse and burro protection in America. We are growing our grassroots base while empowering supporters to take meaningful action.

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

Goal Two: Establish Legal Precedents for Protection: We work to improve laws and policies and file strategic litigation to defend wild horses & burros against special interests that want to eradicate them.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Three: Expand Conservation and Humane Management Initiatives: We are building our land trust for habitat conservation & expanding humane management programs to keep wild horses and burros in the wild.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Describe an investment in leadership

AWHC believes in our team! We invest in leadership and management learning opportunities for the entire staff by making resources available through our membership with the Non Profit Learning Lab. Our Board and Leadership teams encourage and promote a culture of growth and professional development by taking part in workshops, webinars and collaborative sessions. AWHC has also established a Staff-Board mentorship program to leverage our board members' expertise in law, policy, communications, financial management and philanthropy to further develop staff leadership and drive achievement of our strategic goals.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

• Policy Advocacy

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

American Wild Horse Campaign's Board of Directors and staff leaders are proactive and engaging toward achieving our mission to protect and save American's wild horses and burros. Examples of our work include: - Building powerful alliances with the scientific, environmental and business communities - Cultivating a strong political base of support in Congress and in key states like Nevada, California and Colorado - Building game-changing partnerships with federal officials and ranching permittees for humane management of wild herds. -Strengthening and establishing AWHC as a credible authority with federal and state officials and with the media. - Co-leading the Homes for Horses Coalition, a nationwide network of 500 equine rescue organizations working to assist horses in need and change laws and policies that threaten their welfare. - Maintaining a leadership position within the wild horse advocacy community with a supporter/follower base of nearly 1 million citizens.

In 2021, the federal government accelerated its wild horse and burro helicopter roundup program, targeting 19,000 of these cherished animals for capture and removal from their homes on our public lands. AWHC has adapted to this new reality by expanding our roundup observation program to document abuses and hold the government accountable for welfare violations. We also created an investigations department to document what is happening to these animals when they are removed from the range. Our investigation linking the government's cash incentive adoption program to the influx of wild horses and burros into the slaughter pipeline made front-page news in the New York Times. As special interest opposition to wild horse protection intensified, we prioritized expansion of our grassroots base, engaging 170,000 new citizens in our work and empowering them to take meaningful action for change. We expanded our government relations team and dramatically increased outreach to members of Congress resulting in a substantial increase in support for reform. We also directed more resources to our field team to continue to implement the world's largest wild horse fertility control program and expand humane management programs for other wild horse populations in the West. We strengthened our internal organizational infrastructure to build for necessary expansion, increased staff expertise and firmly established AWHC as a credible authority with federal and state officials, with the media and with our loyal supporter base.