About Us

VISION & Mission

Our vision is to see all American wolf species thriving in the wild and coexisting with humans. Our mission is to unite key stakeholders to ensure conflict-free conservation.

FundinG Mechanism

The Present: American Wolf Foundation was founded on March 15, 2018 under the laws of the State of Missouri as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. We are volunteer-only with no overhead and minimal expenses, so nearly all of the donations we receive go toward our Projects. For example, in 2021, our non-program expenses (website renewal, postage, etc.) were less than 10% of our income from donations received and over 94% of all expenses were program expenses (Red Wolf Enclosure Campaign grants).

Our Future: Our goal is to grow an endowment to provide lasting support to American red wolf and other canid conservation nationwide. A good endowment fund is never tapped. Rather, the principal is invested wisely and the beneficiaries are paid only by interest. Endangered species recovery is a decades-long process, and there is no other endowment fund exclusively for wolves. Our intent is to build a network of wealthy, institutional, and legacy donors to fund our endowment and operational expenses, so that 100% of individual donations from everyday people go directly toward our programs.

OUR WORK

We have three primary objectives: Conservation. Awareness. Coexistence.

CONSERVATION

We provide emergency and grant-based funding to our partners on the front lines of red wolf conservation and scientific research. Our primary focus right now is the most endangered wolf, the American red wolf. But we need your help! With over 50 facilities in the Red Wolf Saving Animals From Extinction (“SAFE”) Program alone, many operating on tight budgets, we need millions of dollars to fund capital investment like new enclosures, emergency expenses like unexpected veterinary procedures and special projects. Depending on available funds and the needs of the SAFE Program, American Wolf Foundation may also build its own facility to increase breeding capacity. This will require land, structures, including laboratory and veterinary facilities, $1 million in fencing... and a whole lot of raw meat.

AWARENESS

We promote awareness of the benefits of wolves to a humans and our environment, and of tools available for coexisting with them. Wolves were once so loathed as to be skinned alive, yet historical accounts of American wolf attacks on humans are rare. Reconciling myth with reality has proven difficult. We want to demystify the wolf with education and awareness campaigns for our legislatures and regulatory offices, for hunters, ranchers, and other landowners affected by reintroduced wolves, and especially for the children who will make decisions about these species in the future.

Coexistence

The ultimate goal of all conservation efforts is coexistence. We will fund coexistence initiatives for ranchers, hunters and landowners affected by reintroduced wolves. Being proactive, not reactive, to establish coexistence coalitions before conflict arises is what wolves in the wild need most. Our goal is to adapt to the red wolf a successful model applied to the Mexican grey wolf. If you are a reading this as a hunter or rancher, we welcome your input.