Favorite Organizations

[Antarctica]

Man, you are talking my language. My feelings exactly. I’ve been involved in several .orgs in various ways and have been turned off to the point I am against the whole non-profit racket entirely. It’s frustrating. I have yet to meet one who didn’t act as you say. Sad.

What Mt Al and BaxterB said, and I've said in another post here. We all want to do our part to protect land and our interests, or support a good cause, but so many of these groups exploit that.

The non-profits are, as baxter said, a racket. You can rationalize the 'good' they do, but I can't justify my hard earned money supporting exorbitant salaries for the CEO and staff. Both RMEF and Wild sheep CEO's pull in around $350k plus. I know that you need to compensate talented people, but I'm sorry - any non-profit paying the head more than about $200-250/ year, and I'm out.

You can dig around RMEF's 990's and see where "Heritage Frames and Fine Art" was compensated 179k in 2015 for "framing". That's a hell of a lot of framing. Google the address and its some guys house off a dirt road. Someone's buddy for sure.

Non-profits are profits centers for the people that work for or are connected to them. Sorry to dissappoint folks or ruffle feathers.


And if you really want to make yourself sick, go start pulling 990's on St. Jude. Many folks making nearly a million a year off those sick kids. Do they do good for people? Yes. Does that justify scamming donors to pay fat salaries? No.

 

[Trial153]

P&Y, life time member
New York state Houndsman Association
WSF
Eastern Chapter of the WSF ( lifetime member).
BHA
TRPF
RMEF
2% for conservation individual membership.
NYSBA (ny state bowhunter)
NYSRA( Ny state rifle and pistol association)
NRA, Lifetime member however they will never get another dime from me

 

[MtGomer]

If you look at the revenue growth and how that is applied directly on the ground to conservation through grants and projects, at WSF under Gray’s leadership, you’ll find his salary to be a great bargain to sheep, habitat and sheep hunters. That’s not to mention his political talent working on behalf of sheep in DC.
He could make millions in the private sector. CEO at the company I work for makes $15.1 million. He’s not at WSF for his salary, he’s there for sheep conservation and he’s doing a damn fine job.


Speaking of St Jude... checkout the same things you mentioned at United Way, not just executive compensation, but percentage of revenue going to the mission.

 

[Netherman]

I'll second Sportsman's Alliance as one worth looking into. Also, NWTF, RMEF, MDF, and TRCP.

Organizations I'd like to support:

BHA - Do a good job fighting to keep wilderness areas protected, but would like to see them doing more on the access side. Fighting the WY guide requirement in wilderness areas is something that I thought would be a top priority for "Backcountry" Hunters and Anglers.

TBD - Looking for an organization that will fight in court for hunter access. Corner hopping, wilderness guide requirement, AK species guide requirement...

 

[KJH]

Ducks Unlimited is the primary organization I support because of their conservation efforts throughout the continent and efficiency of their dollars used. Even if I didn't hunt waterfowl anymore, I'd still support this organization because they are about multi-species habitat and clean water.

I used to support BHA, but for a couple of important reasons, I no longer support them.

I like the National Association of Rivers, but they are limited in strength.

There are others that I support through attending dinners or banquets, but they are not significant contributions and usually less than a couple hundred bucks each per year. (REMF, NWTF, Pheasants Forvever, NRA, Trad. Bowhunters, and a few state level groups.)

 

[b_young]

Charitynavigator.org is a helpful resource. Gives you quite a bit of insight on many of these organizations.

 

[WyoHnt300]

RMEF, BHA, BOW, P&Y, TRCP, 2% (business) and have supported DU, PF, WTF, MDF, MFF in the past. Thinking about adding a Wyoming Wildlife Federation membership to the list. There's only so much discretionary cheddar to go around.
There are no silver bullets with orgs. I don't agree with any 100% of the time and don't expect to, but where it is important and consistent I support. They have their place in all walks from politics to acquisition and everything in between.
Conservation efforts start with the individual, without a doubt. Org memberships are literally the least someone can do in a public manner. Education efforts and exposure for the benefit of the non-hunting crowd should be where a lot of individual and NGO efforts should be focused, IMO. Some are better at this than others.

 

[Danimal]

Ducks Unlimited gets a ton of flack from disgruntled duck hunters when they feel that their area isn't getting any love, but they have one mission, and that is to protect wetlands in the high priority breeding and wintering grounds for waterfowl. They are a proven organization and have operated on a 90% (direct conservation)- 10% (operations) ratio for many years. As a hunter we owe a lot to DU for the template that they have laid out for sportsmen based conservation.

 

[Beendare]

Life member of NRA and SCI.

I'm surprised there aren't more folks here that are members of these organizations.

Anything that hurts hunting or gun owners in the US has to go through the legislative process. The 2 outfits with the most horsepower in that regard are NRA and SCI.

The NRA dips into hunting issues.

SCI's sole mission is to DEFEND HUNTING RIGHTS. I see how effective they are though most of their work is behind the scenes.

These other outfits talk a good game sure....but its that lobbying and legislative power that gets things done.

 

[Matt W.]

I tried to write an article on this and even spoke with some of the bigger names in the industry. I really wanted to explore the question of competing interests. Big issues like habitat protection, private lands, public lands, overly enthusiastic focus on one specie to the detriment of another. I was curious how all of these groups worked together on the broad range of issues the world of hunting encompasses. Do they play nice or just fight for money and pet projects? I sent messages, made phone calls, and tried to dig deeper but ran out of time. In a sense I gave up on the project, I figured I wouldn't get a good answer and any article I wrote would just be a hot mess. So much of the data came from sources I couldn't independently verify so in the end I put the project aside.... It was like I had opened a can of worms and no one wanted to touch it....

My take out of my failed efforts was as follows.

For broad overall encompassing efforts:
B&C does a good job on a National Level
SCI is more focused on the International Level - But is a huge lobbying force....
At some point I will probably renew my SCI Membership as well mainly just due to their lobby efforts, not only nationally but internationally. They have a big stick

Specie Specific - I just chose my two favorite and stuck with those.
I love Mule Deer and the MDF seems to do a good job at both the National level and has active local chapters
I passionately pursued Dall Sheep in Alaska, so WSF and the local chapter made sense there.

Birds & Dogs
Here in WA I have grown to really enjoy hunting with my Pudelpointer. I joined the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, and participate in the local chapter as it makes me a better dog handler and its a great group of folks, as was the Alaska Yukon Chapter.

I like to get involved in the local stuff when I can. So I found the Washington Waterfowl Association and joined the local chapter. They have work days and actually are boots on the ground repairing, building blinds and working habitat projects.

I like DU because of the amount of information I can get from their website and the app and the magazine is worth the annual fee. The duck ID app is great! Pictures, specie info, and even proper specie specific sounds. My kids were amazed to learn that not all ducks quack. : ) Plenty of people have issues with DU, but I use them as an education tool more than anything.

If I was a hardcore bowhunter I would join the local Bowhunting group. I enjoyed the one in Alaska more because of the people than anything. I am more of an archer than a bowhunter, but respect the lobbying and efforts these groups do for bowhunters. Someone needs to help make sure they have a seat at the table.

There are lot of other species I really enjoy seeing, but can't join and keep track of memberships for all of them. As such my strategy was to join the B&C and support their all encompassing efforts, and then find one or two local groups I could get involved in. In reality the best thing we can do for hunting is to be good ambassadors for the sport, not attack each other, and introduce at least one new person to the sport a year.

Why the B&C? They support the 2A and they champion the North American model which is an all encompassing wildlife management program. I figured I could feel like I was helping all species vs. just my favorites, and they support "opportunity for all." I can't see how opportunity for all exists unless it includes public lands. So, pro Gun rights, fight for a broad range of species, and while not public land focused, they do champion opportunity for all so I figured they checked a lot of boxes on my passion list.
https://www.boone-crockett.org/about/positions_overview.asp?area=about&ID=6B455080&se=1
You can see their positions on the Left Side Banner list of options

It is a complex and frustrating thing to observe and sort through..... Gun Rights and Public Land issues are two hotbed issues. I am pro 2A and Public Lands, but it is hard to find (possibly impossible) to find groups that I am 100% aligned with... so I used the approach above. In NO way am I trying to convince you to join any of these groups, but I thought understanding why someone supports a specific group (and how they made that choice) is more helpful than why someone is against a particular group.


Just my take and worth exactly what you paid for it... : )

 

[ericF]

What Mt Al and BaxterB said, and I've said in another post here. We all want to do our part to protect land and our interests, or support a good cause, but so many of these groups exploit that.

The non-profits are, as baxter said, a racket. You can rationalize the 'good' they do, but I can't justify my hard earned money supporting exorbitant salaries for the CEO and staff. Both RMEF and Wild sheep CEO's pull in around $350k plus. I know that you need to compensate talented people, but I'm sorry - any non-profit paying the head more than about $200-250/ year, and I'm out.

You can dig around RMEF's 990's and see where "Heritage Frames and Fine Art" was compensated 179k in 2015 for "framing". That's a hell of a lot of framing. Google the address and its some guys house off a dirt road. Someone's buddy for sure.

Non-profits are profits centers for the people that work for or are connected to them. Sorry to dissappoint folks or ruffle feathers.


And if you really want to make yourself sick, go start pulling 990's on St. Jude. Many folks making nearly a million a year off those sick kids. Do they do good for people? Yes. Does that justify scamming donors to pay fat salaries? No.

Heritage Frame and Fine Arts are local to Northern Colorado and the owners are at the Fort Collins Big game banquet every year. The MC specifically calls them out because RMEF undewrites the annual big game print that goes to every single banquet and Heritage frames them. Just looking at the RMEF state chapter events website, I see 427 Banquets scheduled. I'm not sure if that is a complete list of them or not, but lets just assume it is. 179k divided by 427 is $419 to Frame each and every print that goes out to the banquet. I'm not sure if that includes the print itself, or even any other work that they might do, but if it does that is very cheap. If you've been to a banquet, then you've seen the size of these prints and they are not small and $420 is inline with what a custom framing job is. To just assume that something shady is going on without doing some basic investigation does a disservice to the members of that organization. I have no relation to Heritage and have never done any business with them, but they are very involved in the local RMEF events.

 

[Grundy53]

RMEF
MDF
NRA
BHA (won't be renewing my BHA membership)

 

[deerhunt1988]

Will some of you expand on why you won't be renewing your BHA membership? I think I've missed out on something. PM me if you want.

 

[tt_johnsclist]

The Nature Conservancy
The Wildlife Society
2 small local groups
TRCP has me interested just haven’t joined yet

I’m going to give BHA a couple more years to figure out what type of organization they want to be and then I’ll decide.

Instead of supporting a bunch of .org’s I buy up to 10 or more Federal duck stamps each year. 100% goes directly to public land acquisitions, good enough for me. Also all my state-level voluntary habitat stamps. Most states have a variety of habitat, game, and non-game stamps and funds that you can give directed funds to for earmarked uses. I like those because I’m not paying anyone’s overhead or administration costs.

I used to work for a big .org and have been involved in several. Like a few others here I got turned off by the banquet/raffle smokescreen and the pandering to high-rolling donors. It’s too bad because they do manage to accomplish some good work in between all that stuff.


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[Mtnboy]

BHA
Idaho Wildlife Federation
RMEF
WSF
Goat Alliance

I'd love to be educated on how SCI is helping out the 'every man' DIY, Public Land hunter.

I've always had the assumption that was kinda a rich guys club that hunts ranches and Africa. I'm all for Organizations who are fighting the good fight, if that's SCI then maybe I need to be a member.



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[Matt W.]

For info on SCI go here.
https://www.safariclub.org/protect-freedom-hunt
More info is available as you scroll down. Not sure it answers your question but it is more data to wade through as you analyze stuff

 

[goathunter]

I’m not holding any great information about some group that nobody knows or anything like that. I’ve either just looked into groups and found that they weren’t what they said they were ‘The Wildernesss Society’ for example, or they support some things I’m not a fan of, or it’s just that there’s only so much money to spread around and the choices i’ve made are where I think it’s best spent.

Another group that I would like to join or donate to that people should look into is Public Land and Water Access (PLWA.) https://plwa.org/
They have been very diligent and effective at re-opening road and trails that have been illegally closed by landowners. In a state like Montana a landowner can illegally gate or close a road or trail and the burden of proof that it is public is on the public to prove. If an agency is unable or unwilling to take up the fight, it will remain closed. PLWA is very good at doing historical records research, determining whether or not there’s actually a case, and fighting to get our access restored.
There’s a whole list of locations they’ve worked on their website.

Thanks for bringing this up - while MT specific, PLWA is the real deal, fighting for the public's legal access illegally blocked by private landowners. They are a small organization and seems to me there's more fights out there than they have the manpower for but they are doing great work. I am leary of other more well know organizations, but PLWA gets a (meager) donation from me every year.

 

[Antarctica]

Heritage Frame and Fine Arts are local to Northern Colorado and the owners are at the Fort Collins Big game banquet every year. The MC specifically calls them out because RMEF undewrites the annual big game print that goes to every single banquet and Heritage frames them. Just looking at the RMEF state chapter events website, I see 427 Banquets scheduled. I'm not sure if that is a complete list of them or not, but lets just assume it is. 179k divided by 427 is $419 to Frame each and every print that goes out to the banquet. I'm not sure if that includes the print itself, or even any other work that they might do, but if it does that is very cheap. If you've been to a banquet, then you've seen the size of these prints and they are not small and $420 is inline with what a custom framing job is. To just assume that something shady is going on without doing some basic investigation does a disservice to the members of that organization. I have no relation to Heritage and have never done any business with them, but they are very involved in the local RMEF events.

Many thanks for the explanation ericF. Seems like a valid use of funds. Yes, when I see things like that pop up in a 990, 'shady stuff' bells go off, and maybe incorrectly. But I don't think its necessarily a disservice - its questioning where the funds are going, and where my potential donation would go. I think your insight into this particular issue goes beyond 'basic investigation' that one could reasonably perform. When I see several things like that coupled together, there is reason to doubt the transparency of the organization and how much of my potential donation actually makes it to the proclaimed cause. In this case, my doubts were possibly a misjudgment. But I've seen plenty of how these organizations work to know to be cautious (worked for a nonprofit once too, which is how I found out about 990's, etc.)

Thanks again for the added information.

 

[bawana]

RMEF, NWTF, Sportsman's alliance, and Life member of the NRA

 

[ericF]

Many thanks for the explanation ericF. Seems like a valid use of funds. Yes, when I see things like that pop up in a 990, 'shady stuff' bells go off, and maybe incorrectly. But I don't think its necessarily a disservice - its questioning where the funds are going, and where my potential donation would go. I think your insight into this particular issue goes beyond 'basic investigation' that one could reasonably perform. When I see several things like that coupled together, there is reason to doubt the transparency of the organization and how much of my potential donation actually makes it to the proclaimed cause. In this case, my doubts were possibly a misjudgment. But I've seen plenty of how these organizations work to know to be cautious (worked for a nonprofit once too, which is how I found out about 990's, etc.)

Thanks again for the added information.

Antarctica, I think you are generally right in your distrust of nonprofits. We all too often hear about the non profits that only spend less than 10% of their money on their actual goal. In this case I knew a little more information than most people might know so it was a good example of some of these 990 expenditures, but you are right, it would be very easy to funnel money to various people or organizations without any real accountability. Like everything in life, a little more transparency would be great to see what is actually going on behind closed doors.