WildLivelihoods
Find a business Join up
WildLivelihoods

Draft for the steering committee. The fund is not open and is not taking money yet.

A girl crouches at the edge of a clear stream, releasing a fish back into the water.

Give back · Wild Livelihoods fund

Close the loop.
Put some back in the ground.

Visitors spend money with us because of the wild. This is the step where we, the businesses, send some of it straight back: to crossings, fences, rivers and habitat, through a fund that takes no cut for itself.

  • $0to Wild Livelihoods. Not to staff, not to coffee.
  • About 5%to MOLF, the fiscal sponsor that holds the money and can be audited.
  • The restto project teams on the ground.

Where this fits

This is the step where
we put it back in the ground.

The loop only works if the money goes all the way around. Visitors spend with pledge businesses; businesses choose to send some of it into a fund; it comes out the other side as fence crews, river work and wildlife crossings, which keeps the place worth visiting.

  1. 01 Withdrawn The view, the wildlife, the quietUs Why visitors come 
  2. 02 Spent At a business that signed the pledgeYou Find a pledge business 
  3. 03 You are hereReinvested Profits and time, back into local projectsWe See the projects 
  4. 04 Carried forward Open habitat, a fair chance, room to roamThe wild What owners worry about 
  5. Balance carried forward to the grandkids. Paid in full

Put it back in the ground, so the grandkids get the same view. Not on a T-shirt. Out the window.

01 · Us · Withdrawn

Come for the wild

We all take from this place. Visitors come for it, and the businesses here make their living off it.

  • 90% of the businesses we surveyed say viewing wildlife is important to their customers.
  • 92% rate scenic resources as extremely or increasingly important to their business.
  • Follow the Money adds up what wild places are worth to Park County.

Source: "Sustaining Paradise", the Wild Livelihoods business survey (104 businesses, report 2025).

See the details 

02 · You · Spent

Spend it with the herd

Where you spend is a vote. Book the guide, the cabin and dinner with the businesses that put some of it back.

  • 179 businesses have signed the pledge, from Cooke City to Livingston.
  • Look them up by town and by what they do.
See the details 

03 · We · Reinvested

Put it back in the ground

Members put some of their profits and their time into local, boots-on-the-ground projects, and show up in Helena when wildlife decisions get made.

  • Living with grizzly bears
  • Montana Headwaters Legacy Act
  • Project Centinela
  • Restore sustainable wolf limits
  • Lead-free ammunition
See the details 

04 · The wild · Carried forward

Stays wild

So the place is still here when you come back, with the kids. Local owners told us what worries them most.

  • 75% expressed little or no optimism about how our natural resources are managed.
  • 77% feel a personal responsibility to give back to the resource.

Source: "Sustaining Paradise", the Wild Livelihoods business survey (104 businesses, report 2025).

See the details 

Follow a dollar

One account. One small fee.
Nobody else's hands.

  1. 1

    Your business

    You collect it however you choose: from guests who opt in, from a product, from an event, or straight from the till.

  2. 2

    MOLF's Wild Livelihoods account

    A separate bank account at Montana's Outdoor Legacy Foundation, used only for Wild Livelihoods project funding and tracked apart from every other fund they manage. MOLF keeps about 5% (set in our fiscal sponsorship agreement) and issues the donation receipts.

  3. 3

    The Grants Committee picks

    Five people, most with no stake in any participating business, choose projects against published criteria. They decide where it goes; they never hold it. You can point your money at the cause you care about.

  4. 4

    Project teams on the ground

    Sometimes that is a partner nonprofit doing the work. MOLF sends the money to them, and we add no fee on the way.

To the ground
$950
To MOLF
$50
To us
$0

Illustration at 5%. The actual fee is the one in the signed agreement.

Wild Livelihoods takes nothing.

Our small part-time staff is paid from separate gifts by individual donors who back the program. Not one dollar a member business sends in pays for staff, meetings, or the coffee at them.

So why pay MOLF anything?

Because a fiscal sponsor is a fiduciary. It holds the money under the law, can be audited, and can prove every dollar went where it was promised. About five cents on the dollar is what it costs to be able to prove that, instead of just saying it.

Pick your way in. Or don't.

Six ways to give back.
All of them optional.

Giving is voluntary. It is not a condition of signing the pledge or staying in the directory. The pledge is the handshake; this is the tip jar. Use one of these, adapt one, or invent your own.

  1. 01

    Round it up

    Ask guests to round their total up to the next dollar at the register. Square, Toast, Shopify, Clover and friends can do it. Nobody has ever missed 37 cents. The elk would like it noted that they are counting.

    Before you start: Asking each guest is the clean version. Rounding up automatically, with an easy "no thanks," raises more, but it needs the attorney's sign-off and clear signs first.

  2. 02

    A line on the booking

    A clearly labeled conservation line on lodging and tour bookings, shown before checkout, that the guest can take off. A resort fee that actually goes to the resort. The resort, in this case, being everything outside the window.

    Before you start: Offering it is the clean version. A line that is already on the bill until the guest removes it needs the attorney's sign-off first: federal and state rules on fees in lodging prices are strict.

  3. 03

    Name something after it

    A beer, a burger, a float trip: a fixed amount from every sale goes to the fund. Wyoming has a pronghorn-themed pilsner doing exactly this. Surely someone here can out-name a pronghorn.

    Before you start: Promotions that say "a portion of every sale" can need specific disclosures. The attorney writes the wording.

  4. 04

    Throw a party

    Host or partner on a fundraiser and point it at one project: a crossing, a river, a fence line. We are exploring Gardiner's Brewfest as the signature one.

  5. 05

    Just write a check

    Any amount, any time, from the business itself. We will not ask how much. We will say thank you, possibly too many times.

  6. 06

    Invent your own

    You know your customers better than any committee does. Bring us the idea, and we will help you run it cleanly and keep it legal.

Whatever the method, the money goes straight to MOLF's Wild Livelihoods account, not to us.

Point it somewhere

Pick a cause.
The animals will not lobby you. Much.

Candidate categories from the proposal; the steering committee chooses which open first.

Open books

Sniff our books.
Roar if you need to.

Like a grizzly at a campground cooler, you are welcome to come sniff around our process and our books. Unlike the cooler, we will open it for you.

  • A separate account. Wild Livelihoods money sits in its own MOLF account, never mixed with anything else.
  • Collectors don't pick. The businesses and staff who raise the money do not decide who gets it. Our business engagement lead never votes on grants.
  • A committee with rules. Five seats with fixed, staggered terms; no more than two held by participating business owners; one for a retired public decision-maker out of office two years or more; a conflict-of-interest policy signed every year; no elected officials.
  • A public scoreboard. Businesses taking part, dollars raised and projects funded, posted from the first dollar, not buried in an annual report.
  • Ask to see it. Email wildlivelihoodscoalition@gmail.com and we will show you the account, the grants and the receipts.

The fiscal sponsor

Why MOLF.

We picked Montana's Outdoor Legacy Foundation because the people who manage Montana's fish and wildlife already trust it, and we want that kind of relationship with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks for the long haul.

  • A Helena nonprofit, tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) since 2000.
  • Founded in 1999 as the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Foundation; the Legislature later broadened its name and scope.
  • Manager of the Montana Fish & Wildlife Conservation Trust, whose joint board has a seat for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
  • Has funded FWP work such as grizzly bear programs, and supports Montana WILD, FWP's conservation education center.

Why we are doing this

You asked for it.
104 of you, anyway.

  • 77%of the businesses we surveyed feel a personal responsibility to give back to the resource.
  • 74%agree we need to be more proactive about raising new money for wildlife, together.
  • 53%are very interested in a voluntary fund or want to learn more. Another 24% need convincing.

Sustaining Paradise, Wild Livelihoods tourism business survey, September 2025. Read the report (PDF).

When

Slow is smooth.
Smooth is legal.

  1. Through October 2026

    Confirm a fund is the right tool, and settle the legal framework with a nonprofit attorney.

  2. October 2026 to July 2027

    Pilot with a handful of tour operators, shops and lodges, each free to adapt the method.

  3. March to October 2027

    Show the fund to member businesses and hear what they need.

  4. July 2027

    First year of contributions collected.

  5. August 2027

    Grants Committee formed through an open call for nominations.

  6. September 2027

    Grants Committee selects the first projects.

  7. Fall 2027 (target)

    First money out the door to project teams.

Targets from the Year One proposal, not promises.

Want to be one of the first?

We are looking for a handful of pilot businesses across lodging, tours and retail to try a method and help work out the kinks before anyone else has to.

Volunteer as a pilot business

For the steering committee · temporary

Open questions before we finalize.

These come off the page when they are answered. Several need our nonprofit attorney.

  1. Staff funding, in writing. The page promises that coordinator pay comes only from separate individual donors and never from business contributions. Where did the start-up money for the coordinators come from, where is it held, and will the attorney write the separation into the MOLF agreement as a restricted-fund condition?
  2. MOLF's fee. The page says "about 5%." Confirm the number in the signed agreement, and that it is charged once, on the way in, with no second fee when money goes out to a partner nonprofit.
  3. Give A Hoot. The proposal says contributions are gathered mainly through Park County Community Foundation's Give A Hoot campaign each July. Jeff's direction is that money goes straight to the MOLF account. Is Give A Hoot a promotion moment only, or does money pass through it (and does PCCF take a fee)? The proposal text needs updating either way.
  4. Pre-checked giving. Automatic round-ups and booking lines the guest must remove raise more, but the attorney must clear them against federal and Montana consumer-protection rules (including the FTC rule on fees in lodging prices) before any business uses them.
  5. "A portion of every sale" promotions. Do product-tied promotions need written agreements or disclosures (commercial co-venture rules)? The attorney should supply standard wording.
  6. Who gets the tax receipt? For round-ups and booking lines the guest is the giver; for a business check, the business. Confirm how MOLF receipts each and what the page may say about deductibility.
  7. Voluntary, really. The page says giving is never a condition of signing the pledge or staying in the directory. Confirm that is policy.
  8. Partner nonprofits. When a project is run by another nonprofit, what do they report back (receipts, photos, outcomes), and do we ask them to keep their own overhead on our grant small or zero?
  9. Sniffing the books. Who answers a request to see the books, how fast, and what do we show (MOLF fund statements, grant agreements, the scoreboard)? Does MOLF have an annual independent audit we can point to?
  10. Survey figure. The proposal says 73% are "interested or open to learning more" about a voluntary fund. The survey report's Q15 gives 14% very interested and 39% want to learn more (53% of all respondents), plus 24% need convincing. The page uses that breakdown; the proposal's 73% should become 53%.
  11. The fund's name. The proposal calls for one name, one logo and one "why" across all businesses. This page says "the Wild Livelihoods fund" as a placeholder.
  12. Brewfest. If Wild Livelihoods hosts Brewfest, do its proceeds go to the fund, and which project does it spotlight? The Brewfest page currently says every pour gives back to the community.

Sources

This page describes a program in development. It is not a solicitation, and nothing here is tax or legal advice; whether a contribution is deductible depends on how it is made, and MOLF and our attorney will confirm it.

Join up

Two ways in. Pick your trail.

Passing through? Sign the register and we will tell you when the good stuff happens. Run a business here? Sign the pledge, and stand up in the directory for every visitor to see.