Mid-Atlantic Wild Horse Project: Stage #1

This little black filly faced an uncertain
future at the Burns Oregon Adoption
Facility last year.  Not only is she black
but her tag number came up as 666.
Sometimes there are many silly and irrational
reasons  a horse might go unadopted.
However with the 3 strike management
policy in a slow adoption year
this filly is destined to Long Term Holding.
Once a horse goes to long term holding the
chances of adoption are reduced by 99%
unless you know the number of the horse.
By painting this filly and telling her story
her chances of adoption improve greatly.
Prints, Notecards, even a shirt with her image
can not only create more awareness, they can
Raise funds for this project and the Non-profit
that submitted her photo for reference.

Good Morning everyone! Lets talk a little about Stage #1

This is the important grass roots foundation building that needs to be done before we begin intense work on the organization.

As most of you know Ive been using the paintings, prints and product designs from the Mustang A Day Challenge to try to help raise support for a number of  persons and organizations surrounding work with mustangs as well as supporting the continuing work of keeping the face of a living mustang before the public each day. All of the work is done on Spec. Meaning that there is not usually, unless someone commissions a painting, any guarantee of money for any specific painting until some one buys it or it is auctioned off.

 Of course the amount of the donations is  dependent upon sales and sales are dependent on  two things: Getting new potential supporters and pleasing the ones who are already there. Right now I'm only tapping maybe 1% of the fund raising potential because I'm spread a little thin. The only thing stopping me from forming a non-profit this week and purchasing property for 5 mustangs I know need sanctuary today, is that the fund raising potential needs to become reality.

This is where you all as volenteers come in.

What I am going to do is show you a design on the Mid-Atlantic Wild horse Project Page in Facebook. I need you to be very honest and tell me 4 things:

1.What do you like about it
2.What you would change about it
3.What price would you pay for it or one like it
4.If the price is too High or too low what price do you think would be good

Then if you like the item I would ask you to write a brief review on the hosting sight and Share the product in your face book groups, pages, and profiles and on twitter and/or other social media you are involved in.

If the majority of you don't like the item I will redesign it or remove it from the store.

Why I am doing this is simple:

 Rescued Mustangs in Shelters and Sanctuaries, Adoptions and mustang mentoring programs and  and the on going documentation by private individuals of public herds.

Each product I design, that is not a commission, a portion of the royalty goes to the photographer or organization that provided the reference photos for continuing documentation of that herd or donation to that specific organization. And A portion of the royalty over expenses will also go to the development of the Mid-Atlantic Wild Horses Project.

This is called building a Sustainable Non-Profit using a companion business as fund raiser. Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream was one of the first to pioneer this type of giving model.  We of course will also be taking donations and doing traditional fund raising however my goal is to build a well funded non-profit that can withstand our economy while at the same time contributing to the economy. I want no more failed rescues.

To read more about building a sustainable non-profit and using this model you can read this post on my American Wild Horses Project blog: http://americanwildhorseproject.blogspot.com/2011/11/3-questions-how-you-answer-may-decide.html

I will be  posting the first design very soon. Thanks so much for your help in this. For those of you who would like to volunteer for a little more intensive marketing we are organizing that this week. Contact me through info@llmartin.com if you would like to be involved.