In 2026, Wildlife for All is stepping into the arena as champions with a sharpened strategy, a stronger team, and momentum behind this movement.

The Next Round: WFA’s 2026 Game Plan for Champions

“…but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'” – Muhammad Ali 

“You become a champion by fighting one more round.” – Jack Dempsey 

“Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” – Vince Lombardi 

Welcome to the new year, fellow fighters! 2025 might have had you feeling down for the count, but here’s to shaking off the holiday daze with the smelling salts of a new year. What better way to start 2026 with some over-the-top sports metaphors?

On a serious note, there’s a reason so many seek inspiration from the world of sports: the stories capture what it means to push through the seemingly impossible. Our athletic heroes epitomize peak performance and pushing the limits of what a human can do. We might scoff at all that effort for a silly pursuit or made-up battle. But we also love those down-to-the-wire moments when a team rallies from a huge deficit to achieve an unlikely victory. Why? Because we all want to believe the impossible is possible and feel inspired to fight together toward that goal that feels out of reach for the underdogs.

Social science increasingly illuminates the mental gymnastics that makes an Olympic gymnast actually succeed. Psychologists have found that athletes who are essentially overconfident—entering the arena believing they will win—are more likely to do exactly that. (Relatedly, the people who are better at lying to themselves tend to be happier, but that’s another story.)

So what does this have to do with wildlife policy? Everything. Champions don’t fight because it’s easy; they fight because the stakes are too high to ignore. Because they believe in their power to make a difference. Because they want to win. 

And in 2026, Wildlife for All is stepping into the arena with a sharpened strategy, a stronger team, and a belief in this movement that borders on irrational—but that’s exactly why we’ll win.

Below is our 2026 game plan, framed in the spirit of legendary underdog fighters everywhere.

They Go Low, We Go High

When opponents double down on cruelty, disinformation, and anti-democratic nonsense, we don’t follow them into the mud. We climb higher—and bring the public with us. In 2026, our narrative strategy is about elevation: spotlighting ecosystem-centered stories, amplifying trusted messengers, and advancing a national vision for wildlife governance that’s democratic, just, and grounded in real science, including Indigenous knowledge and community expertise. We’re producing sharper, broader, more accessible narrative tools—from explainers to videos to coordinated campaigns—so advocates everywhere can communicate like champions. The culture shift isn’t coming someday. It’s starting now.

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee

This is the year we move with agility and strike with precision. Our Building Power for Wildlife Justice program becomes a full-scale training pipeline that turns everyday wildlife lovers into seasoned organizers. We’re strengthening peer networks, honing cohort-based learning, and equipping state leaders with political savvy, policy literacy, and campaign tools that help them dodge bad-faith attacks and land decisive blows. Add to that an expanded digital action hub, new resources like our 2026 legislation tracker, and state-focused mentorship—and suddenly our movement shifts with Ali-level precision.

Beat ’Em to the Punch

We’re not waiting for the opposition to telegraph their next move. In 2026, we’re out front: launching governance reform campaigns in new priority states, scaling regional coordination, and using our SB5 victory in New Mexico to inform a national model wildlife governance bill. That means building the model and offering hands-on support to help advocates adapt it to their local political realities. It also means intervening early—whether that’s fighting right-to-hunt amendments, blocking anti-science policy maneuvers, or rallying a regional response to federal delisting chaos. Champions don’t play defense alone; they set the pace.

Punching Above Our Weight

No small nonprofit should be able to contend with entrenched colonial institutions, Big Ag interests, weaponized wildlife agencies, and billionaire-backed political actors—but here we are, and we’re still swinging. In 2026, we’re leveling up our coalition so we can all keep punching above our weight without burning out. That means improving collaborations, deepening relationships with aligned groups, creating and sticking to robust success metrics, and building a sustainable, scalable movement that’s ready for the long fight. Champions aren’t built on luck—they’re forged with strong support systems.

Keeping Up Our Guard

Even as we press forward, we’re also on constant defense—ensuring that hard-won victories don’t unravel. In 2026, that means:

• safeguarding SB5 implementation and using it as a blueprint for national reform,
• defending state wildlife action plans and diversified funding streams,
• strengthening legal, policy, and grassroots protections for apex carnivores, maligned species, and other at-risk wildlife,
• ensuring recovery plans for species like gray wolves, Mexican gray wolves, and grizzly bears aren’t compromised by bureaucratic or political interference,
• stopping the right-to-hunt lobby from rewriting state constitutions,
• and continuing to monitor, expose, and challenge anti-democratic wildlife governance schemes wherever they emerge.

Keeping our guard up isn’t fear—it’s discipline. It’s the focus, vigilance, and strategic persistence that allows champions to stay standing even when the fight shifts, intensifies, or just catches everyone watching by surprise. The discipline that keeps a fighter on their feet long after the crowd assumes the match is over. It’s the difference between surviving a single round and dominating the whole match. 

We’re in Your Corner

Every fighter needs a corner crew—the people who ice your wounds, pass the water bottle, and remind you why the next round matters. That’s the role Wildlife for All plays for advocates across the country.

We’re here to keep you in the fight, to help you land meaningful punches, to remind you, as a champion for wildlife, why the ring is worth stepping into. 

Our 2026 goals are ambitious because this movement demands ambition. And because champions—and every unsung fighter who ever kept going—know that persistence always beats power when persistence is principled.

2026 is our next round. And the ring is ours to own.

And we will play to win.

Play Like a Champion Today, friends.