To build and create partnerships and projects which promote outdoor recreation, conservation, and charity toward others.
"Dick and Mary Cabela shared a deep love of the outdoors. Their even deeper faith gave their outdoor adventures extra meaning."
Our Founders
The Cabela Family Foundation’s story began when a polio survivor from the Nebraska plains and a young woman raised by a single mother from the Wyoming foothills met in high school. Dick and Mary Cabela took their love for one another and raised nine children while they started a tiny company selling hand-tied trout flies. Cabela's would eventually become one of the largest outdoor outfitting companies in the world. Dick and Mary Cabela are probably best known for founding Cabela’s, but those closest to them understand it was their love of God, family, and the outdoors that truly defined their lives. The memories they created fueled a lifelong commitment to conservation.
They started the company by selling hand-tied fishing flies from their kitchen table
In 2000, they formed the Cabela Family Foundation to ensure the adventures and memories made in wild places will inspire future generations to carry conservation’s cause well into the future.
“Generations from now, when we have joined our loved ones in the endless beauty of Heaven, someone will stand here and declare with confidence the animals and places we love so dearly still exist because he or she was given the chance to be a hunter.”
Values
The mission of the Cabela Family Foundation is to build and create partnerships and projects which promote outdoor recreation, conservation and charity toward others.
“When God gave man dominion over all the beasts of the land, the air, and the sea, He must have envisioned a day when man would try to base his decisions on not only what was good for man but was also good for the part of Creation he had been given stewardship over. Most hunters take that responsibility very seriously.”
Promote Outdoor Recreation
The Cabela Family Foundation hopes to inspire today’s youth to carry conservation’s cause into tomorrow. Many of the greatest conservationists began as children exploring the outdoors in the most honest way possible—as participants. Those experiences instill admiration, respect, and love for wildlife and wild places. If we can encourage the lessons, relationships, and introspection real participation in the created world bestows, we can be hopeful these places will exist long after we are gone.
Conservation
The Cabela Family Foundation embraces the North American Wildlife Conservation Model—a belief that our wildlife belongs to all and needs to be managed to sustain animal populations. This idea promotes the concept that each generation should be able to experience wild animals in wild places. The foundation also realizes certain conservation models may not work in all places for a number of reasons and limiting factors including local governments, customs, and lifestyles. We have found that conservation is not a one size fits all proposition, but the most successful models tend to create conditions that allow for land use to protect entire ecosystems while benefiting the people living in and around those landscapes.
“What does it mean to be a conservationist? I think for most hunters it comes naturally. We don’t really spend a lot of time worrying about explaining it, because we just live it. Why? It’s simple, You cannot spend so much time in the outdoors pursuing the most honest relationship with nature that exists and not fall in love with it. And what do you do when you love something? “As a mother of nine children, I can tell you, you nurture it, you protect it, you watch it grow, and you allow it the freedom to become what it is meant to be. Most of all, you enjoy it. Because without it your life would be a little less meaningful.” —Mary Cabela
Charity Toward Others
Dick and Mary Cabela’s deeply rooted Catholic faith influenced their view of the world. A view that promotes selflessness, charity for others, and a deep respect for all of God’s creation. They believed conservation must take into account the well-being of the people most affected as well as the wild places and creatures. The Cabela Family Foundation has found that when the people living closest to the wildlife benefit from it in some way, then success of our conservation efforts increase exponentially.
Board
The board of Cabela Family Foundation will continue to work in line with Dick and Mary's vision: To build and create partnerships and projects which promote outdoor recreation, conservation, and charity toward others.
