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February, 2023
Minnesota’s wildlife and state taxes have more in common than you may think!
On Minnesota state tax forms, you may notice an illustrated loon next to Line 18 asking if you’d like to donate a portion of your tax return to nongame wildlife. This is the nongame tax checkoff and your chance to help Minnesota’s wildlife and the Nongame Wildlife Program!
When you donate a part of your tax return to the nongame tax checkoff, you help Minnesota’s wildlife in a BIG way. Your donation is double-matched by funds from the Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) critical habitat license plate fund. So a $30 donation becomes $90 for Minnesota’s wildlife and natural areas!
We use your donations to fund many of our projects, like researching rare and vulnerable wildlife species and running the EagleCam. We also use your donations to meet funding requirements for federal wildlife grants, which lets us fund additional projects like implementing the Minnesota Wildlife Action Plan.
Simply put, we can’t do our work without your support! So please consider donating to the nongame tax checkoff this year and help us continue protecting and sustaining Minnesota’s wildlife.
Nongame Wildlife Specialist Mike Worland out in the field.
Thanks to your support, our program accomplished a lot in 2022!
We:
-Installed two more Motus towers to help us track American kestrels
-Conducted bird surveys in the southeast
-Tracked wood turtles
-Searched for four-toed salamanders
-Monitored Northern goshawks
-And so much more!
Visit our website to learn more about our projects and follow us on Facebook for stories from the field.
Nongame staff installing a Motus tower
Donations don’t just fund our work, they also fund our staff!
Some of our staff’s salaries come from federal wildlife grants we were able to secure thanks to your donations. These are the faces behind the program, working every day to ensure that Minnesota’s diversity of wildlife continues on for future generations.
Meet our staff over on our website: mndnr.gov/eco/nongame/nongame-staff.html
 The early years! A Nongame Wildlife Program staff photo from the 1980s.
The nongame tax checkoff was implemented shortly after the Nongame Wildlife Program was established in 1980.
When the program was created in 1977, its annual budget was $25,000, which included then-Nongame Wildlife Program Supervisor Carrol Henderson’s salary. As we began our crucial conservation work, we realized the program needed more funding in order to accomplish its many goals.
In 1980, state Sen. Collin Peterson saw that Colorado had enacted a voluntary tax checkoff law and was using the funds to help wildlife that is not hunted (nongame). He introduced similar legislation in Minnesota and the Nongame Wildlife Tax Checkoff law MS 290.431 was passed. Minnesotans could now donate to the Nongame Wildlife Program with a tax checkoff located on Minnesota income tax forms!
Minnesotans donated over $500,000 in 1981 via the tax checkoff. This generosity meant the visions of a diverse and protected wildlife population in Minnesota were about to be turned into reality.
Thanks to your support, Minnesota has one of the most successful tax checkoffs in the country! We have used your donations to fund research, restore iconic wildlife species like the bald eagle, and so much more.
We can’t do the work we do without your support. Thank you!
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