Largest Charities in Wyoming: Top 10 Organizations to Donate & Volunteer (2026)

Food Bank of Wyoming is the state's primary food bank, distributing food through signature programs and partnerships with more than 300 Hunger Relief Partners across the state from its Casper headquarters. Wyoming is the least populous state in the US, but its geographic vastness — the state is larger than the UK — creates major food distribution challenges. Getting food to Rock Springs, Gillette, Sheridan, or Evanston from Casper requires driving hundreds of miles through high-desert terrain that can become impassable in winter storms.

CEO Danica Sveda described the food ordering challenge to Wyoming News: the food bank places orders through a national system weeks before delivery, making real-time demand surges difficult to respond to. At Thanksgiving 2025, shelves were more empty than usual — both because November SNAP disruptions drove more people to food banks and because the traditional holiday donation surge was competing with every food bank in the country trying to stock up at the same time. Sveda: "We don't have any food now because it's the holidays, and we're stocking stores, so there's less for us to purchase that's donated." Wyoming's food insecurity rate of 15.4% — above the national average — reflects both rural poverty and the energy economy's boom-bust character.

Wyoming Hunger Initiative works on the policy and coordination side of food insecurity — SNAP enrollment assistance, advocacy for nutrition programs, and coordination among Wyoming's food pantries and food bank partners. Wyoming's food insecurity has a distinctive gap: the state's food insecurity rate is 15.4%, but many people who are food insecure earn just above the SNAP eligibility threshold — a problem that the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center at the University of Wyoming identified in a 2024 report, noting that extending SNAP benefits and increasing income thresholds would close significant gaps. Wyoming Hunger Initiative works to translate these policy findings into legislative action.

The Wyoming Humane Society is the state's largest private animal welfare organization, based in Cheyenne with adoption, spay/neuter, cruelty investigation, and community programs. Wyoming's vast rural landscape creates significant animal welfare challenges: very limited access to veterinary care across most of the state, stray populations in small towns and agricultural communities, and county shelters that operate with minimal resources in many cases. The Casper Humane Society serves central Wyoming. Economic swings in Wyoming's energy-dependent communities drive animal surrender rates — when oil prices drop and energy workers lose jobs, pets are often surrendered.

Habitat for Humanity of Laramie serves Albany County — home to the University of Wyoming — with affordable home building and critical repair. Wyoming's housing market is unusual: home prices are modest in many rural towns, but wages in the non-energy economy are also low, and housing quality in older energy boomtowns (Gillette, Rock Springs) can be poor. Laramie's Habitat affiliate benefits from UW faculty and student volunteers. Wyoming also has Habitat affiliates in Cheyenne, Casper, and other communities. Critical repair programs address aging housing in small towns across the state — in Wyoming, a failed furnace in February can be life-threatening within hours. ReStore accepts building materials.

The Wyoming Community Foundation manages charitable funds and grants statewide from Casper, with particular attention to Wyoming's smallest and most isolated communities. WYCF coordinates with community foundations in Cheyenne, Laramie, and Jackson to reach different parts of the state. Wyoming's Native American communities — the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho on the Wind River Reservation — face some of the most severe food insecurity in the state and are a priority for WYCF's rural grantmaking. The Wind River Reservation is the third-largest reservation in the US by area and faces significant economic hardship.

United Way of Natrona County manages workplace giving for Casper-area employers — Wyoming Medical Center, oil and gas companies, retail employers — and distributes grants to nonprofits in Natrona County. They operate 2-1-1 Wyoming, the statewide helpline connecting residents to food, housing, utility, and emergency resources. Wyoming has United Way chapters in Cheyenne (Southeast Wyoming United Way), Laramie County, and other communities. Casper is Wyoming's energy hub and most economically volatile city — oil price cycles directly drive boom-bust conditions in United Way's campaign and in food bank demand simultaneously.

The Red Cross Wyoming Region responds to home fires, blizzards, wildfires, and other disasters in a state with some of the most extreme weather in the continental US. Wyoming blizzards can close I-80, strand communities for days, and drop temperatures below -30°F. Wildfires in Wyoming's dry landscape — particularly in eastern Wyoming's grasslands and around the Big Horn Mountains — have grown in severity. Blood collection serves Wyoming Medical Center, Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, and other Wyoming hospital systems. If you need disaster assistance in Wyoming, call 1-800-RED-CROSS.

Catholic Charities of Wyoming covers the Diocese of Cheyenne — all of Wyoming is within a single diocese — with refugee resettlement, immigration legal services, emergency food, housing, and social services. Wyoming's refugee population is small but significant for communities in Cheyenne and Casper. Catholic Charities has programs serving the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho communities on the Wind River Reservation, where food insecurity is severe and access to mainstream social services is limited. Services are available to people of all faiths.

The Salvation Army operates in Casper, Cheyenne, Gillette, and Laramie with emergency food, rent and utility assistance, overnight shelter, and after-school programs. The Casper Salvation Army food pantry, which Heather Wright manages, went from "crazy busy" at 65 households to averaging over 100 on most food distribution days by late 2025. Wyoming's extreme winters make overnight shelter and utility assistance particularly critical — a utility shutoff in January in Casper at -20°F is a life-threatening situation. Red Kettle campaign runs November through Christmas.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Wyoming matches children with adult mentors in Casper, Cheyenne, and other Wyoming communities. Wyoming's small population means BBBS operates across vast distances — a mentoring match in Thermopolis or Worland is a different logistical reality than in a dense city. The state's Wind River Reservation has particularly high child poverty and food insecurity rates; BBBS programs that reach reservation children face significant geographic and infrastructure challenges. Outdoor mentoring — hiking, fishing, camping — is particularly fitting for Wyoming's culture and access to public lands.