LOR Foundation to Begin Working With Buffalo, Wyoming

Buffalo will be the eighth community the LOR Foundation works with, providing funding and support for locally led projects that benefit the community.

BUFFALO, WY — Jan. 5, 2026 — The LOR Foundation is excited to announce it will soon begin working with a second Wyoming community: Buffalo, a town of 4,600 on the edge of the southern Bighorn Mountains in northern Wyoming. Buffalo will be the eighth community the LOR Foundation works with.

“Buffalo residents already roll up their sleeves to help their community,” says Gary Wilmot, LOR’s executive director. “We are excited to support their ideas for local projects that bring even more benefit to their neighbors.”

LOR works directly with local people who have a plan for how to help their towns. The foundation provides funding for locally led projects and prides itself on being accessible to anyone with an idea—senior citizens, veterans, pastors, and busy parents. LOR doesn’t come with its own agenda; that’s why the foundation will hire a Buffalo resident to lead the local work by listening to residents and helping them turn their good ideas to realities. Funding is delivered quickly—typically within a couple of weeks—and supports a range of issues from economic development and education to health, housing, and transportation. Each year, in a single community, LOR typically funds between 50 and 100 ideas.

“The foundation doesn’t believe it has the answers,” Wilmot says. “We believe the community does. Every solution that we have funded can be traced back to an individual who had an idea and said, I want to do something to help my community. They often just need a little help.”

Currently LOR also works with Cortez and Monte Vista, Colorado; Weiser, Idaho; Libby, Montana; Questa and Taos, New Mexico, and Lander, Wyoming, though LOR will be leaving Lander later this year. The foundation doesn’t stay in one community forever, moving on after a few years to help another rural town. Over the past six years, Lander residents have stepped forward with creative ideas for helping their community, and LOR is excited to help another Wyoming town do the same.

About LOR: LOR works with rural communities in the Mountain West to enhance livability and prosperity while preserving the character that makes each community unique.