Getting donations and help and making the most of them for our rescue dogs and a few cats and kittens who are dumped on the nearby highway is a daily ongoing process, helping to maintain a dog rescue of 24 dogs – and a few squirrely cats – in south central Nebraska.

With a small financial budget, providing adequate care to our animals is only made possible through generous donations of food and supplies and local help. We are not a non-profit agency that receives help for the care of our dogs. We survive on what money, food, and necessary products we can gather. (When we first started, we were told by state officials if we lived closer to larger cities we could possibly receive some assistance.)

However, for eleven years we have lived on this small one-acre place out in the country where unwanted or elderly dogs have slowly entered into our life. They are free to run and play and we are free to rescue who needs help. At times, it feels as if the arriving dogs and cats are God’s messengers sent to us for safekeeping until they go home to him. Over the years, not only have we been able to care for our own dogs but have started Nebraska Pets Meals on Wheels for struggling pet owners in this troubled economy, and recently merged with the national organization Pets of the Homeless for Nebraska pet owners.

Cartoon by Nancy.

The needs of our dogs

The feed requirements for our animals are approximately 200 pounds of dry dog food and 50 pounds of cat food a month, plenty of fresh meat and two to three cases of canned meat per week. We add vegetables and rice for nutritious purposes, diet requirements, and flavor. Medicine is purchased on an ongoing basis for whichever dog is in medical need. We use about 20 bales of prairie hay for doghouse bedding every couple of months for the larger outdoor dogs, each having a 6 x 10-foot pen and a 50 x 50 foot exercise pen. The hay is placed on their individual run floors so they do not have to stand in ice or snow during the winter.

We have several dogs with bad or no teeth, and according to our vet are too elderly to survive surgery. They require softened dry food mixed with meat that they easily consume, something many of them have never had before. When many arrive here, they have various levels of malnutrition with health issues, parasite problems, and rotting teeth. It is our job to make sure their nutritional needs are met with the correct diet.

We start all our dogs with their own bowl of food and fresh water every day, each dog having their own necessary diet. Some use their bowls as chew toys so we need to keep a spare in addition to the rope toys and balls they enjoy. Others couldn’t care less … each dog is their own dog and we treat them accordingly.

Donations of food and hay

To provide plenty of fresh meat for our dogs, we go onto our Yahoo Group through Freecycle for donated out-dated game. We put out an online request in Yahoo groups for nearby towns (you need to join your own town’s group to participate and be accepted) and people call us up and ask if we want deer, pheasant, fish, elk or duck that is about a year old, as they are getting ready to hunt again. Sometimes the donation consists of outdated beef, as they are getting ready to butcher again. We boil the meat and add the rice and vegetables, along with some dry food. Otherwise, the meat we buy in canned dog food is through 4Health, a natural canned food that is similar to Blue Buffalo, through our local feed supply store who keeps an eye on specials for us.

Dry dog food is purchased through a commercial company in Kansas through our neighbor, who has her food brought in. She pays the shipping for us and buys bulk for us to keep our prices down. We used to pay her every time we would get one of our bags, but recently we have been lucky enough to pay for all 200 pounds at once. We buy a dog food that has no corn or soybeans in it, a natural dog food that is mixed with a 4Health dog food (exceptionally healthy for our dogs). We save about $720 a year as compared to shopping at local stores.

Sufficient hay is absolutely necessary as without it our dogs are not warm enough in the winter or dry enough in the rainy season. One small bale in the feed stores will usually run anywhere from $10 to $15 each, an unaffordable price for us to pay. Many bales are broken or covered with too much snow, which we are able to pick up at a discount. But we needed a steadier source, so we began calling around for farmers who did their summer hay in small bales … which are very few. Most bale in the large wrapped rolls for cattle and horses throughout the winter, or to use in silage for cattle lots.

We had friends who also began calling and emailing around for us … kind of like a friend chain letter… and eventually we found a gentle and very kind middle-aged man who lives about 45 minutes away. He offered us small bales of prairie hay $4 each for our dogs, plus he would deliver it and unload it for us free in our hay shed. He told us the prairie hay was better for our dogs than wheat hay as it was not loaded with mites that would affect our dogs. His mother lives north of us about 20 minutes and the hay money he receives from us pays for a special dinner for them both. We save $7 or more a bale, which means every load we save $120 plus gas and labor. Without him, I do not know what we could do.

Tilly

Lowered rent money for our rescued dogs

We pay very little rent money for our place, mainly because it was to be dozed down before we moved in. That first year my sons’ friends came out and fixed it up for us … saving us lots of money in the end. One could do electrical work, another could do flooring, and another could do roofing. Those boys I had helped raise as children were now paying it forward by helping us out.

In a jiffy, we had moved into our “farm house.” When we shared with our elderly property owner that we did rescue work with elderly dogs, he reduced our rent $50 a month to put toward the dogs – a savings of $600 a year. In fact, this past week he is also putting a new roof on our house and has trimmed/carted away old trees out of the dog pens for us, a task we had been dreading.

Rosie

Lowered vet money for our rescued dogs

We have a wonderful vet about half a mile down the road who works with us all the time for our old dogs. Many times he gives us medicine at cost or does not charge us for a visit. He knows the work we do and is always there for us with the highest quality of work at the lowest prices. He has become our right-hand man and is vital to the old dogs we have.

Donated maintenance labor

For several years, my sons would put out the word for help and everyone would come out on my birthday to work on large projects we needed done for the dogs. Over the years they’ve put up a long privacy fence so kids could not drive by and throw beer and pop bottles at our dog, they put up extra pens for me, they built dog runs for exercising, and repaired wooden sheds for hay storage. The strength of these young men was invaluable for us.

As you can see, we receive donations in many ways, and there is not one tried-and-true method that alone will work, but without the help of so many generous people we wouldn’t be able to care for all our animals! We wish to thank everyone who has entered our life over the past 11 years and donated in every way possible, making our life better by increasing the quality of our dog’s lives … where every little bit means a whole lot to those who had so little.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our four-legged charges and their two old caretakers!! ?

Together with her sister, Nancy runs a dog rescue for elderly and sick dogs – and some kittens too! She writes about dog related issues at Way Cool Dogs.com.

Related posts:

• Start With A Small Fundraiser: Why the Yappy Hour Should Come Before the Fur Ball
• Fundraising For A Dog Park With Dog Houses and Doggie Bowls
• In-Kind Donations and Low Cost Products and Services for Your Group – Part 1

When you run a non-profit animal rescue group, you can’t do it all alone. But time and time again people try. A few months ago, I was talking to a woman who runs a small dog rescue group in California. With only two or three volunteers, they have managed to pull hundreds of dogs out of shelters and find them new forever homes. Of course, doing this type of work requires money.

So like the old saying goes, to raise some money, they decided to put on a show! Unfortunately, unlike Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, they didn’t have the whole town backing them up. Armed with only a few volunteers, for their first fundraiser, they opted to put on an elaborate and expensive black-tie “Fur Ball” event.

Can you say burnout? The worst thing was that even with all this effort, after the dust settled, the fundraiser didn’t turn out to be a financial success. It was an exhausting, demoralizing let down for everyone involved.

Start with a simple fundraiser

The moral of this story is that you have to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run. If you have a small organization or you’re just starting out, realize that you have some learning to do. And experience is the best teacher.

I always suggest that people start out with simple, easy fundraisers that have low overhead. On the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals Web site, there’s a download called “Paws-i-tively EASY Fundraisers” PDF we give away when you sign up as a free Helping Paw member.

One of the easy ideas is the “Paw Print” fundraiser, which basically works like the Muscular Dystrophy shamrocks you see in grocery stores around St. Patrick’s Day. You go around to businesses and ask people to sell Paw Prints for a dollar and hang them on the wall. The only out of out-of-pocket cost is one ream of paper (about $10). Yet you can earn hundreds of dollars using this simple fundraising technique.

Then graduate to host an event

After you’ve done one of the super-easy fundraisers, you can graduate to an event. But again, start slow. Don’t do an extravagant fundraiser to start. Talk to a business about doing a simple “Yappy Hour,” where people get together and schmooze with their dogs. This helps you establish a community or “fan base.” As any band member will tell you, it’s impossible to get a stadium gig, if you haven’t played a whole lot of small nightclubs first. You need to get your name out there and build a volunteer, adopter, and (potential) membership base. Only your most passionate fans will attend the big “black tie” events, so you need to establish a base of support first.

Once you’ve cut your teeth on a few small fundraisers and events and have some success and money in the bank, consider the big black tie “Fur Ball” event with a big-money silent auction.

Remember, not every fundraising idea is going to be right for your group. Look at your situation and resources first, then decide. Don’t jump into something complicated and demanding before you’re ready.

About the Author:
Susan Daffron is the author of “Funds to the Rescue: 101 Fundraising Ideas for Humane and Animal Rescue Groups” (Visit FundstotheRescue.com) and the founder of the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals, an organization that is dedicated to helping animal rescue groups save more lives.

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• Start Your Fundraiser Right By Setting Clear Goals
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Begin With The Details

Before people even think about donating money, they like to know where their money is going. Larger charities can rest on their famous names while smaller and newer ones cannot. Your best bet is to clearly spell out what any donated money will be spent on. In the case of your animal charity, be specific: mention how this money will be used to help keep strays off the streets, how it will be used to rescue dumped puppies and so on. Explain how this money will be spent to help animals live better lives.

You may not have a monetary goal in mind and instead just be trying to raise as much as possible, but having a tangible figure for how much you want to raise helps to make your need more real for potential donors. You’ve heard it before: unfocused goals tend to yield unfocused results. Having a specific amount of money that you are trying to raise will not only motivate donors but will motivate you and all those who work with you to try harder to reach it.

Give Those Details Meaning

Giving the readers of your letter the details right off the bat lets them know exactly why you are sending out a letter. Once they know what you are asking for, you can begin to explain why you are asking for it. Now is a good time to describe the plight of animals who do not receive your help.

Talk about the strays and the dumped puppies, the dark reality, the reason why your group was created. Don’t be overly dramatic – just be honest. These animals are looking at rough and possibly short lives without organizations such as yours. Give your readers honest insight into this situation.

Now you can again talk about what you can do. This may be a good place to list the accomplishments of your organization thus far while stating your commitment to expand your efforts to help as many animals as possible. Talk briefly but clearly about any special programs that donations will help fund or how donations will provide a boost to your existing programs and activities.

The Closing

In the closing be direct, be honest, and be sincere. Nothing is more appealing than a genuine appeal to help those in need. Convey that you care and that you need help to carry on your work. Tell your readers exactly what they can do to help you to make the lives of animals in your area better.

Sending out letters to ask for donations for your animal charity is an action that needs to come from the heart. People have seen many letters from charities before. Make yours unique by being completely honest about what you want, why you want it, and how many animals will be spared difficult lives and cruel fates because of your efforts.

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The Provincetown Dog Park Association in MA auctioned off artist embellished dog houses and a local gallery owner helped with a display of dog bowls to raise funds for building a dog park for their town.

The event included online bidding, bidding by phone and a silent auction and raised $12,000 in one day.

In a dog-crazy art colony like Provincetown, the idea for this particular fundraiser made perfect sense, said Candace Nagle, head of the Provincetown Dog Park Association.

She made a general shout-out to artists this summer and, in a few days, more than 50 had volunteered to personalize a plain pre-built wooden house…

…Nagle said auction officials were also fielding phone calls, e-mails and text messages from people as far away as California who wanted to bid on the houses.

…gallery owner Denny Camino bought 500 lime green dog bowls at Ikea, Nagle said. He placed them in front of the Denny Camino Gallery on Commercial Street and posted a sign asking for donations to be placed in the bowls for the Bark Park. By summer’s end, Bark Park volunteers had scooped $9,000 in change from the bowls…

To read the complete article, click here.

How can you apply information from this fundraiser to you yours?

This fundraiser had people from across the country bid on the dog houses. If you’re planning to auction off items you think might be attractive to a large number of people, make sure you market your fundraiser with a local newspaper article, potentially a national press release and an e-mail campaign. Also send your info to bloggers (Google your topic to find relevant blogs) and post on social networking sites. (More on marketing your fundraiser…)

The idea to put out dog bowls to collect money was creative and reached people who would not necessarily be interested in buying the dog houses, but who were willing to donate small amounts of money. Consider adding an aspect to your fundraiser that lets people donate small amounts of money. It does add up!

For more posts like this one, click over to our How Others Raise Funds Category.

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Supporters For Animal Shelters

Animal shelters have the advantage of having a wide potential support-base. Animal lovers are everywhere, and many are very dedicated to issues of animal welfare. And while animals lovers, breed supporters, and activists should certainly be called upon, animal shelter fundraisers have larger appeal and success if they reach out to a wider audience.

• Start the appeal list with known supporters, animal groups, and breed associations/supporters. Be careful, though, that someone’s very strongly-held beliefs will not deter the average person from participating in a campaign or event.
• Look in-house at group members and volunteers for annual appeals and donations and for volunteer support to run a campaign.
• Appeal to the general public through advertising and fund-drives, and by hosting educational events, recreational events, and sales.
• Appeal to local and national businesses; some will match funds raised, and others will be willing to sponsor an event for advertising rights (animal food and supply companies will be the best bet).

Some Notes About Animal Shelter Fundraising

It seems that people who give to animal shelters have different expectations of shelter personnel than they do of other groups they might support. Often, animal shelters have to work harder to convince people that they need money and support.

• Animal shelter personnel need to display a knowledge of their function, of animal care, and of why their particular group has such a large need. Volunteers should be well-versed in animal care matters and in their basis of need. Prepare volunteers to speak to the public during campaigns not only to educate, but also to prove the group’s credibility.
• Pet-related events are very well suited to animal shelter fundraisers because they provide an inherent opportunity to educate the public (thereby furthering the cause and reducing the need), grow animal support overall, and show the shelter as an organized, reliable, and credible organization.
• An aspect of animal shelter fundraising that should never be overlooked is in-kind donation. Cash is hard for some people to part with, particularly if they can’t be sure they can trust how an organization will spend the money. But animal shelters always have big supply needs, and donations of foods, bedding, dishes, and toys can be just as good as cash to buy them. For a shelter with particular needs, a well-publicized and detailed list of acceptable goods with collection/drive details will ensure that the group gets usable goods.

Animals in need can’t speak for themselves; and few animal shelters have the funds necessary to fulfill the needs of their in-house populations. But with targeted animal shelter fundraising plans, animal shelters can raise the funds and supplies needed to complete their mission.

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Zorro The Traveling Cat!

by: Eric of Zorro The Traveling Cat!

CATs, Traveling, Donations… Three words that each mean a lot and can be used in the same sentence when you think of Zorro The Traveling CAT; the CAT that donates in order to help out animals in need and helps you discover interesting places to visit!

We started this site because we wanted to honor our little buddy and we also love traveling. We contribute every month to the SPCA and World Wildlife Fund as we believe in their missions and goals. Now, Zorro The Traveling CAT has become something that represents so much more then we’ve ever anticipated! We receive wonderful emails and photos that help us discover what a great World we live in. Hopefully you will learn and enjoy too!

We invite you to submit a photo of your travels or a local landmark; if the site on your photo has a great story behind it, or the site has historic value, even better!

Zorro’s site will post up to five contributed photos a month, based on photos that meet our “quality standards” and in order of submission. In the future, we would like to make donations of $10 per photographic contributions, as of now, the maintenance costs of the website limit us to a budget of $7.00 per submission.

Once we post your photo, we will send you a proof of transaction by email (SPCA will send it directly to your email address) and we will also post it on the web site (hiding your full name of course!).

If you would like to contribute a photo(s) and have a donation done in your honor, please follow these steps:

1. Send your high quality photo through our website. We will add Zorro!
2. Provide a brief description of your photo.
3. Include the city/town, state/province and country of where your photo was taken.
4. Let me know if you want me to contribute $7.00 to the World Wildlife Fund or to the SPCA.
5. If you want to receive your $2.00 for your photo contribution, please leave me your PayPal email address so I can deposit the amount!
6. We would also like to know where you are from! City/town, state/province and country!
7. Please note that we cannot accept photos that depict people.

That’s it! When you’re ready to submit your photo, please visit us at Zorro The Traveling Cat!