I received this email last week;

You could really help a dog we have in care at our shelter at Armidale in northern NSW in need of surgery before we can make her available to be adopted.

Neither the shelter nor our RSPCA branch, who are providing support, can afford the amount needed so we have launched a campaign to raise funds for this specific cause. All the details are here. Any help in publicising Millie’s plight will help her get her new home.

thanks
*************************************************
Phill Evans
New England Regional Companion Animals Shelter
http://armidaleanimalshelter.blogspot.com

New England Strategic Alliance of Councils – Balancing autonomy and cooperation to enhance services to our communities
Armidale Dumaresq Council www.armidale.nsw.gov.au
Guyra Shire Council www.guyra.nsw.gov.au
New England Weeds Authority

Millie is a 9 year old labrador who was abandoned by her owners. With the cataracts completely blinding her estimated to cost $5,500 to remove, she could have easily been deemed ‘unsavable’ and euthanased without fanfare. But the unreasonably compassionate staff of the New England Regional Companion Animals Shelter, took it upon themselves to ask the community for help, setting up a blog to promote Millie’s plight, called ‘Help Millie See’.

Launched the end of February, it featured a heart-melting video of Millie which showed exactly how her cataracts effected her quality of life. They used this blog to thank donors as they came forward. They publicised Millie in the local media. They kept the community updated on Millie’s progress and the progress of their fundraising.

Less than 15 days later, the group has raised more than the money needed – they’ve raised nearly $6,000 to Help Millie See… An extraordinary achievement brought about simply by asking the community for help.

A huge congratulations to Phill and his team.

Groups who spend their time criticising their community for their faults are missing awesome opportunities to tap into their compassion. Groups who spend their time ruminating on how the public is the ‘problem’ and advocating for laws to ‘teach them a lesson’ build barriers between themselves and their community, and ignore the reality which is, overwhelmingly, the public are good and kind and pet loving… and the solution to reaching ‘unreachable’ goals.

The shelters who will see success in the future are those that promote saving lives in the face of obstacles. Those groups who will thrive in the future, are those who believe in serving and involving their public and who refuse to be content with ‘blaming and killing’, instead taking the time to advocate to their communities on behalf of the pets. Those groups who will lead us into a future where shelters are a safety net for animals, are those who recognise the ‘good’ people in the community, make up 100 times over for any ‘bad’ people in the community and that engaging the good people should be the focus.

Powerful opportunities for social engagement come from transparency, trust and creativity. This is the new world of animal sheltering.

EZ Food Drive Success
400 pounds of pet food collected in three hours

Focus on Felines Campaign specialist Shelly Kotter, along with Shannon Riddle, Four Directions community cat program coordinator, and a handful of volunteers spent half a day collecting pet food—and it was oh so easy.

In fact, their process of collecting food is so easy, they’ve dubbed the program the EZ Food Drive.

Armed with a few chairs, a table, and some preprinted shopping lists, the volunteers were able to collect more than four hundred pounds of pet food in under three hours.

“The response was overwhelming!” says Kotter. “We handed shoppers a list of needed pet food and supplies. When those shoppers left the store, they gave us the items they bought from the list.”

It’s that easy.

Kotter is hoping that rescue groups across the country will follow suit and get permission from local retailers to set up EZ Food Drives in their communities.

Adds Kotter, “With a minimal amount of effort, we were able to collect enough pet food to supply local groups for a few weeks.”

Don’t forget the pre-printed thank you notes!

This set of videos from the RSPCA UK does that, but also gives a glimpse into the life of an animal shelter worker and puts a personal face to the call for support.

These are not big budget, hard hitting or even describing anything that isn’t the normal day to day work of a shelter. But if you can break down those barriers – show people you’re just a bunch of people doing great work and they’ll absolutely want to be a part of it.

This is obviously a very scary time for fundraising – perhaps the most terrifying that many of us have ever experienced. But even when the economy looks bad, your online fundraising and marketing doesn’t have to suffer. Downturn or not, it is important that we don’t assume a defensive posture: Times like these really demand that you go about fundraising and marketing your organization smarter and more effectively than ever before. As fundraisers and marketers, we need to create plans and strategies for dealing with a downturn that are as detailed as those drawn up for normal times. That’s why we created this guide, to give you 12 real-life strategies and tactics to go about marketing and fundraising your organization more effectively during these difficult times.

Download the guide here

So was there any good news?

When your public is under financial stress, having a fan club becomes vital. A one-way relationship just isn’t going to cut it, when there are other leaner, hungrier groups competing for your supporters.


Groups may need to consolidate to eliminate the duplication of services and reduce overheads. And more than ever groups will need to market themselves, tell their stories and not be afraid to ask for support.


Simply, the present financial market is an opportunity for groups who have a drive to do things better to shine. Those who think they can underperform, underdeliver and neglect their supporters and still get by, are in for tough times.


My next few blogs will be about the inspirational ideas from the day;


Should groups consolidate?
Using social networking to reach your members
Are we a business?


And I highly recommend getting to a Givewell seminar if you can.

Convincing the most powerful, resource‐rich people you know that allocating some of their capital to the issues you’re addressing matters.

You’re devoting your life, your spirit, your energy, your faith into making the vision you have of a better future into a reality.

So why are you so scared to ask people for money? Why do you feel afraid to say: “This problem is so important and so urgent that it is worth your time and your money to fix it. I’m devoting my whole life to fixing this problem. I’m asking you to devote some of your resources to my life’s work too.”

And goes onto describe the abnormal relationship people have with money and how it drives their fear to ask for it; (People think that asking for money is all about asking for money. People think that storytelling is a gift, not a skill. Money = Power. They are afraid they will be told ‘no’).


Sasha instead argues that fundraising is really generating capacity for us to enact change and that we should be pleased to be talking to powerful, influencial people about the difference we hope to make in the world.


If you’ve ever been too scared to ask for money, or felt in someway that asking for money ‘pollutes’ the authenticity of your cause, then you must read this.

Step 1. Make it easy for people to give online

Don’t put any obstacles in the way of me donating to you – definitely don’t make me call you or write a cheque. This means getting your online donation system in tip top shape.


Most people are happy to use their credit card via a paypal account, so it’s highly recommend you start an account with them. They also offer a repeat donation option for people who want to give ongoing support.


(Tip: Always acknowledge these donations with an email or letter of thanks)

Step 2. Make your donors part of your team

Putting a face to your group is one of the easiest ways to help your Fan Club feel like they know you. You’re not just a faceless organisation with cute pets asking for money - you’re family. And who wouldn’t want to be involved with a family of nice animal people?


Check out the volunteers page of the Animal Protection Society website. How does it make you feel to see these people? It’s infinitely more personal than pages and pages of pet photos and costs you nothing to add to your website.


I would go one step further. I would make the first person on that list titled in big letters ”YOU!”. Then I’d say…


“Our valued supporter. By sponsoring or donating to us you enable us to do the work we do. Without you support we would cease to exist. Thankyou very much.”

See also; Ten tips for success from a group kicking butt, How to start a Fan Club

A handler and well mannered representative rescue dog, for a donated amount, will visit the workplace of your sweetheart and deliver a stuffed dog, balloon and card for valentines day. I’d assume there’d also be a commemorative certificate with the dogs’ picture on saying something like “your donation helped feed and care for me to X days – thankyou” or the like.

This is a great idea because while you make some $$, people get to meet and play with a rescue doggy and bust some rescue dog myths (wow! he’s cute AND friendly!) and said doggy gets a day out of the shelter, a trip in the car and a whole bunch of great people interaction .

Your donator and recipient get to feel good about helping you and contributing to the care of your pets, while taking care of significant event (what an outstanding present for a dog lover any time of year!)

… but even more importantly and what I love most about this idea is that it’s a way to invite yourself into an environment that wouldn’t normally have any contact with rescue pets or rescue groups – who knows who’ll you’ll meet!

I’d be taking some posters and some promotional items to leave behind (which will most likely get put in the office staff room) and a second handler with a digital camera to take photographs for anyone who wants to pose with the doggy celebrity – then just email them back to the office with a short blurb (suitable for use in an office newsletter) and volia! You’ve turned a donation into a whole marketing campaign!

Let me know if you have any other ideas on how to double the value of a donation.

If your group has never put an annual report together, or if yours is feeling a bit flat, then check out this e-book.

How to Write a Nonprofit Annual Report

This is easily the best guide to putting an annual report together I’ve found. It shrinks the enormous job of putting one together, into bite sized manageable chunks with it’s step-by-step approach. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

 

Photos are key

Good photos make a huge difference to the presentation of your annual report and make it much more interesting to your reader – but what do you do if you don’t have any?

Simple – buy some! Individual stock photos are really cheap (even cheaper if you want web quality) and can make your annual report or website really stand out.

My favourite site to buy from is istockphoto.com where you can buy individual images for the web for around $1.50 (small) and print quality $3.00 (medium). With 24,472 photo results for ‘dog’ and 8,330 for ‘cat’ they’ll certainly have the images you need to brighten up your report.

 

Putting it all together

The hard bit is over – you’ve come up with dynamic and positive content, chosen a bunch of great pics that represent your group and have a pretty good idea on how you’d like it to look – what now?

Of all the things you should beg, borrow or steal, a graphic designer is at the top of the list. Luckily it shouldn’t be too hard to find one to put it together for you – put a call out on your website, on internet forums and on PetRescue. Pet loving graphic designers are everywhere (trust us).

 

To print or not to print

This is completely dependant on how you do business now. You should definitely send your annual report to your major supporters, potential supporters, volunteers and with all future grant applications. Whether you will contact these people by post or over email is completely up to you.

 

Just do it!

Having an annual report (even if you aren’t able to produce one every year) is a great way to demonstrate the large positive changes you are making in the community. Don’t underestimate it’s power to generate loyal supporters who want to be able to see tangible results of their donations. It also encourages new supporters to get on board, as they can see you have been using your resources effectively and really ‘making a difference’.

While it may seem like an insurmountable task, if you approach it as a marketing exercise you will find it’s actually really fun to put all the great things you’ve done in the one place. What a great way to motivate everyone!

Please feel free to share your annual report successes here, to help other rescues find the inspiration to take the leap!