Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello Everyone, I’m Rachel Cohen the Founder of A Home for All of Us Inc. 501c3 Nonprofit devoted to saving the lives of abandoned, abused, and homeless cats and dogs! We are brand new nonprofit and only received our 501c3 approval in March 2018! Last year I decided to quit my job working as a Senior IT Recruiter for the State of NY and decided to pursue my dream of saving animals. I figured if I was working 17-hour days and weekends, it should be doing something that I have a passion for. I’m an Animal Rights Activist, pescatarian, and active volunteer as an Adoption Advocate/Kennel Associate with Lifeline Animal Project/Fulton County Animal Services. I have an MBA and will be obtaining a post graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Organizational Management this June. I have found that fundraising and brand awareness to me the most difficult aspects of running the NPO. My dream is to develop a sanctuary to house animals who have a high risk of being euthanized due to age, illness, appearance, disposition, lack of socialization, and other factors the preventing them from being adopted. We are very excited to be a part of this Network and would like to thank Maddie's Funds Best Friends, and everyone involved for having us.

Hi Rachel, congratulations to you for following your dream!  Strap yourself in, running an NPO rescuing animals is not always easy but certainly worth it!  Your education will be key to your success that's for sure.  Of course, your heart will too  

A couple of things right off the top of my head for branding and marketing, once you come up with your logo, if you get the kind of feedback we did with ours (people love it), make sure to trademark it.  This will cost you some money but having ownership of it could be very, very important down the road.  Get yourself on social media right away, if you don't have the time or your not the expert, find someone who is.  I learned at a Best Friends convention years ago if you're not on Social Media, you're not going to make it in rescue.  I can't stress how important hearing that was.  My organization then applied (and received) a grant from Maddie's Fund to hire a part-time social media coordinator and it changed the landscape for us. #thankyoumaddie!

Start raising money now and have the mindset that your never, ever able to stop raising money.  Or organization has what I call our "money team" and all they do is look for money, come up with ideas to raise money, and thank those who give the money...all while sitting with a kitty on their lap.  Without money, you can have all the grand ideas of saving animals you want but the bills have to be paid first. 

Best of luck to you - your going to be great at this and the animals in your area who need saving are lucky you threw down a stake!

Kim Kamins, 

So happy you are committed to this! Sounds like you are off to a great start. the world needs you!  Hang on and enjoy the ride!

There are so many great grants for marketing out there, once you get your branding, get free google ads and build facebook and instagram, get volunteers to video stories of incoming animals.

I created a board of directors that had some of the skills I lack, none from the animal welfare world, but all animal lovers. Attorneys, brand marketers, media professionals, graphic and web professionals, etc. 

Start an adoption program right away or you will be limited on how many lives you can save. I say you can only bring in new animals if you can adopt out others.

Maddies has so much in the way of resources to help build adoption and foster programs, too! They have been a very special partner to Muttville and our success.  #thankyoumaddie