I think that LARAS House could really use another paid employee or two. We have only two at this point and we are a very large shelter and the only no-kill shelter in our county. Our employee clean the cat house/kitten cabin areas and the entire shelter, provide transport to the vet, handle adoptions, manage volunteers, and help with events. Until recently they also did all the data entry and paperwork, but we now have an office volunteer, and a data management/remote office volunteer to help with that. If one employee is sick, board members and the few regular volunteers we have step in. Both employees also donate a lot of hours. We function only on donations and care for over 100 dogs and often over 100 cats between the shelter and foster care. We are located in a small town in a mostly rural, relatively low income county and volunteers can be hard to come by, so the same few of us do almost everything.
Our other big expense is veterinary costs, both for spay/neuter costs and other special veterinary needs. We struggle to keep enough money coming in to keep up with the volume of animals. It makes it difficult for us to come up with $ for special needs animals and it is often the same few people coming up with the money for their care.
So maybe the biggest need is for a Shelter Operations grant which could include another salary and some make ready costs for adoptions (mainly spay/neuter and vet costs- a generous donor pays for most of our vaccines, wormers, routine medicines, etc.)
#FundraisingandDevelopment