Animal Welfare Professionals

Does anyone have advice on how volunteers can help get the word out about long stay pets? As a volunteer, I wish there was more I could do. My small social media reach doesn't go far, and even if it did, not sure it would help much anyways. I tell anyone who will listen about these two dogs, but alas, they are still without a home. Any thoughts? Does covering the adoption fee help? I am doubtful since adoption fees have been waived at certain times and they are still there. 

Will the shelter allow the dogs to go on field trips? Showcasing them outside of the shelter is a free and easy way to get more exposure. Bonus if you get some photos or videos of the dog out and about. Accompany that with a description of how the dog behaves outside of the shelter and it can help people see what the dog would be like in a home environment and whether or not they'd be a good fit for them or someone they know.

Not yet, but I hear they are thinking about it. Wish they would!

Are there any groups that you could join to post on social media.  We are in a small rural community but the yard sale facebook pages have thousands of people, and posting slightly off topic but for a good cause on those pages often will get some attention.  Our volunteers take the dogs home for weekends, overnights, and they describe what they personally know about behavior on our social media page.  We have one volunteer who gets a photo, frames it, takes it to local businesses, and leaves it there to get some exposure.  Can you take the dogs to local business like Tractor Supply, or other pet friendly businesses for an hour or two to meet people?  Place an ad in the newspaper on your own (after getting approval).  Any groomers in town who might post pictures?  

How about printing and posting flyers around town or posting them in the NextDoor App? Pets get a lot of traffic in the ND app. Those are things that a shelter can't do that volunteers can! Also, I second field trips. It gives you a chance to see the animals out of the shelter and it's great for social media. Keep up the great work!

I hadn't thought of NextDoor. Thanks!

Maddie's has a new guide for foster marketing that can be used to help with long stay pets as well. There are tons of ideas in The Foster Caregiver Marketing Guide.

Also, talk to your organization about participating in the Get 'Em Home Challenge-- they can win grants for implementing creative programs and tactics that get long stay pets adopted! Check it out: https://www.maddiesfund.org/join-the-getemhome-challenge.htm

Our shelter has volunteer-run focus groups for marketing our pets. We are a high volume shelter so there are Facebook pages for long time dogs, behavioral dogs, senior dogs. And high-need cats (the cat page basically lumps them all together since we have fewer cats in care at a time). Maybe you could get with other volunteers to get this started? 

Our shelter promotes the pages by sharing their posts, and in our case, our “Friends of” group holds money for them so that if the volunteers want to fundraise for their specific focus group, they have that opportunity. The vols involved then get to decide how their focus group’s money is spent (advertising, marketing, medical for a senior/long timer, professional trainer for bhvr dogs, etc.)

Here’s a link to the cat group page, FB link from there. The programs are pretty new, so still working on increasing reach - https://www.friendsofpacc.org/projects/missionpawsible