Animal Welfare Professionals

Updated 1/26/26 at 2:43 pm - Recording now available to watch on-demand!

Enter here for a chance to win the January Community Conversations giveaway after watching live or on-demand.

Please note: All views expressed on these calls are not necessarily endorsed by Maddie’s Fund.

We hope to see you on the next Maddie's Community Conversation on Monday, January 26, 2026 at 11am PT / 2pm ET  for "The Business Behind Lifesaving," a conversation with @Tyann Sumpter, Manager of Shelter Support for Charleston Animal Society. 

The Business Behind Lifesaving explores how strong operations and intentional systems can support sustainable, community-centered sheltering. Drawing from her experience as a former small business owner and sheltering professional, TyAnn Sumpter shares how applying principles often used in successful businesses, thoughtful problem-solving, reducing barriers, and prioritizing staff and community experience can strengthen shelters and improve outcomes for animals. Through storytelling and real-world examples, this session offers a practical, compassionate lens on how operational excellence can build trust, support teams, and help more animals find and stay in homes.

This session is especially relevant for shelter leadership, operations managers, and anyone responsible for improving workflows or strategic planning - but all are welcome! 

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Despite existing state and federal laws, many housing providers ignore legal protections for tenants with Emotional Support Animals (ESAs). This results in harassment, resistance, and wrongful denial of accommodations.

• Examples of the immediate impact of hiring from within your community will be provided

• The link between access to pet care and access to careers in animal health

• Passion is essential, but shelters thrive when compassion is paired with a clear, consistent business model that supports sustainable lifesaving.

• Treating adopters, fosters, donors, and community members like valued customers removes friction, builds trust, and improves outcomes.

• Small operational improvements using data, mapping workflows, and standardizing processes help teams work smarter, reduce burnout, and save more lives.

Don't forget! Maddie's Fund will be giving away up to $10,000 in grants each month! You can enter for a chance to win each time you attend a call or watch it on demand during the month by completing the monthly giveaway drawing entry form. 

Register for Community Conversations hosted via Zoom. 

🧠 Got Topic or Speaker Suggestions?
We want to hear your ideas! If there's a topic you're curious about or a speaker you'd love to hear from, please share your suggestions with us on our Community Conversations Suggestions thread. 

Looking forward to being in community with you! 

#EducationandTraining
#OrganizationalManagement
#PeopleManagement(includingVolunteerIntegration)

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Sheila Kouhkan
Senior Education Specialist
Maddie's Fund
CA
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Thanks to our speaker, @Tyann Sumpter - and everyone who joined us today! 

We would love to hear from you in response to today's reflection question: How would your shelter’s outcomes change if every adopter, foster, donor, or community member was treated as a valued customer?

If we truly treated every adopter, foster, donor, and community member as a valued customer, I think we'd see a big shift in how people connect with our shelter.

When people feel welcomed, listened to, and appreciated, they're more likely to come back. They adopt again, foster longer, donate more consistently, volunteer, and tell others about us. That leads to better matches for animals, fewer returns, and stronger long term support.

At the end of the day, caring well for people helps us care better for animals. Strong relationships build trust, and trust is what sustains lifesaving work in the community.

Hi @Cindi Ashbeck I really love how you framed this. Treating adopters, fosters, donors, and community members as valued customers doesn't cheapen the work; it strengthens it. When people feel welcomed and respected, they don't just complete a transaction  they build a relationship with the organization.

You're spot on that this leads to repeat engagement, better matches, fewer returns, and long-term support. It also creates consistency and trust, which are critical in a field that's often reactive and emotionally charged. When we care well for people, we reduce friction, increase buy-in, and ultimately create better outcomes for animals.

Strong relationships really are the backbone of sustainable lifesaving, and your post highlights that connection beautifully

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Tyann Sumpter
Manager of Shelter Support, No Kill South Carolina
Charleston Animal Society
SC
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I think that treating everyone as a valued customer is important.  I think it can also be expanded beyond just treating everyone as a valued customer, but also as a potential champion for your organization.  If people understand your mission, your who, what, why and how they can be a voice for your organization in the community.  This can lead to funding, new staff, and volunteers. Being clear on these things, and setting measurable goals to meeting your mission enables an organization to thrive.  People want to be a part of something successful, knowing what the goals are and the progress to meeting them, builds buy-in and support.

@Becky Keehan 

Becky, I really like how you framed this around champions, not just customers. When people understand the who, why, and how, of the work, they're much more likely to talk about it, support it, and advocate for it in the community.

Being clear about goals and showing progress builds trust and buy-in. People want to be part of something that's working  and that's often what leads to more volunteers, funding, and long-term support.

@Tyann Sumpter Today's session was so helpful! I believe in being intentional with the goals and strategies we use as an organization to move forward toward success. One of the most foundational ways we can begin this work in opening avenues for all stakeholders (including board members, volunteers, donors, adopters) to participate and provide feedback/input for next steps is creating a shelter CULTURE that is welcoming, appreciative and positive about the work we are doing each day rescuing animals in our community. If our culture could consistently embrace the concept of treating everyone as a valued customer, we could easily reach our goal of increasing adoptions, creating paths of more intentional work on the part of our volunteers so they feel the work they are doing is meaningful, maintain a more positive volunteer culture with improved morale and retention because we are listening to what volunteers have to say and we are open to their ideas for improvement. This would also go miles with donors to improve our relationships and strengthen existing partnerships that would result in more financial resources for our rescue and the animals housed here. From my experience as a school administrator, this has to start with what is being messaged from the top or the shelter board all the way down to the volunteer that runs open house or cleans the kennels. It requires time and very strategic and frequent communication to all stakeholders about how to walk the talk - modeled by each board "leader" first and foremost. It is something that can be built into the mission of the shelter work and put in the plan, but it also needs to be "checked or monitored" to ensure the culture is being nurtured into something positive and meaningful each day. This can be accomplished through simple pulse checks and/or volunteer satisfaction surveys. Feedback is a gift - dreaming big about what we want the experience to be for our fur friends and stakeholders deserves to be captured and worked into the strategic plan annually. 

I would LOVE a copy of your plan template to use for our annual shelter plan. Thank you!!

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Patti Denny
BCAR Volunteer
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
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@Patti Denny 

Hi Patti, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! I completely agree that intentional culture-setting is foundational to achieving strategic goals. Treating every stakeholder as a valued "customer" from board members to volunteers, donors, adopters, and community members   creates the kind of trust and engagement that makes adoptions, volunteer retention, and fundraising more successful. I love how you highlighted that it has to be modeled from the top down and reinforced consistently. Pulse checks, volunteer surveys, and other feedback loops are such a smart way to ensure the culture stays healthy and aligned with your mission.

I'd be happy to share a goal-setting template that I use. My approach is designed to be simple and actionable: you start with your mission, set high-level annual goals, and then break them into quarterly, monthly, and weekly actions for your team. It also includes space to track metrics, responsible parties, and timelines, which helps ensure accountability while keeping the focus on the outcomes that matter most for both people and animals.

Below is the template I use, filled in with an example focused on increasing adoptions. If you'd like a version customized to your specific organization or goals, I'm happy to help.

Attachment(s)

Shelter Strategic Goal Template.docx   7 KB 1 version

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Tyann Sumpter
Manager of Shelter Support, No Kill South Carolina
Charleston Animal Society
SC
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Hi everyone,

Thank you to everyone who joined "The Business Behind Lifesaving." It was such a fun, energizing discussion, and I truly appreciated the thoughtful engagement and questions.

I'm excited to keep the conversation going here in the Maddie's Fund Forum and will continue checking back to respond as new questions come up.

As promised, I also wanted to share a resource that may be helpful:
The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter by Michael D. Watkins. It's a great read for anyone navigating leadership transitions, systems-building, or organizational change.

Thanks again for being part of the conversation, and I look forward to staying connected.

Thanks to the 130+ people and paws who joined us on today's Community Conversations call! The recording is now available to watch on-demand. Below you'll find a recap of today's call and the resources shared. 

Call Recap

Welcome from hosts

• @Miguel Ruelas, Community Resources Manager, Pasadena Humane
• Sheila Kouhkan, Senior Education Specialist, Maddie's Fund
  
  

Question of the Day: What is a habit you're proud of building (or breaking)?

National Updates

• HASS (Human Animal Support Services) Update:  Take a look at the HASS Data Basics Playbook - a foundational guide designed to strengthen data entry practices and ensure the accuracy, integrity, and reliability of your organization's information. 
• Maddie's Community Conversations Giveaway: Now you can enter for a chance to win up to  $10,000!  Enter here for a chance to win.  Open to all who are watching live or on-demand! Be sure to enter each week you attend! You must be registered in Maddie's Pet Forum to enter. 
• We invite you to share on our latest giveaway thread on Maddie's Pet Forum by sharing: What's a win you're celebrating from this past year? 
  Commenting on this thread in December or January will enter you into a giveaway to win $1,000 in unrestricted funds. We can't wait to celebrate your wins with you!   
• Maddie's Pet Forum Monthly Giveaway: Maddie's Fund® is giving away a $3,000 grant each month to one lucky Maddie's® Pet Forum member. You'll automatically be entered to win each month when you start a new discussion, reply to a new post. Learn more here. 
• We would love to hear from you! Have an idea for Maddie's Community Conversations? Interested in hosting? Have a topic or speaker you would like to hear from? Let us know on Maddie's Pet Forum via the Community Conversations Suggestions discussion thread. Or, you can contact us directly by emailing CommunityConversations@maddiesfund.org.

Presentation: The Business Behind Lifesaving

• Speaker:
  • @Tyann Sumpter, Manager of Shelter Support, Charleston Animal Society
• Resources: 
  • Connect with TyAnn on LinkedIn

Highlights from the Chat

• "This is perfect timing. I am coming from the public-school sector as a building administrator and everything we did was according to our school improvement plan which consisted of measurable goals and monthly check-ins to ensure we were all working in alignment toward the annual outcome." -  Patti Denny
• "I love this! I have just been working on grants! Sounds amazing!" - Doris Kempton
• "I love this!! Our rescue is learning to track everything to gather information to help focus our efforts!" - Bethia Rocha
• "Donors do love seeing the mission and strategic goals around the organization's plan on paper to better understand how things are going to be measured and when you expect goals to be achieved." - Patti Denny
• "I LOVE this message: they are succeeding bc they were intentional in their design of their programs!!!❤️" - Becky Stuntebeck
• "Something as small or as simple as saying to every volunteer "thank you for being here today" goes a long, long way" - Patti Denny
• "Thank you! Business models keep everything on a professional level which works well for everyone." - Marion Barbato
• "Owning the good, bad and ugly will only help everyone in the organization be confident in the help they are asking for each day." - Patti Denny
• "That is so true, when we are in the trenches the stories get forgotten real quick, just covered up by the day to day." - Doris Kempton
• "TyAnn it is so evident you love what you do! Thank you for sharing your expertise with all of us today!" - Patti Denny
• "I love this approach and can already see many ways to apply the how why who including on a personal level-  ex. my kid's chore list!" - Ivy Ruiz
• "Absolutely - we wear all of the hats! And it's tough! Thank you for acknowledging this." - Alexa Kyler
• "Yesss - thank you from all the community cats!!!!" - Amber Eby

Attachment(s)

The Business Behind Lifesaving by TyAnn Sumpter.pdf   1.44 MB 1 version