Hi Emily,
Sorry to hear about your budget shortfall. The cost increases over the past year have been hitting everyone pretty hard for sure.
For grants there's two ways to look at more operations style support.
There are some grant agencies, most prominently PetCo Love and PetSmart that do offer some direct support for general operations. Those and other general operating grants tend to be a much more competitive and/or have requirements around social media or in-store adoptions.
Other grant organizations might apply to direct operating areas but need a little creative placement around finding a way to fit a project or expansion of work into what you're already doing in a way that fits the grant parameters. For example, if you're doing community spay/neuter you might be able to get a medical grant that helps cover medical supplies cost in exchange for running a pilot program on TNR.
The most impactful grant that we did recently was a community fundraising / grant supported program to install solar panels on our building. We not only had great community support, but also solar grant foundation support, animal grant support, and state/utility company rebates and grants that all helped cover all of our costs. It generates about $1,000 a month for our shelter which is a direct savings to our operating budget and it was much easier to find funders interested in a "brick and mortar" project for the panels.
You may also have better luck with a local community foundation like
https://donorswhocare.org/grant-seekers/grant-seeker-forms/ as they sometimes can be more flexible or are interested in long terms support of local organizations.
Beyond that, operating grants are really hard to come by and your time and effort may be better spent looking to grow your immediate fundraising, community donor, and online donor programs rather than trying to go in for a very competitive grant you might not get.
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Jeff Okazaki
Humane Society of Jefferson County
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