Animal Welfare Professionals

There's plenty out there about communicating an organization's expectations for fosters. What we are having trouble with is getting them to do their required marketing tasks. New fosters are expected to come to adoption events (we are a home-based rescue, all-volunteer, serving cats and some dogs), provide bios and up-to-date photos for social media, etc. Lots of our fosters do great with this, but I've been with this group for two years and there are fostered cats that I've never seen at an event or seen a single new photo of. These fosters provide one or two blurry photos for social media and petfinder (if any) at the onset, and bios are never updated. Every week, our director reminds them to get the cats to Petsmart, update photos, rewrite bios, etc. but to no avail. I have offered over and over again to write new bios for these cats and there are several of us who've offered to get new photos-just name the time and place. We've asked them again and again how we can help them, and explained that we cannot become a sanctuary, etc. 🦗🦗🦗🦗 crickets…

So my question, which I've never seen addressed directly, is what do you do next? What is the process to remove this rescuing bottleneck?

• Continue to beg and plead until either the foster passes away, the animal passes, or the organization goes belly up?
• Insist that they adopt the pet themselves? (I suspect this isn't going to work.)
• Offer them an expensive gift in trade? (You might actually come out ahead financially here if someone else gets the pet adopted and off the books, so to speak.)
• Remove the pet from the current foster home (possibly under cover of darkness) and give the animal to a foster who will market it? How does that actually take place? It sounds like a very uncomfortable and delicate conversation to bring up.

I would very much like to read specific examples of how this is handled by groups who don't have a physical location to return hard-to-adopt animals whose foster home are delinquent. It's an ugly, negative topic and I suspect that's why you never read about specific consequences applied to foster who don't meet their obligations in marketing the animals.

I've gone on too long. Any help, rescues?

#FosterPrograms
#MarketingandSocialMedia
#PeopleManagement(includingVolunteerIntegration)

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Carol B.
Foster Volunteer/Grants Coordinator
Michigan
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🤷🏻More crickets 

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Carol B.
Foster Volunteer/Grants Coordinator
Michigan
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Do you have documentation on foster's responsibilities? If not, that's the first order of business, plus how you'll hold them accountable. If you do already, and fosters are not meeting the obligations they agreed to, I think you have every right to reach out with an ultimatum and offer them some options. Indicate where they are falling short and what they can do by what date to stay a foster. If they still fail to follow through with no good reason communicated, it might be time to terminate their status. Offer them the option to adopt the pet or surrender it back to you for another foster placement. Even though this is hard, remember to come at it from the lens of what is best for the animals. You can fall back on your organization's strategic plan and goals, and especially your point about not becoming a sanctuary. 

You might also want to examine if there are any barriers in your system for them to follow through on these responsibilities. If they do not own a camera or cellphone or aren't comfortable writing, do you offer assistance? Can you provide a Zoom webinar, training or even tip sheet on how to take good photos with do's and don'ts, and what you're looking for in bios? Would you be able to send a staff member to their home with their permission to do this for them? 

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Amanda Huggett
Director of Communications
Cat Care Society
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Thank you for your thoughtful response! I'll pass this along to the Powers That Be. If we can't inspire our current fosters we can at least start off on the right foot with new ones! 

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Carol B.
Foster Volunteer/Grants Coordinator
Michigan
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2023 08:01 AM
From: Amanda Huggett
Subject: Fosters Who Fail to Market Pets-What are the consequences?

Do you have documentation on foster's responsibilities? If not, that's the first order of business, plus how you'll hold them accountable. If you do already, and fosters are not meeting the obligations they agreed to, I think you have every right to reach out with an ultimatum and offer them some options. Indicate where they are falling short and what they can do by what date to stay a foster. If they still fail to follow through with no good reason communicated, it might be time to terminate their status. Offer them the option to adopt the pet or surrender it back to you for another foster placement. Even though this is hard, remember to come at it from the lens of what is best for the animals. You can fall back on your organization's strategic plan and goals, and especially your point about not becoming a sanctuary. 

You might also want to examine if there are any barriers in your system for them to follow through on these responsibilities. If they do not own a camera or cellphone or aren't comfortable writing, do you offer assistance? Can you provide a Zoom webinar, training or even tip sheet on how to take good photos with do's and don'ts, and what you're looking for in bios? Would you be able to send a staff member to their home with their permission to do this for them? 

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Amanda Huggett
Director of Communications
Cat Care Society
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I agree with Amanda!

If there are written rules and regulations that they signed and they are not following them, bring that up, ask them if they need help or just what's going on that is causing them to not meet these requirements. 

If they are not willing to receive help and are not willing to meet these requirements, then yes offer the option for them to adopt the animals or they will need to allow another foster to take them to fulfill the requirements which allows the animals to get adopted.

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Amanda Gray
Fundraising and Grants Manager
Operation Liberation
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2023 08:01 AM
From: Amanda Huggett
Subject: Fosters Who Fail to Market Pets-What are the consequences?

Do you have documentation on foster's responsibilities? If not, that's the first order of business, plus how you'll hold them accountable. If you do already, and fosters are not meeting the obligations they agreed to, I think you have every right to reach out with an ultimatum and offer them some options. Indicate where they are falling short and what they can do by what date to stay a foster. If they still fail to follow through with no good reason communicated, it might be time to terminate their status. Offer them the option to adopt the pet or surrender it back to you for another foster placement. Even though this is hard, remember to come at it from the lens of what is best for the animals. You can fall back on your organization's strategic plan and goals, and especially your point about not becoming a sanctuary. 

You might also want to examine if there are any barriers in your system for them to follow through on these responsibilities. If they do not own a camera or cellphone or aren't comfortable writing, do you offer assistance? Can you provide a Zoom webinar, training or even tip sheet on how to take good photos with do's and don'ts, and what you're looking for in bios? Would you be able to send a staff member to their home with their permission to do this for them? 

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Amanda Huggett
Director of Communications
Cat Care Society
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We have had to change our Foster contract. Unless they are designated "long term" fosters, generally for health reasons, they can only foster for 3 months. We were having issues with puppies growing up in foster care and being harder to adopt as everyone wants to foster a puppy (why I have no earthly idea!) but they never bring them out (after they've been vaccinated and can come out to events).  We've had be get pretty strict about it.

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Casey Parker
Board Member
Humane Society of Southern Illinois
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Thanks-.that sounds like a nice, firm policy that plainly sets up the expectations. When the three months is up, where do those puppies go? If you have a physical building, it's obvious, but we're home-based so what happens then?

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Carol B.
Foster Volunteer/Grants Coordinator
Michigan
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2023 01:41 PM
From: Casey Parker
Subject: Fosters Who Fail to Market Pets-What are the consequences?

We have had to change our Foster contract. Unless they are designated "long term" fosters, generally for health reasons, they can only foster for 3 months. We were having issues with puppies growing up in foster care and being harder to adopt as everyone wants to foster a puppy (why I have no earthly idea!) but they never bring them out (after they've been vaccinated and can come out to events).  We've had be get pretty strict about it.

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Casey Parker
Board Member
Humane Society of Southern Illinois
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We have a physical building. We also have a transport program where we send animals to other rescues. Once we get them back they are either sent to rescue or put in the adoption program where they get a lot of exposure.

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Casey Parker
Board Member
Humane Society of Southern Illinois
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2023 02:02 PM
From: Carol Brendler
Subject: Fosters Who Fail to Market Pets-What are the consequences?

Thanks-.that sounds like a nice, firm policy that plainly sets up the expectations. When the three months is up, where do those puppies go? If you have a physical building, it's obvious, but we're home-based so what happens then?

------------------------------
Carol B.
Foster Volunteer/Grants Coordinator
Michigan
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2023 01:41 PM
From: Casey Parker
Subject: Fosters Who Fail to Market Pets-What are the consequences?

We have had to change our Foster contract. Unless they are designated "long term" fosters, generally for health reasons, they can only foster for 3 months. We were having issues with puppies growing up in foster care and being harder to adopt as everyone wants to foster a puppy (why I have no earthly idea!) but they never bring them out (after they've been vaccinated and can come out to events).  We've had be get pretty strict about it.

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Casey Parker
Board Member
Humane Society of Southern Illinois

My background is foster based, all volunteer animal rescue. Some fosters are willing/able to do more than others. It's tricky since they are volunteers. Kind of hate to fire one for inadequate marketing efforts. I was generally desperate for fosters and willing to tolerate individual idiosyncrasies. If one foster was good at photography, they helped by taking photos for others. If a foster didn't want to attend adoption events, another foster would transport that animal to/from the event. If someone kept a foster pet too long, pet was moved. Naturally, if someone had ringworm or other medical issues in their home, we followed them vets guidelines for fostering. I think we built a good community of fosters who stayed with us.

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Valerie Blankenship
Mobile Bay Cats
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I recommend trying an automated way to get fosters involved in the marketing. It could be an email with a survey about their current foster pet, a QR code in the foster manual that leads to a google form about their foster pet and place to upload pictures, etc. It creates an easy way for fosters to give animal information - with the added benefit of keeping it all in one place for you. You could also try to update policies to reflect the necessary involvement fosters have in marketing!

hope this helps!

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Allie McCarthy
Kennebec Valley Humane Society
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2023 05:53 PM
From: Valerie Blankenship
Subject: Fosters Who Fail to Market Pets-What are the consequences?

My background is foster based, all volunteer animal rescue. Some fosters are willing/able to do more than others. It's tricky since they are volunteers. Kind of hate to fire one for inadequate marketing efforts. I was generally desperate for fosters and willing to tolerate individual idiosyncrasies. If one foster was good at photography, they helped by taking photos for others. If a foster didn't want to attend adoption events, another foster would transport that animal to/from the event. If someone kept a foster pet too long, pet was moved. Naturally, if someone had ringworm or other medical issues in their home, we followed them vets guidelines for fostering. I think we built a good community of fosters who stayed with us.

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Valerie Blankenship
Mobile Bay Cats
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I would actually suggest re-thinking it.  Your risk is that you will "rule enforce" your fosters out of your program and then find yourself without fosters.

Most fosters take crappy photos anyway.  Many of them can't write good bios either.  So stop expecting them to do everything.

We're foster-based too, with just a small core of long-term folks who keep things running.  I write the bios.  Our director of ops used to be a professional photographer, so she gets the photos (and cringes at some of the photos fosters send us).    I send the draft bio to the foster and text them to get them to look at it.  I say something like "I'm posting this tomorrow -- anything need to be changed or have anything to add?"    We also sometimes post "coming soon" with a photo if I'm behind on writing the bio.

I have a format that I like that makes it very efficient: first paragraph is M/F, age, and ONE main personality trait.  Second paragraph is more positive personality traits and cute quirks.  Third paragraph is any negatives to the animal (challenges to overcome).   Easy, peasy.

You just need ONE really good volunteer who can't foster but who wants to help who can be the bio-writer -- if you can find someone who writes with flare, then you'll have a distinctive voice for "your" rescue.  You'll get WAY better bios this way than pawning it off on fosters who have no idea what to say. 

The same goes for pictures.  If you have a photo volunteer who can visit the foster home on a weekend, or get some candid shots at an adoption event, with a high-quality camera and who can go home and edit the photos to make them pop, then you'll have fantastic pics to go with your snappy bios.

I stopped letting fosters write bios years ago.  I ask them to text me some bullet points.  They can text me fave pics too, but they're often dark, far away and with bad angles.  When we have great bios and great photos, we get tons of applications so....it's too important to trust to people who don't know how to do them well. 

If you happen to have a foster home that's great at making videos for social media for their foster animals, encourage it!  But don't expect everyone to do it.  Play to people's strengths -- if it's rehabilitating difficult animals, providing really great care, etc. that's enough.  Someone else who can't do that can be strong with the other stuff.

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Maggie Thomas
President
Red Stick German Shepherd Rescue
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Yes, this is and always has been in the back of my mind. It's not like we have replacements waiting in the wings! Your point is well taken—strike a balance between expectations and appreciation. 

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Carol B.
Foster Volunteer/Grants Coordinator
Michigan
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 08-29-2023 06:51 PM
From: Maggie Thomas
Subject: Fosters Who Fail to Market Pets-What are the consequences?

I would actually suggest re-thinking it.  Your risk is that you will "rule enforce" your fosters out of your program and then find yourself without fosters.

Most fosters take crappy photos anyway.  Many of them can't write good bios either.  So stop expecting them to do everything.

We're foster-based too, with just a small core of long-term folks who keep things running.  I write the bios.  Our director of ops used to be a professional photographer, so she gets the photos (and cringes at some of the photos fosters send us).    I send the draft bio to the foster and text them to get them to look at it.  I say something like "I'm posting this tomorrow -- anything need to be changed or have anything to add?"    We also sometimes post "coming soon" with a photo if I'm behind on writing the bio.

I have a format that I like that makes it very efficient: first paragraph is M/F, age, and ONE main personality trait.  Second paragraph is more positive personality traits and cute quirks.  Third paragraph is any negatives to the animal (challenges to overcome).   Easy, peasy.

You just need ONE really good volunteer who can't foster but who wants to help who can be the bio-writer -- if you can find someone who writes with flare, then you'll have a distinctive voice for "your" rescue.  You'll get WAY better bios this way than pawning it off on fosters who have no idea what to say. 

The same goes for pictures.  If you have a photo volunteer who can visit the foster home on a weekend, or get some candid shots at an adoption event, with a high-quality camera and who can go home and edit the photos to make them pop, then you'll have fantastic pics to go with your snappy bios.

I stopped letting fosters write bios years ago.  I ask them to text me some bullet points.  They can text me fave pics too, but they're often dark, far away and with bad angles.  When we have great bios and great photos, we get tons of applications so....it's too important to trust to people who don't know how to do them well. 

If you happen to have a foster home that's great at making videos for social media for their foster animals, encourage it!  But don't expect everyone to do it.  Play to people's strengths -- if it's rehabilitating difficult animals, providing really great care, etc. that's enough.  Someone else who can't do that can be strong with the other stuff.

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Maggie Thomas
President
Red Stick German Shepherd Rescue
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When I was with a foster-based cat recue,  we had a similar set up to Maggie's organization. Someone coming over to take photos of your foster cat(s) wasn't an offer... it was a requirement! They were allowed to either have the photographer (which was me haha) over to their house OR they could bring the cat to an adoption event and I'd work on it there. We primarily had events at a local Petsmart that had a cat meet and greet room where I could take photos. 

We also had a little questionnaire about the cat for the foster (required) with a spot for the foster to write the bio themselves (optional), which someone else used to write bios and post the cats online. 

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Erin Dams
Roanoke Valley SPCA
Roanoke VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-29-2023 06:51 PM
From: Maggie Thomas
Subject: Fosters Who Fail to Market Pets-What are the consequences?

I would actually suggest re-thinking it.  Your risk is that you will "rule enforce" your fosters out of your program and then find yourself without fosters.

Most fosters take crappy photos anyway.  Many of them can't write good bios either.  So stop expecting them to do everything.

We're foster-based too, with just a small core of long-term folks who keep things running.  I write the bios.  Our director of ops used to be a professional photographer, so she gets the photos (and cringes at some of the photos fosters send us).    I send the draft bio to the foster and text them to get them to look at it.  I say something like "I'm posting this tomorrow -- anything need to be changed or have anything to add?"    We also sometimes post "coming soon" with a photo if I'm behind on writing the bio.

I have a format that I like that makes it very efficient: first paragraph is M/F, age, and ONE main personality trait.  Second paragraph is more positive personality traits and cute quirks.  Third paragraph is any negatives to the animal (challenges to overcome).   Easy, peasy.

You just need ONE really good volunteer who can't foster but who wants to help who can be the bio-writer -- if you can find someone who writes with flare, then you'll have a distinctive voice for "your" rescue.  You'll get WAY better bios this way than pawning it off on fosters who have no idea what to say. 

The same goes for pictures.  If you have a photo volunteer who can visit the foster home on a weekend, or get some candid shots at an adoption event, with a high-quality camera and who can go home and edit the photos to make them pop, then you'll have fantastic pics to go with your snappy bios.

I stopped letting fosters write bios years ago.  I ask them to text me some bullet points.  They can text me fave pics too, but they're often dark, far away and with bad angles.  When we have great bios and great photos, we get tons of applications so....it's too important to trust to people who don't know how to do them well. 

If you happen to have a foster home that's great at making videos for social media for their foster animals, encourage it!  But don't expect everyone to do it.  Play to people's strengths -- if it's rehabilitating difficult animals, providing really great care, etc. that's enough.  Someone else who can't do that can be strong with the other stuff.

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Maggie Thomas
President
Red Stick German Shepherd Rescue
------------------------------

Hi,

I am the rescue coordinator for foster-based rescues. We don't hold adoption fairs as our foster are very spread out. My other rescue used to have adoption fairs and when fosters can't make it a volunteer would go and pick up the dog. 

Personally, I do not expect nor think it's fair for fosters to be REQUIRED to write bios, go to adoption fairs, and submit good pictures. I think its a nice to have.  I have fosters send in bullet points and I write the bios. I keep a Google Drive with files for individual dogs and I ask the fosters to drop the pictures and videos in there whenever they take any. I also keep a Google for when fosters tell me anything like cute little incidents or any behavioral changes. If the foster is not good at taking pictures I send a volunteer over to take pictures. I set it up like an appointment, arrange a playdate with another volunteer/foster or have them dropped off at a daycare that I work with and ask the staff to take pictures.  Sometimes especially if the foster is living alone it can be difficult for them to take pictures. If the fosters are not complying it is typically a communication issue and since they are already volunteering their time to care for the dog and some have very busy lives, I try to make their life easier by providing support. Having open communication instead of just asking/telling them what to do tends to work. For example instead of asking repeatedly of pictures I would frame it as " Hey thank you for the pictures, I really need more and videos too so I can alternate them and stop bugging you," Then in a joking tone " I mean  if you were looking for a pet would you pick this picture?" haha Then ask more about if they have any issues or teach them how to take a good picture for example " Is your foster being too wriggly to get good pictures? I know you are busy, but what can I help you with to get good pictures? I really need your help, the better the picture the sooner they can get adopted! " A lot of times they just really don't know how to take good pictures or understand the settings on their phone. A lot of people still don't use the "live" picture mode on iPhone. When I told some fosters it was a game changer coz now they can just snap snap without worrying and I choose a frame. And sometimes you just have to give up and get good with photo editing.  As for the adoption fair maybe the foster is going through something that they don't feel comfortable sharing; maybe they are having a financial issue and want to save on gas. Maybe they have a car issue? Share cars? Maybe someone in their family is ill and the day of the adoption fair is not available to them. Fosters with kids tend to have a hard time getting to adoption fairs as well. Or maybe they have social anxiety?  There are many valid reasons that maybe they don't want to share. Just chat with your fosters, Don't always ask about the animal, ask how they are doing, how's their pet doing, and how's their family doing. How's work?  Sometimes having these chats can give you insight on why they aren't doing the things you asked them. A lot of times especially nowadays with so many animals in need, we in animal welfare can often time focus too much on the animals and not the human aspect. I often have to remind myself that my fosters are just that, fosters. They don't understand a lot of things behind the scenes. 

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Heron Ceron
Foster coordinator
Welcome Home Sanctuary
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I agree with reassessing expectations for fosters. I think by having so many requirements for fosters, you run the risk of losing good caretakers. People have different strengths, and some fosters are incredible caregivers but aren't as skilled at writing bios and taking photos. I like the idea of recruiting volunteers who want to help but can't necessarily foster to help with other tasks. At organizations I've worked with, we often had volunteers who couldn't foster or do a lot of manual labor assist with tasks like writing bios and other things. You could also recruit volunteers to do transport for adoption events. 

At one organization I worked for, being an "adoption ambassador" was an option for fosters. Doing all of the marketing was an "opt in," instead of a requirement. It had its own separate guidebook and doing it that way meant that all the fosters who WERE marketing were doing it because they were enthusiastic about it. We also tried to make the foster facebook page a fun place for fosters to interact with each other and with staff, so it felt like a community and sharing pictures and updates became more organic and something people genuinely enjoyed doing. 

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Kate Rachiele
Pet Program Advocate
Willow Domestic Violence Center of Greater Roc.
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Hi Carol,

I'm with Simply Cats, a cat rescue in Boise. We are a brick and mortar facility, but we take in over 500 kittens into foster homes each year. I'm in charge of marketing, so receiving updated photos and descriptions of foster kittens is important to me. These are a few things we do to engage with foster's to encourage participation.

1. Foster Facebook Group- Foster's LOVE posting photos of their fosters and sharing their antics with other fosters. Plus, it helps fosters feel more involved in the process. I just log onto Facebook and download photos, and record their updates. 
2. Take photos during veterinarian exams/adoption days. For us, we have exams every couple weeks (our foster program is just for kittens and mama cats, so they need vaccinations, etc. every few weeks). When fosters can't take good photos of their fosters, I pop in during their exams and take photos myself. Is it possible to take photos of these pets during adoption days or vet exams? Some people just aren't tech savvy, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be fosters. 
3. RAFFLES! Our foster coordinator, does an amazing job in keeping fosters engaged through quarterly raffles. Reach out to businesses for donations, and you will find yourself with a lot of neat gifts to raffle off. Maybe tell fosters that every photo, bio, and update they submit to you gives them one entry into a raffle every month, every two months, etc. This could be a fun way to engage fosters and show that you appreciate their help. 
4. Method of contact. How do you typically contact fosters? We ask fosters how they preferred to be contacted. Some do not like email, and will absolutely not respond. Others will always respond to text messages. Some prefer actual phone calls. Whatever it is, ask your fosters what they prefer. Maybe you aren't hearing back because they don't check their email or ignore their phone. 

These are just a few things we do that really help us when it comes to keeping fosters engaged. We've had to take kittens away from our fair share of foster parents, not for not updating us, but for taking not the best care of their kittens, or disagreeing with our team on how to care for them. If fosters aren't doing their job no matter what, maybe pay them a visit and remind them that in order to foster, you need these items. Without them, they can't be adopted, and just say that if they can't commit to these tasks, they can no longer foster. 

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Maddie Corey
Simply Cats
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