Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello - We are new here and excited to be part of this community.  While we may come from a slightly different corner of the rescue world as a farm animal sanctuary, we know our missions have far more in common than they do differences !!  

It's challenging to engage donors since we don't offer adoption/fostering.  Would love to hear ideas from organizations that found successful ways to engage donors while keeping the focus on education, storytelling, community partnerships or other approaches.   We'd really appreciate hearing what has worked!

#FundraisingandDevelopment
#MarketingandSocialMedia

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Deborah Torrice
CFO
Road To Refuge Animal Sanctuary
CT
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Thank you for all that you do for our farm animals! Different missions, yes, but there are still plenty of ways to engage donors.

Consider mission-moment interaction opportunities, like having donors or prospective donors come see when an animal first arrives at the sanctuary, or inviting them to milestone events (a move to a new pasture, a "graduation" from rehab, that kind of thing). Spotlighting the journey from an injured or scared animal to one that's thriving is powerful.

Build your storytelling around individual animals: a name, a face, and a "why this matters" moment, even without a forever-home outcome to point to. You already do this really well on your Facebook.

Symbolic sponsorship programs are another great option. The more exotic, rare, or costly an animal is to maintain, the higher the sponsorship tier, though even individual chicks can work at a lower level.

Just as important...have a process to steward and cultivate donors. That means building real relationships for the long haul, not just chasing one-time gifts. Investing in donor management software can help a lot with that.

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Peter Chang
Executive Director
OC Animal Allies
CA
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