Animal Welfare Professionals

My wife and I have been running our rescue for a couple years now with 100% of our financial contributions coming from our weekly paychecks. We have never really done any type of fundraising or grant work, so I figured I'd get on here and see if anyone had any helpful insight. We are located in Port Charlotte, Florida. Thank you in advance

#FundraisingandDevelopment

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Jeremy Miller
Vice president
Redwoods Rescue
FL
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If you read this thread, you will be able to see some of the best places to start applying for grants.  Many are "online" applications and not too daunting!  My advice to you in starting out is to accumulate all these documents in one place, both electronic versions and paper versions.  This will help make it much easier to apply as most sources want all or some of these documents:  IRS letter; board of directors list/background; current budget; latest 990 filing; statistics on # of animals you've rescued in last 2 years; a mission statement (I created a one-page overview of our organization with History, Mission, Finances, Governance: Statistics of our rescues).  There may be some other documents you need for some applications, but having these "ready to go" will help you A LOT!   Best of Success!!

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Bruce Thorsen
President of the Board
Purrfect Match Cat Adoptions Inc.
DBA Purrfect Match Cat Rescue
Millington, TN 38053
www.purrfectmatchcatrescue.org
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Watching for responses, as I'm here for the exact same reason on behalf of our rescue and shelter located id Bradley, South Carolina.  

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Janice Kenney
Volunteer / IT & Website
Four Paws Rescue and Shelter
SC
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I'm here with the exact same issue! Our rescue and shelter has always been self-funded with ocasional donations from friends and family. As we're all approaching ages 75-80 we realize this is unsustainable as (future) younger, paid staff will eventually need to take over! 

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Janice Kenney
Volunteer / IT & Website
Four Paws Rescue and Shelter
SC
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Hi,

I have experience writing grants in the human side of things (public health and healthcare). I would be willing to volunteer to help folks write grants - specifically around the data piece - what your organization will be tracking, how the data will be collected and how the data will be used to track improvement. Being able to show a robust evaluation and monitoring plan goes a long way with funders who want to make sure their dollars and resulting in measurable change. This is work I do as a paid consultant but I am a HUGE fan of all the work you folks do and would love to pay it forward!

Please feel free to reach out to me at Lisa@LisaLearyConsulting.com, or find out more information on my website: www.LisaLearyConsulting.com

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Lisa Leary
Independent Consultant
Lisa Leary Consulting, LLC
NH
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