Animal Welfare Professionals

This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous

I volunteer in a small rural shelter. It's a private shelter with a contract with the county so we need to take all the strays and court cases. I am firm believer in fostering. I have fostered more than 20 animals, and all of them found their forever homes while in foster. I take my foster role seriously and I advertise my foster animal widely. In the past my shelter had a very nice foster program. We treated each foster family like golden volunteers. We would provide support and clear communication. Every time we would get a foster application, we would contact them directly and spend time with each one of them to get to know them. We only get a maximum of 5 foster applications a week so making these connections was very important. We would check with them a lot, and invite them to adoption events. There are some risks associated with this. Sometimes some fosters would not respond for a while, or they would be accidents (the animal would get lost or hurt), but I think the benefits outweigh the risks. The new manager changed these practices, and now foster application get a very general email, and now people can only foster for 2 weeks maximum. The foster program is not widely advertised or treated as a core program. Now, the shelter is beyond capacity, and fewer animals are in foster. Some fosters don't want to work with us anymore because they don't feel appreciated. How can we convince the manager to go back to protocols that worked well before?  

When I first started at my shelter, it was absolutely inconceivable that we'd be able to take in and care for kittens. We only accepted kittens through our local animal control. We seldom had fosters which meant our staff bore the brunt of caring for kittens after hours. We worked really hard to refine our approach to fostering. We were constantly scouring the internet, in countless meetings, and always in touch with other shelters. I can't express enough how much this has paid off. Our length of stay for adult animals has dropped drastically, we have three puppy/kitten incubators and a wonderful relationship with Hill's Nutrition, a kitten nursery, we've become an Orphaned Kitten Club member, and we've developed a community of the most loyal and loving fosters ever (many of whom are also donors). Fosters have truly helped us save the lives of seniors, adults who need extra help, and just TONS of puppies and kittens!

There's some really great resources out there they show you how to build a foster program from the ground-up, rework or refine your current one, and how to talk to the decision-makers about change! I've personally used these:

• Maddie's Fund  - This is a forum with some attachments elaborating on how foster programs benefits humans, animals, and organizations caring for both
• Best Friends Foster Program Playbook - Includes information on how you can anticipate fostering impacts shelter population, an actual manual, SOPs, and some resources to provide fosters
• Human Animal Support Services (HASS) - This is a blog from ASPCA on building barrier-free foster programs and why it mattered to them. It has really great numbers on how it impacted the shelter's population over time and the type of care they were able to provide.

Within these links, there's also some great, fun marketing practices that I've employed to continuously engage new fosters and re-engage ones we've lost.

Fostering is SO fun and opens the door to grant funding, community connection, and makes every day feel like we're moving the progress bar along!

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Aliyah Moore
Digital Media Specialist
Humane Society of St. Lucie County
FL
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In my experience, foster programs work best when they're treated like a core part of the shelter-not an add-on. When fosters feel supported, communicated with, and genuinely appreciated, they step up in incredible ways. When that connection gets replaced with more generic communication or tighter restrictions, you almost always see engagement drop.

We've seen that firsthand at the Dubuque Regional Humane Society. When our foster program didn't have dedicated coordination, it kind of existed-but barely. Maybe a dozen animals a year went into foster care, and honestly tracking wasn't even consistent. Once we invested in a real foster coordinator role and focused on relationships and follow-up, it completely changed our capacity. At times, nearly half of our animals have been in foster, and the impact on space, stress levels, and staff workload has been huge.

That shift didn't just help animals; it also had very real operational benefits. Less crowding in the shelter, more time for staff to focus on the animals who are still in-house, and a calmer environment overall. It also can absolutely save money, especially when you factor in staff time, supplies, and daily care costs. In our case, having more animals in foster meant our animal care teams could spend more meaningful time on enrichment and individual care instead of just trying to keep up with volume. I think sometimes the operational and financial upside of a strong foster program gets overlooked. Execs are often looking closely at budgets (rightfully so) so this may help them see some benefits they might be overlooking.

Thank you for everything you're doing for the animals in your care. It's not easy work, especially when you can clearly see better solutions from where you stand day to day. I really hope you're able to make some progress in strengthening the foster program!

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Jordan Hoftender
Director of Development
Dubuque Regional Humane Society
IA
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