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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This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous

Dear Aliyah,

Thank you so much for your thoughtful and encouraging response to my post. I truly appreciate you taking the time to share your shelter's experience.

I found your story incredibly inspiring. The transformation from having very few fosters and struggling to care for kittens after hours to building such a strong foster network and community is remarkable. It really shows what is possible when an organization intentionally invests in fostering and treats it as a core part of its lifesaving work.

I especially loved hearing that many of your fosters have become loyal supporters and donors. That has been my experience as well-when people foster, they develop a deep connection to the animals and the mission, and many remain involved with the organization in different ways for years. Those relationships are invaluable.

Your examples of how fostering has helped seniors, animals with special needs, and so many puppies and kittens are a powerful reminder that foster care benefits the animals who need us most. As someone who has fostered more than twenty animals, all of whom found their forever homes while in foster care, I have seen firsthand how transformative a home environment can be for both the animals and the people who care for them.

Thank you as well for sharing the resources from Maddie's Fund, Best Friends, and HASS. I plan to review them carefully and use them as I continue advocating for fostering as a fundamental part of our shelter's work. The operational benefits, community engagement, and grant opportunities you mentioned are all important points that decision-makers sometimes overlook.

Your enthusiasm for fostering is contagious, and your comment that it makes every day feel like we're moving the progress bar along really resonated with me. That is exactly how I feel when I see an animal thrive in a foster home and eventually find a family of their own.

Thank you again for your kindness, your advice, and all that you do for animals and foster families in your community.

Original Message:
Sent: 06-30-2026 11:12 AM
From: Aliyah Moore
Subject: How to convince my shelter's director about the importance of fostering

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!

------------------------------
Aliyah Moore
Digital Media Specialist
Humane Society of St. Lucie County
FL
------------------------------

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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Two things in your post jumped out that I'd put in front of your manager, because they're operational, not emotional, and managers move on operations.

First, the fosters who stopped working with you. You only get about five applications a week, and you're now losing people you already trained and trusted. A foster who's done twenty placements is not a volunteer, they're unpaid capacity your shelter already paid to build, in staff time, onboarding, and trust. Replacing one costs far more than keeping one. When your manager sees a generic auto-email as efficiency, what it's actually doing is burning down an asset that took years to build. Frame it as capacity you're losing, not feelings you're hurting. That's the language that moves a budget conversation.

Second, the 2-week cap. That one quietly does the most damage, because it selects against the exact animals foster exists to help. A litter of bottle babies, a heartworm treatment, a fearful dog that needs to decompress, a senior who just needs out of the noise, none of those resolve in 14 days. So the cap doesn't shorten foster stays, it just filters foster down to the easy, fast cases and pushes every hard one back into a kennel you already said is beyond capacity. You're not saving space with that rule. You're guaranteeing the animals who most need a foster home never get one.

If it helps to put a frame on it, most of this is prevention. A supported foster prevents a kennel from filling. A retained foster prevents the cost of recruiting a new one. A longer allowed stay prevents your hardest cases from stalling in-house. Your manager is right to watch the budget. The case to make is that the old program was the cheaper one, it just moved the cost off the balance sheet and into a foster's spare room.

Thank you for still fighting for this from where you're standing. The people who see the better solution from the ground up are usually the ones who end up building it.

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Join The Shift To Prevention.

BJ Adkins
Founder/Director
Animal-Angels Foundation
Pinson, AL
calendy.com/animal-angels
bjadkins@animal-angels.org
animal-angelsfoundation.org
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This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous

I am so grateful you took the time to compose this very smart response. I hadn't even thought about phrasing the importance of fostering in terms of prevention and financial support. Thank you so much for helping me find another angle to think about this. I am hoping this new manager reverses course before we lose more precious fosters. 

Original Message:
Sent: 07-02-2026 11:00 PM
From: Bj Adkins
Subject: How to convince my shelter's director about the importance of fostering

Two things in your post jumped out that I'd put in front of your manager, because they're operational, not emotional, and managers move on operations.

First, the fosters who stopped working with you. You only get about five applications a week, and you're now losing people you already trained and trusted. A foster who's done twenty placements is not a volunteer, they're unpaid capacity your shelter already paid to build, in staff time, onboarding, and trust. Replacing one costs far more than keeping one. When your manager sees a generic auto-email as efficiency, what it's actually doing is burning down an asset that took years to build. Frame it as capacity you're losing, not feelings you're hurting. That's the language that moves a budget conversation.

Second, the 2-week cap. That one quietly does the most damage, because it selects against the exact animals foster exists to help. A litter of bottle babies, a heartworm treatment, a fearful dog that needs to decompress, a senior who just needs out of the noise, none of those resolve in 14 days. So the cap doesn't shorten foster stays, it just filters foster down to the easy, fast cases and pushes every hard one back into a kennel you already said is beyond capacity. You're not saving space with that rule. You're guaranteeing the animals who most need a foster home never get one.

If it helps to put a frame on it, most of this is prevention. A supported foster prevents a kennel from filling. A retained foster prevents the cost of recruiting a new one. A longer allowed stay prevents your hardest cases from stalling in-house. Your manager is right to watch the budget. The case to make is that the old program was the cheaper one, it just moved the cost off the balance sheet and into a foster's spare room.

Thank you for still fighting for this from where you're standing. The people who see the better solution from the ground up are usually the ones who end up building it.

------------------------------
Join The Shift To Prevention.

BJ Adkins
Founder/Director
Animal-Angels Foundation
Pinson, AL
calendy.com/animal-angels
bjadkins@animal-angels.org
animal-angelsfoundation.org
------------------------------

This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous

Thank you to all of you for your wonderful answers and for helping me but mostly importantly helping the animals in my shelter. I am very grateful you took the time to compose very detailed and helpful responses. I will keep you posted.